Hubei Role Model：Returning home to start his business, A College Graduate De...

100余幅墙绘讲述清江故事

Over 100 Wall Paintings Tell the Story of the Qingjiang River

大学生返乡创业留住“乡愁”

Returning home to start his business, A College Graduate Depicts the Beautiful“Homesickness”

极目新闻记者 刘俊华

Reporter: Liu Junhua

翻译：徐彩云 卫拉 尚绮

Translator:Xu Caiyun, Lisa, Shang Qi

乡愁可以看见吗？宜昌宜都市高坝洲镇白鸭垴村，一些村民的墙上就画着乡愁：清江的纤夫、乡里的石匠、放排的水手……一幅幅都能勾起清江岸边人的记忆。这些承载着时光厚重的作品，大都出自刚刚大学毕业的年轻人龚庭杰之手。

Is homesickness visible? In Baiyanao Village, Gaobazhou Town, Yidu of Yichang, homesickness is painted on the walls: boat trackers on the Qingjiang River, stonemasons in the village,raftingsailors... Each piece of painting evokes the memory of the people living along the Qingjiang River. Most of these works, telling a story of the past,are created by Gong Tingjie, a young man who has just graduated from university.

返乡创业的龚庭杰在村里墙壁上留下了100余幅墙绘，吸引了许多游客来此打卡观摩，他也被称为“画出乡愁的人”。

Gong Tingjie, who returned to his hometown to start his own business, has createdmore than 100 wall paintings in the village, attracting many tourists. He is thuscalledthe“homesickness painter”.

大学生回乡创业画乡愁

Returning home to start his business, the College graduate depicts “homesickness”.

白鸭垴村，是位于清江弯弯里的一个小山村。

Baiyanao is a small mountain village located inone of the bendsof the Qingjiang River.

很久以前，这里的村民都是以采石、捕鱼为生，是一个靠山吃山、靠水吃水的地方。

Villagers there used to live on quarrying and fishing as the mountains and rivers were their only source of food.

1997年出生的龚庭杰，爷爷辈都是在江里讨生活的人。到了他这一代，身为独生子女，家里当然希望他能远离风浪，过上更安稳的生活。

Gong Tingjie was born in 1997. His grandparents and their generation all lived near the riverand relied on it for a living. When it came to his generation, being the only child of the family, he was expected to stay away from the waves and live a more secure and stable life.

龚庭杰从小喜欢画画，高中时就是一名艺术生，后来上了武汉一所大学的视觉传达专业。2019年，龚庭杰大学毕业，留在武汉从事室内设计的工作。第二年，他因为疫情滞留在老家。

Gong had found his interest in painting since childhood and was an art student in senior high school. Later,he was admitted to a university in Wuhan as a student of visual communication. After Gong graduated from the university in 2019, he chose to stay in Wuhan and worked as an interior designer. But in the following year when the epidemic broke out,he happened to be at home and was thus detained there.

这是他成年后第一次近距离凝视自己的家乡，祖辈上沿袭了千年的生活方式正在被改变。因为长江大保护，清江和山林再也不是村民直接的衣食父母，乡村振兴的大潮，将时代的推到年轻人面前。村委会领导看到大学生龚庭杰有意留在村里，于是将他纳入后备干部培养。真的决定留下来后，龚庭杰开始追问自己：“我在村里能做些什么呢？”

This was the first time he had ever taken a close look at his hometown as an adult. He found that the local way of life that had been followed for thousands of years was undergoing great changes.Because of the implementation of the Great Protection of the Yangtze River policy, villagers can no longer rely on the Qingjiang River(a tributary of the Yangtze River) and the mountain forests as their only source of living. This new tide of rural revitalization has brought a new proposition to the youth. When the village leadership learned about Gong Tingjie's intention to stay in the village, they put him on the list of reserved cadres. When he finally decided to stay, he began to question himself, “what can I do for the village?”

白鸭垴村党总支书记熊爱民说：“我们正在建设美丽乡村，你是美术科班生，肯定可以发挥特长啊。”

“We are building our village into one that is beautiful,” Xiong Aimin, the party secretary of Baiyanao Village told him,“You are an art major, and you can certainly give your talents a full play.”

