Poet finds inspiration in artists' village

The program also benefits villagers. So far, old houses have been sold to artists for more than 2.8 million yuan ($430,000) and the income of the house renovation team now tops 2 million yuan annually.

Besides workshops, an art communication center, a village history museum, and a children's art educational center have also been built. The rural artistic village brand attracts tourists and about 260 residents now have jobs in catering, accommodations, house restoration and other cultural services, as a result.

Wei Weiyi, 43, was the first to sell his house to an artist in 2016. The property, now a homestay, sold for about 10,000 yuan. Wei, who worked in construction outside the village for more than 10 years, decided to return to earn money by helping buyers repair their new houses.

While chatting with a ceramicist one day, Wei showed interest in the work. In 2018 and 2019, he studied ceramics at a college in Guiyang, provincial capital of Guizhou, which was arranged by the village government. Together with other artists, he invested 50,000 yuan of his own money to open a ceramics workshop in the village to teach villagers and tourists to make pottery.

He also turned some rooms in his house into a bed-and-breakfast, with sheets and duvets made from batik, a traditional dyeing technique that is especially popular in southern China and Southeast Asia.

He began to make about 40,000 yuan a year, more than double his earnings at his former job. "Artists helped raise recognition of the village and brought more possibilities for development. The future of Hongjiang will be different, as will our next generation," he said.

The villagers' appreciation for art is changing, too. Liu said he is happy that some are beginning to add decorations to their houses after helping renovate others. "I always feel welcome here. Though we have different opinions on aesthetics, we learn from each other."

He has organized numerous art exhibitions, forums and parties, as well as pottery and sculpture classes at his house.

Li Huixi and Xu Tao founded a 60-member children's soccer team. They also organized art lessons, and some of the creations were shown on the Disney store's big screen in New York's Times Square during a promotion for China's National Day last year. "The purpose was to build confidence and allow people outside the mountains to see their work," Li said.

Yan, meanwhile, has been nicknamed the "grandpa with white whiskers" by village children. He has run two poetry workshops for students and said he plans to organize a literature competition at the house, to which international poets will be invited.

He would like to teach poetry more regularly, if there were enough students. He has become part of village life over the years.

Wang Jin in Guiyang contributed to this story.