Children attend a painting class at the Dayuan art workshop in Hunan province.(PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

Couple finance program to help youngsters in poor area get more opportunities

Five years ago, Liu Xiu took his wife to visit his home village of Dayuan in a remote mountainous area of Hunan province for the first time.

When she arrived with her husband, Zhou Yan was shocked by what she saw in the faces of the village children. At the time, the village, which is 20 kilometers from the nearest town, had 470 registered residents.

However, most of the adults had left to look for work in big cities, leaving behind 60 elderly people and 27 children with no parents to care for them.

"I still remember the way those children were looking at us," said Zhou, now 30, who also grew up in a small village in Hunan. "It was exactly the same when I was a child and my parents left home to make money outside the village. I was deeply hurt."

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Unlike many of her childhood friends who were also left behind by migrant worker parents, Zhou had the opportunity to go to school. Even luckier still, she received a general degree from the China Academy of Art's School of Intermedia Art in Beijing after four years of study.

In an environment where love can be scarce, they needed more care from society.

Zhou Yan, art workshop owner

Her husband, now 39, was fortunate to escape poverty as well. Liu is a skilled craftsman who makes and plays the guqin, a seven-string traditional Chinese instrument with a history dating back thousands of years.

Both are well aware of the conundrum of leaving home to work for a better future for your family, and the price that those left behind sometimes have to pay.

"Those children had little communication with their grandparents and spent most their time on electronic devices," Zhou said of her first impressions of the children in Dayuan. "In an environment where love can be scarce, they needed more care from society."

The couple decided to play an active role and tip the scales in the children's favor. Today, Dayuan is home to about 400 villagers and an art workshop with professional teachers from both home and aboard taking classes－a service that is hard to find even in large cities.

An instructor from the China Conservatory of Music teaches children how to play guqin at the workshop. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

Life-changing

In 2016, the couple made a brave decision to quit their high-earning jobs in Beijing and set up an art workshop in Dayuan.

Zhou was running her own workshop, which focused on art in rural areas, while Liu sold handmade guqin and taught students how to play the instrument.

Our aim is not to educate the children to be artists. We simply hope that art can give them inner strength for their future lives.

Zhou Yan, art workshop owner

When they arrived in Dayuan, they stayed in Liu's old home and spent their entire life savings, about 2 million yuan, building a two-story building covering 240 square meters. They equipped the art workshop with computers, a projector, musical instruments, painting equipment and an astronomical telescope for both decoration and inspiration.

The workshop, free of charge, is open to all children in Dayuan and nearby villages.

"Our aim is not to educate the children to be artists," Zhou said. "We simply hope that art can give them inner strength for their future lives."

While not its stated objective, the workshop is unearthing raw artistic talent. Deng Yunxiu, 14, has seen momentous changes in her life over the past three years thanks to the workshop.

Talent unearthed

In 2016, Deng and her siblings moved from Guangdong province, where her father was working, to live with her grandparents in Dayuan. She didn't cope well with her new environment and was always fighting with her younger sister and brother.

However, when Deng enrolled in art classes at the Dayuan workshop, Zhou immediately saw the girl had a powerful imagination and a love of painting.

"She wrote a very beautiful poem after watching the stars through the telescope one night. And I noticed that she loved plants very much, so I encouraged her to paint what she saw in nature," Zhou said.

Children attend a multi-media art class. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

After a month, Deng surprised Zhou with a "splendid" work, a 10-meter-long scroll watercolor painting, which showed dozens of local herbs and flowers. Deng's painting was so impressive, it was displayed at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing this year.

"I love this workshop and l love teacher Zhou very much," Deng said. "She takes care of us and always listens to us."

The beaming teenager is featured in a short online video that shows her painting as well as her daily life at the workshop.

Last year, the workshop taught 53 students. This summer, 76 students took holiday classes

Fame spreads

Thanks to media reports, the workshop's fame has spread throughout China and overseas. In recent years, many college graduates from cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have volunteered to teach there.

Now, it has 10 resident teachers along with 40 others who teach on and off throughout the year. All are unpaid volunteers.

Last year, the workshop taught 53 students, with 17 from Dayuan and the rest from nearby villages. This summer, 76 students took holiday classes.

Subjects include poetry writing, nature observation, drama, music, photography and jewelry design.

Last year, the workshop also officially registered as a nonprofit organization and was allocated 100,000 yuan (US$14,660) in government funding to improve its facilities.

In April, an outdoor theater was built in the village.

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Zhou has recently been busy preparing a summer forest art festival. She invited artists and families from across the country to visit the workshop.

The UCCA plans to stage one of its exhibitions in Dayuan this year, Zhou said.

"The love and support I received during my childhood helped me go outside the village," she said.

"I wanted to show the rest of the world the strength of our rural children. Art will nourish those kids and motivate and give them inner strength to make changes for themselves."