Ten people from different countries and various walks of life are selected to participate in The Day I Ran China, to experience firsthand the 21st century makeover of China's countryside. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
This is a reality show unlike any other. And the stopwatch is set to months not seconds or minutes. Shimmering rice terraces, stepping up from ancient valleys, provide a stunning backdrop. Pristine rural areas become hives of economic activity.
Ten people from different countries and various walks of life were selected to participate in The Day I Ran China, to experience firsthand the 21st century makeover of China's countryside.
The theme of the show is poverty alleviation. I want to know how it happened here, and if it can be applied in other places, especially back in my own country
Daniela Sena, a Brazilian entrepreneur based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province
In each episode, the participants from Italy, Mexico, the United Kingdom and other countries visit a rural idyll and compete in a series of challenges which are based on the venue's poverty-alleviation efforts.
In Zhejiang province's Songyang county, a collection of villages with iconic architecture from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, the participants compete to assemble a wooden structure using traditional mortise and tenon joints without any nails.
With ancient buildings being repaired, villages in Songyang county have adopted new forms of business, including homestays, cultural industries and art studios, which help to stimulate the local economy.
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"I think this is going to encourage more tourism within the area," says Saul Stollery, a 26-year-old participant from the UK, and also a Tsinghua University graduate. "If we can manage in a sustainable way, it will lead to more and more income and financial resources for the villages."
The show, produced by Discovery channel and the video-streaming platform Mango TV, has brought international participants to large swathes of China, including Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Hunan provinces, and the Inner Mongolia, Ningxia Hui and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous regions, to get a deeper insight into the rapid development of rural areas.
In a recent episode, participants traveled to Hunan province's Yizhang county where e-commerce prevails as the major way for local people to sell agricultural products.
An e-commerce training center has been set up to provide professional instruction for farmers and entrepreneurs across the county.
In 2019, e-commerce sales of agricultural products in the county reached 185 million yuan (US$28 million) and featured more than 12,000 online entrepreneurs.
The program's participants were asked to sell agricultural products and local delicacies via a one-hour live broadcast.
Daniela Sena, 31, a Brazilian woman who has run her own business in China since 2013, participates in the show and was impressed by people with limited reading and writing skills in villages of Yizhang county who "manage to use the phone to livestream their products and make a profit out of it".
They livestream to sell agricultural products and learn to grind rice to make rice cakes. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Sena owns a company that sells home decorations, fashion items and cosmetics that are made in China to customers in Brazil. She decided to take part in the show to learn more about the country's rural areas.
"I thought that would be a good experience for me in terms of understanding the other side of China a little bit more," she explains. "The theme of the show is poverty alleviation. I want to know how it happened here, and if it can be applied in other places, especially back in my own country."
Through the show, she has also been inspired to use technology more to facilitate trade between the two countries, she adds.
Sena, now based in Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province, is also the founder of the She Up community which promotes gender equality, with a focus on empowering female entrepreneurs. Supported by local authorities where Sena is living, workshops, sessions and online courses have been launched by She Up to give female entrepreneurs practical assistance to help them run their businesses more effectively. The community has attracted more than 1,000 members from 65 countries.
"As more women are involved in business, we would like to help individuals and companies to develop technical and leadership skills," she says, adding that she hopes the community members can learn more about these web-savvy women in rural areas and learn from them. "It's really inspiring to see how strong they are."
Lucien Pang, 31, a British-Chinese participant on the show was also amazed by the wide application of e-commerce livestreaming in rural China. "The technology is such a cool way to bring about massive changes," says Pang. Livestreaming, he adds, is a direct way to sell products, which helps farmers avoid the need for costly advertising.
He believes that e-commerce will help bridge the gap between urban and rural areas.
"I hope interactions on the livestreaming platforms will see city dwellers learn more about farmers and show them more respect," says Pang, who used to be a freelance reporter, writing stories about technology trends for various international media outlets. Three years ago, he chose to set up a PR agency in Shanghai to "help cool brands get more exposure".
Pang also runs a charity organization which cooperates with schools in small villages across China to provide professional training for local teachers on how to better deliver physical education classes.
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"A healthy body creates a healthy mind. Physical education helps students to maintain fitness and also boosts their confidence," he says.
One dilemma for Pang is that it's time-consuming for him to travel to those remote villages and organize charity events. But, thanks to the show, after experiencing the power of livestreaming in Yizhang county, an idea struck him－he can also offer live, online classes to reach out to a larger group of rural teachers and students without the restrictions of time and space.
He says the show is an eye-opening journey, enabling him to become immersed in rural China's diverse cultures.
"It's different from those trips I took before. By taking part in multiple activities arranged by the show, we get to see what is exactly going on in terms of farming and other kinds of stuff," he says.