龚庭杰马上想到，在武汉时曾经给一些企业绘过墙绘。白鸭垴村那么多故事，如果用墙绘表现出来，一定会是一道独特的风景。

This reminded Gong Tingjie of his past experience in painting wall paintings for companies in Wuhan. With so many stories to tell in Baiyanao,he could create a unique scenery for the village if he put all these stories on the wall in the form of painting.

百幅墙绘讲述清江故事

Over 100 wall paintings tell the story of the Qingjiang River

2021年夏天，龚庭杰拿起画笔，他最想要画的是祖辈的生活。

In the summer of 2021, Gong Tingjie took up his brush and began his wall paintings. He particularly wanted to depict the way of life of their ancestors.

他选中了村民曹远金的房子，这是一栋横向较长的平房，在蜿蜒的乡村小路上视角也不错。68岁的的曹远金很爽快：“你是把我的房子画好看，把我们村画美，我支持你！”

He chose villager Cao Yuanjin'shouse for his first attempt. It is a bungalow with a broad front and a nice view of the winding country road. Cao Yuanjin, the 68-year-old villager was very willing to accept the painting as he said, “I fully support you because you are beautifying my house and our village.”

把墙刷白后，龚庭杰用绿色颜料画出山坡，坡上接着多了一座红庙。乡亲们好奇，一个个过来围观。等山脚出现了一条河流，岸上赤身的纤夫们逆流而上拉纤时，围观的人恍然大悟：“江是咱们的清江，庙是咱们的三帮庙。” 龚庭杰画了三天，村口多了这幅“清江拉纤”图。

After painting the wall white, Gong Tingjie then painted green hills before adding a red temple on one of the hills. Curious villagers slowly gathered around him to watch. When a river was drawn at the foot of the hills with a number of boat trackers bare to their waists towing a boat along the river, the villagers suddenly realized that what Gong had painted was the Qingjiang River and the Sanbang Temple. It took Gong Tingjie three days to finish the painting“Boat Trackers on Qingjiang”which now stands at the entrance of the village greeting visitors from far and near.

此后半年间，“围炉夜话”“小榨工艺”“清江放排”……这些白鸭垴村的集体记忆被陆续搬到村里的墙上，化为五彩斑斓的墙绘，不仅给村容村貌添了色彩，又勾起乡亲们的回忆。有时忙不过来，龚庭杰就邀一起学过美术的朋友来帮忙。到现在，龚庭杰和伙伴们在家乡创作的墙绘作品已有100多幅。

In the following six months, more paintings such as the “Evening Chat Around the Stove”, “Oil Extraction”, “Rafting on Qingjiang”and others gradually appeared on the walls around the village. These colorful paintings, bearing the common memories of the villagers, easily evoked their warm feeling of the past while beautifying the village. Sometimes Gong Tingjie would invite his friends,who had also studied art,to help him with the work when he was too busy. Till date, they have finished more than 100 wall paintings.

“围炉夜话”就是当地人真实的生活图景。寒冬腊月，江边湿冷，夜里吃完饭，人们总围在火炉边，喝着水，聊聊天。炉火跳动着，把地瓜的香气烤到空气中，墙上挂着腊肉，小孩满地跑。

“Evening Chat Around the Stove”is indeed a true portrait of the local life. In midwinter by the chilly river, a family would always gather around the stove after their supper, sipping some tea and chatting. The room would be filled with the aroma of the sweet potatoes baked in the stove and the cured meat hanging on the wall, all while the kids were running around.

“小时候，时间过得很慢，冬天很长。”龚庭杰喜欢这个他生活了二十多年的村子，春暖花开去摘梨，夏日炎炎去捞虾，秋高气爽收橘子，寒冬腊月围炉夜话。山清水秀，生活舒缓，令人陶醉。

Gong Tingjie loves the village in which he has lived for over 20 years.“The time seemed to go by slowly when I was young and the winter was always long.”This village bears his memory of picking pears in the blooming spring, catching shrimps in the hot summer, collecting oranges in the cool autumn and chatting around the stove with his family in midwinter. Life is leisurely and peaceful and everything is so intoxicating for him in such a beautiful village.

