XINHUA – A tough man like Mao Xianglin rarely hesitates in the face of difficulty, let alone being deterred from his course of action.
However, faced with carving a road out of the mountains where he and his fellow villagers had lived for generations, he found himself faltering.
In the piercing winter of 1997, more than 100 villagers from over 300 households in Xiazhuang Village, southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, began the arduous task of building a road for vehicles on precipitous cliffs.
Lacking modern machinery, they hung themselves from the cliff-face and used hammers, drills and other simple tools to cut a slice in the stone. It was during this process that a local villager Huang Huiyuan was hit by a falling rock and fell into a gully 300 metres below.
Mao still remembers the scene as he and several other villagers descended by rope from the mountain top to the bottom of the gully. “We cried all the way. No one was not sad,” he said.
The survivors were faced with the age-old question of “To be or not to be?” – the universal quandary on whether to risk danger in pursuit of a better life or give up and accept one’s fate. Hidden in a steep-sided valley, fenced off by four cliffs, their hometown was secluded for hundreds of years. To reach the nearest town, the locals had to spend more than three hours clambering over hill and dale, following paths only suitable for foot traffic.
In 1997, Mao Xianglin, aged 38 at the time, mobilised his villagers to build a road suitable for vehicles, working at the task without external support. They all knew that, even if this road could be built, it was unlikely that their own generation would enjoy the benefits brought by convenient transportation.
At Huang’s funeral, Mao, his heart filled with guilt and regret, asked villagers if they wanted to continue building the road.
Amid the silence, Huang’s father was the first one to answer, “Let’s build it. Let’s keep this fire burning to the end. Don’t stop now.”
Through an agonising reappraisal of life and death, they concluded the road would someday bring the light of hope into the lives of their children or grandchildren, and for such a goal it was worthwhile risking their own lives.
In 2004, the eight-kilometres road was finally finished, not only leading the locals to the outside world, but also leading the next generations to the greater dream – common prosperity.
Today, self-motivated role models emerging from among the impoverished local residents of rural China, just like Mao, are called “pioneers of achieving prosperity”.
During China’s battle against absolute poverty, such self-made pioneers are the key to setting a vivid example for other households living in grinding penury and driving distinctive local industrial development.
By 2025, China strives to cultivate 100,000 pioneers who will lead their fellow villagers to achieve prosperity through rural revitalisation.
ROAD-BUILDING PIONEER
Before the road, death was a regular visitor to Xiazhuang.
When villagers wanted to reach the nearest town, they had to spend hours climbing the steep mountainside. If they needed firewood, they had to scramble over rocks to the mountain peak and cut down trees. In these indispensable routines, death and injury were inevitable.
Despite this heart-wrenching fact, when Mao proposed the villagers should build themselves a road, many opposed the project, calling it a daydream.
In the 1970s, some senior villagers had tried to build a meandering byway, but this ended in failure. So they didn’t hold out much hope for the vehicle-friendly road that Mao had in mind.
Also, most villagers were poor and worried that such a road would cost money, and few were keen to face the safety risks of such a project.
However, Mao had travelled beyond the village and seen the changes taking place; he knew that a proper road was essential if the fate of the villagers was to be improved.
“When I was in the town, I saw that people were already using refrigerators and TVs, and driving cars. However, we were still chopping wood to cook and lived in adobe houses,” he said.
Over the space of a month, Mao organised seven meetings and persuaded villagers of the necessity of building the road. “It’s for ourselves, not for others,” said Mao. “Don’t be afraid of the sacrifice. Even if our generation doesn’t enjoy the gains, the next generation will. No matter how many years it takes, we have to build this road.”
Gradually, the villagers relented. Some of them, like Yang Yuanding, joined Mao in mobilising others. Yang had seen his father hit by a falling rock when they were chopping wood, so he knew a road was needed to change the villagers’ lives. Motivated by their hopes for the future, they decided to continue with the project.
Mao’s success in leading the project is due in part to characteristics he shares with many other pioneers leading rural development, such as being raised in the village and being a member of the local community. In addition, many have usually acquired additional knowledge and experience from big cities through gig jobs, later returning to their hometowns to initiate pilot development programmes, just like Mao.
Pioneers also need to be familiar with the local situation and to have built a certain amount of popularity and trust among the villagers, which provides a good foundation for their further explorations in pursuit of common prosperity.
Since the pioneers are always local villagers, they have a certain amount of sway in the group and can organise them quickly to take part in the emerging business.
With the completion of the road in 2004, thanks to the vision of Mao and the villagers’ hard work and courage, the story of Xiazhuang was rewritten. – Yao Yulin & Chen Qingbing
