Farmers celebrate more prosperity with traditional performance, Zhu Lixin reports in Chuzhou, Anhui province.

A performance at the China Farmers' Concert, held in Chuzhou, Anhui province. (ZHU LIXIN / CHINA DAILY)

As a group of young performers dance the famous Fengyang flower-drum routine during a recent gala show in Chuzhou, Anhui province, behind them stands a replica of the landmark archway of Xiaogang village, which stands in the city's Fengyang county.

Yan Junchang, 80, sits in a row of nine elderly villagers from the village, each wearing a red ribbon to remind people that they were the ones who witnessed the very beginning of the country's rural reforms in the late 1970s.

Back then, farmers from Fengyang county traveled around the country performing the folk art in return for food.

"That experience seems like a story from long ago. Our life is now very happy, putting us in the mood to enjoy the show," says Yan, who runs an orchard and a restaurant in the village, which has become a popular destination for tourists.

Since 2015, the China Farmers' Concert has been held in Chuzhou. The performers include not only professional singers, but also farmers who are good at singing and dancing.

Designating Chuzhou as the permanent location was partly for commemorating an event which happened on a winter night in 1978, according to the organizers, which include the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Students perform the Fengyang flower-drum dance, a popular form of folk art in Fengyang county, at Anhui Science and Technology University. (ZHU LIXIN / CHINA DAILY)

Exiles and arrivals

China has many local operas, most of which were performed to celebrate happy occasions. But the Fengyang flower-drum dance originates from hard memories.

Although it was later called a dance, the art did not have much to do with dancing at first. It was more like telling stories while playing gongs and drums, according to Zhang Cong, instructor of a students' art troupe from the Fengyang-based Anhui Science and Technology University.

Her troupe has specialized in performing the flower-drum dance since 2013.

The troupe's performance is a highlight of the university's annual party which is held to welcome freshmen, says Zhang.

A lyric in a traditional local song describes the scene. "A gong in the left hand, a drum in the right, come and sing songs, with the gong and drum in both hands."

Fengyang was the birthplace of Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-98), the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). During Zhu's rule, he brought thousands of people from across China to Fengyang, in order to develop his hometown. In those days, having more people around was thought to mean more prosperity would soon come.

But instead of becoming a prosperous place as Zhu had planned, the region often suffered from famine, but the emperor did not allow the people to leave the county to beg for food, so many people had to disguise themselves as traveling opera players.

After leaving Fengyang, the people went to other parts of China, mostly relying on playing the flower-drum dance to ask for offerings.

One of the songs sang by the beggars begins with "Let's say about Fengyang, let's say about Fengyang; Fengyang was once a place so nice; but after Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, famines have been seen in nine of 10 years."

Two foreigners join with local performers in a Fengyang flower-drum dance. (ZHU LIXIN / CHINA DAILY)

A book written in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) said, "the tones were quite sorrowful, telling distressing stories of people leaving their home".

Such scenes were repeated in the 1970s.

Until 1978, Xiaogang was hit hard by national setbacks such as the great famine, and when a devastating drought followed the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), farmers were bonded by the collectivized farming policy. No matter how much they grew, they could only rely on the rationing system.

As a result, many local farmers thus fled to cities to beg for food, many of whom performed folk art to earn their handouts.

In stark contrast, the gala show held in the city's massive stadium on Sept 23, the day of the national Farmers' Harvest Festival, consisted of dozens of joyful performances by hundreds of performers from across the country.

The show, held eight times since 2008, was scheduled to be held last year but had to be postponed due to COVID-19, according to Yang Yan, executive of Chuzhou Performance and Arts Group.

"The performers all try to show the audience the colorful nature of rural culture," says Yang.

In recent years, supported by the local government, Yang's troupe often travel to villages to perform.

"More local villagers have been joining in with the shows, they will come forward without any invitation, for example, to show off their dancing or skills with a musical instrument," she says.

"Viewers can feel that they are really happy and that they want to express their love of cultural activities," says Yang.

Two foreigners join with local performers in a Fengyang flower-drum dance. (ZHU LIXIN / CHINA DAILY)

Historical events

For the performance, Tashi Phuntsok, a Tibetan singer sang a song called Manifesto of Poverty Alleviation.

"How is a day in poverty? Proud father could not stand upright. How is the memory of poverty? Diligent mother's brows are always knitted," he sang.

Xiaogang villagers remember how it feels to be mired in poverty.

The night of Nov 24, 1978, forever changed Xiaogang. A bold decision made by Yan and his fellow villagers utterly altered the development path of the Chinese countryside.

Eighteen of the villagers secretly signed an agreement to subdivide their common farmland into family plots in the hope of increasing crop yields.

Starting in spring 1979, the 18 farmers began cultivating their own land, subdivided by drawing straws, with great enthusiasm, though still in secrecy.

When the harvest came, the households had reaped five times more crops than the previous year, and the secret was discovered by local authorities.

Debate over land privatization began, taking place at all levels of government. The Xiaogang experiment received support from leaders including Deng Xiaoping, and was hailed by the central government as a pioneer of reform, with the practice soon applied nationwide.

Under the reform, farmland was still State-owned, but farmers were able to contract the farmland on a household basis.

They eventually sublet their farmland to major farms and a lot of enterprises were attracted to the village to build factories.

Thus the villagers, more than 4,000, became shareholders of the village's collective fund and receive dividends once every two to three years, in addition to the incomes of their own individual businesses, according to Li Jinzhu, first Party secretary of Xiaogang.

In February, President Xi Jinping announced China's "complete victory" in its fight against absolute poverty.

In the past eight years, the country's 98.99 million impoverished rural residents were lifted from poverty and 832 counties and 128,000 villages were removed from the poverty-stricken list.

Xi said that shaking off absolute poverty is not the end, but the starting point of a new life and new endeavor.

He reiterated the significance of aligning poverty alleviation outcomes with the rural vitalization strategy to make the foundation of the fight against poverty more stable and its outcomes more sustainable.

"Last year, the villagers' per capita disposable income surpassed 27,600 yuan ($4,317)," says Li.

The country's urban residents per capita disposable income was 43,834 yuan for 2020, according to the central authorities.

It is just another reason for locals to gather in the square at the center of the village to dance and sing.

Contact the writer at zhulixin@chinadaily.com.cn