Green development

The cultural auditoriums not only entertain rural residents, but also promise potential economic growth. Tourists flood into the villages to learn the local culture and enjoy shows and celebrations in the auditoriums.

In July, Changshan county launched the first batch of seven "rural cultural auditorium tourist routes". The rural cultural auditoriums are becoming popular attractions by holding promotional conferences and seeking cooperation with travel agencies. So far, the tourist routes have received more than 200,000 visitors. In Nanhu, Jiaxing, over 200,000 netizens joined the village's residents in celebrating Spring Festival through online broadcasting last year.

The booming tourism also promotes public awareness about environmental protection. In Jianguang village in Jinhua, every household has a pair of waste bins (one for recyclables and the other for non-recyclables) in front of their doors with their names on the bins. If any waste is placed in a wrong bin, the household in charge will be made responsible.

"Our villagers were getting sick because of environmental pollution, but after years of effort, our village is much cleaner," says Chen Ronggui, a local. "Now that the village is developing tourism, my family supports it wholeheartedly."

Yang says: "The cultural heritage of the villages converges in the auditoriums. By excavating and upgrading the cultural resources that best reflect the local characteristics, cultural auditoriums creatively form a link between cultural formation and industrial development."

The construction of the cultural auditorium and follow-up work need investment. In practice, various localities have explored a variety of fundraising methods, such as "public welfare funding", "village crowdfunding" and "online crowdfunding". Crowdsourcing makes it a sustainable project and incentivizes and sparks the creativity of rural residents.

According to a white paper on the impact of Zhejiang rural cultural auditoriums in 2017, nearly 77.17 percent of a survey's respondents positively assessed the rural cultural auditoriums. By 2020, 80 percent of the total rural population in Zhejiang is expected to have access to its own cultural auditorium.