I work as a painter in the village

Source: People's Daily - People's Daily

The picture shows the wall painting of Xiaotun Village. Photo by Prince Rui (People's Vision)

In the late autumn, in Xiaotun Village, Zhangcun Township, Huixian City, Henan Province, Shang Qinjie stood on scaffolding and sprayed oil paint on the wall with a watering can, attracting villagers to watch. "It's an anime-style wall painting with an idyllic pastoral scene that can be done in a day or two." Shang Qinjie said.

Shang Qinjie is a post-90s generation, who originally worked in other places after graduating from university and loved painting in his spare time. In May 2019, he returned to his hometown and came down to the village to "cameo" to paint wall paintings at the invitation of his classmates. At first, he was just trying to be funny, but then he stuck with it out of interest.

In terms of the content of wall paintings, unlike the common pastoral style in the past, Shang Qinjie feels that to make the wall paintings in the village more fashionable and interesting, the village has also given him sufficient creative space. In this way, a series of vivid works jumped on the wall.

Unexpectedly, painting Xiaotun Village was "on fire". Villagers spontaneously photographed these wall paintings, circles of friends and short video platforms, which slowly attracted tourists from nearby villages and even from other places to visit. Among the tourists, there are those who come to take photos with the wall paintings, those who come to watch the rural scenery, and those who come to visit and learn about the village wall painting project.

With the spread of featured wall paintings, the popularity of the village has become more and more popular. At first, there were so many people in the village at once, and the villagers were still a little uncomfortable. Slowly, the lives of the villagers also changed. Outside the walls of their homes, more and more tourists came to take photos, and the villagers put on snack cabinets and opened small restaurants, and the business was booming; the village built a special parking lot to facilitate tourists to visit by car. The flow of passengers in the village has increased, and the villagers have also seen more room for development. The village intends to build supporting homestays and catering to form an integrated tourism model.

"During the Spring Festival this year, the turnover of up to one day is more than 2,000 yuan." Talking about the change of the village, Zhao Haiqing, a villager who opened a commissary, was quite satisfied. She said that in addition to the booming business, relatives and friends came to visit, saying that Xiaotun Village has become beautiful.

Nowadays, searching for Shang Qinjie's screen name "Daxin" on the short video platform can see many wall-painted videos created by him, with hundreds of thousands of likes. Some netizens left a message saying: "Can you also paint our village?" "Daxin, my children like anime style, and they take the time to draw on the walls of my house." The villagers rushed to invite Shang Qinjie to paint, and Shang Qinjie agreed one by one. At present, the wall painting in Xiaotun Village has been completed by more than 80%, and Shang Qinjie must hurry to complete it and rush to other villages to paint.

Will you always be painting in the village in the future? For this problem, Shang Qinjie has already planned: "Originally it was a painting to play, but painting and painting felt the value of this work, I will continue to do rural wall painting as a career, bring wall painting to more villages, and let people love the countryside more." Watching the countryside become more and more beautiful and get more and more recognition, Shang Qinjie feels a great sense of accomplishment.

Not just the wall paintings, many aspects of the village are changing. The potholed mud road before Xiaotun Village has become a clean and smooth cement road, the village looks neat and tidy, and many villagers have also decorated their houses more beautifully.

Xiaotun Village is a natural village that belongs to Dawangzhuang Village. Shi Lei, the first secretary of Dawangzhuang Village in the village, introduced that there were not many people who knew About Xiaotun Village before, and people from outside the village rarely came, but now Xiaotun Village is becoming more and more well-known, and it also has the title of "Colorful Painting Township". Nowadays, the village is building cultural tourism projects such as the Insect Museum.

"Let's go to my house for dinner at noon, the winter melon I just picked." Near noon, when one of Shang Qinjie's works was about to be completed, the passing lady invited him. "Someone has already invited me to eat cage noodles." Shang Qinjie responded with a smile, holding his hands non-stop, drawing more beautiful rural pictures with his brush.

People's Daily (2021-11-03 12th edition)