摸索生态文旅发展之路

The Exploration of an Ecological Path for Cultural Tourism

一开始，村民们只是发现墙绘让村子变得好看、有趣了。后来，大家发现，每逢节假日，城里的人会开着车来到这里，看墙绘、赏风景、吃农家菜。

At first, the villagers just thought that the wall paintings made the village more beautiful and interesting. They later found that people from the city would drive here to enjoy the wall paintings as well as the beautiful scenery and delicious food.

龚庭杰和村民们都切身体会到，看得见山、望得见水、舒缓的生活、有人情味儿的交流、极具特色的风土人情，都是白鸭垴的宝藏。搞墙绘，是为了在城镇化的过程中，留住乡村记忆，守护好乡愁，这既是对当地人情感的尊重，又是乡村赖以生存发展的特色资源。

Both Gong Tingjie and the villagers realize that the mountains, rivers, the relaxing lifestyle, the warm and intimate communication among the villagers and the unique local culture are the true treasures of Baiyanao Village. Wall-painting is just one way to preserve the memory of their village and their nostalgia in the process of urbanization. It shows respect to the affection that the locals have for the past life, and is a unique resource for the development of the village.

近几年，白鸭垴的谋生方式有了变化。以往，人们在清江里搞网箱养殖，在山上养猪。如今，长江全面禁捕，清江500米范围内禁止舶船，规模养猪场也有了环保要求，经过整治，清江水又清了，村里的经济来源却只剩下成片的柑橘园。

In recent years, the lifestyle of the villagers has undergone great changes. They used to engage in cage aquaculture in the Qingjiang River and pig-raising in the hills. Now, since a ban has been implemented on the fishing along the Yangtze River, ships are prohibited within 500 meters of Qingjiang River. Meanwhile, large-scale pig farms are required to meet relevant environmental protection requirements. With these measures in place, the water in the Qingjiang River is clear again, however, the villagers are now left to rely only on the citrus groves for their income.

如何在保护绿水青山的基础上实现对生态资源的最大利用，让乡亲们稳定增收，过上更好的日子，是当前龚庭杰和村委会一班人经常琢磨的事情。

So how to make full use of the ecological resources while protecting the mountains and rivers and increase the income of the villagers has become a question of great interest to Gong Tingjie and the village committee.

龚庭杰的父亲，在村里经营着一间农家乐。受儿子的启发，他正在酝酿将农家乐打造成清江“三帮”主题的餐厅，通过陈列“三帮”文化，宣讲“三帮”故事，吸引更多的人来了解“三帮”，关注白鸭垴。

Gong Tingjie's father runs a restaurant for agritainment in the village. Inspired by his son, he plans to build it into a theme restaurant of “Sanbang”.With the exhibition of “Sanbang”culture, through the telling of “Sanbang”stories, he hopes to attract more attention to Baiyanao and get more people to learn about “Sanbang”culture. (“Sanbang”refers to three organized groups in the past, namely, Shibang (stonemason group), Kebang(merchant group) and Chuanbang (ship transportation group).

白鸭垴有讲民间故事的传统，经积极整合，被宜昌民间文艺家协会授予“民间故事村”称号。白鸭垴有山水资源，有农家乐。村委会决定以“艺术墙绘+民间故事村”为着力点，吸引外来游客。

Baiyanao has the tradition of folklore telling. It is granted the title of “Folklore Village”by the Yichang Folk Literature and Art Association after its stories were sorted out and compiled. Baiyanao Village enjoys both lush mountains and lucid water as well as agritainment, now the village committee has decided to focus on wall paintings and folk stories to attract visitors.

白鸭垴村党总支书记熊爱民告诉极目新闻记者，好山、好水、好故事，有了这几个亮点，白鸭垴村决定打造故事村品牌，摸索一条生态文旅发展之路。

“With green mountains, clean water and enchanting stories, Baiyanao Village has decided to explore an ecological way for cultural tourism and build its brand into a village of stories.”Xiong Aimin, the party secretary of Baiyanao Village, told the reporter.