[Explanation] A bundle of messy bamboo branches and wool, after breaking the bundle, picking, facing, weaving and other processes, in just a few minutes, "transformed" into a neat and beautiful broom, they were all born in Jiaxiang, Shandong Province Qiandu Village in the county.
Qiandu Village is a well-known "broom village" in the local area. Although the village is small, it has a tradition of broomsticking for nearly 200 years. More than 160 households of men, women and children in the village are proficient in the craftsmanship of broomsticking, and they are sold here every year. There are nearly 6 million broomsticks, so Qiandu Village is also known as "China's First Broomstick Village".
[Explanation] On July 15, the reporter went to Qiandu Village, "China's No. 1 Broomstick Village", to find out.
Just stepping into the village, bursts of strong bamboo leaves fragrant, and piles of bamboo leaves, bamboo poles and other raw materials are piled in the villagers’ own yard. At this time, the villagers are nervously and orderly making different shapes. Broom, the whole village presents a busy scene.
The 75-year-old Li Xingjun is skillfully removing the miscellaneous leaves from the bamboo branches in his broom workshop. After a series of skilled operations such as beating and winding, a broom is made by his skillful hands.
Li Xingjun said that he has been making broomsticks since he was a child, and he has been working for 60 years.
[Concurrent] Li Xingjun, a villager in Qiandu Village, Jiaxiang County, Shandong Province
I started doing broomsticks at the age of sixteen and have been doing it for nearly 60 years.
At that time, I was not allowed to go to school, and my family had a large population, so I depended on this to work.
I did it in the past, but I didn't do much at that time. The processing fee for tying a broom was only 30 cents. Now it is 5 bucks for tying a broom.
The very old people who tied the broomsticks in our village are dead, and I am the oldest.
[Explanation] As Li Xingjun got older and older, Li Xingjun was not as fast as before, so he recruited 6 villagers to make it with him.
At this stage, Li Xingjun’s small workshop can make more than 300 broomsticks a day, with an annual income of about 200,000 yuan.
The reporter then went to the home of the villager Lu Aixiang. She seemed to be a petite figure, but she was full of energy and tied her broomsticks firmly.
Lv Aixiang told reporters that many women in the village, like themselves, rely on broomsticks to increase their income.
[Concurrent] Lv Aixiang, a villager in Qiandu Village, Jiaxiang County, Shandong Province
I have been doing it for eighteen or nine years, and it won’t be hot or freezing in winter and spring. I have a fan in summer. I don’t think it’s a shameful job, and I haven’t changed my career. I’ve been doing this all the time.
Now we make more than 30 pieces a day, and we sell the finished products to nearby stores. They will come to pull the goods when that time comes. Sales are not a problem. As long as we make them, someone will come to sell this product.
You can make money every day by doing this broomstick, and your living conditions will improve. You can earn enough to support your family, and you can support your family with 50,000 or 60,000 yuan a year.
[Explanation] In Qiandu Village, there are not only many independent family workshops like Li Xingjun and Lu Aixiang, but also many large-scale broom processing factories.
In recent years, as the popularity of the broomsticks in Qiandu Village has become more and more popular, many young people in the village have chosen to return to the village for development.
Li Guotao, born in 1997, has returned to his hometown to help his father take care of the broom business since he retired from the army. With his unyielding spirit, he earnestly studied the advanced sales model of the online platform and allowed the products to be distributed to all parts of China.
[Concurrent] Li Guotao, a villager in Qiandu Village, Jiaxiang County, Shandong Province
At the beginning, I made two websites, and I could receive orders every day on the website. As time got longer and more customers, it gradually developed like this.
It was from my father’s generation that they took the products to the local market and hardware store to show them the products. It was just such a family that left contact information and slowly went to the market.
Like us, the Internet is now relatively developed, and we can basically find us when we post these products on the Internet.
Like our sales for one year, it is about 10 million to 20 million.
[Explanation] According to Li Mingqiang, secretary of the Party branch of the former Du Village, comparing the output of broomsticks in various parts of China, the output of Qiandu Village is the largest in Jiangbei, with an annual output value of more than 80 million.
In order to better optimize the broom processing industry, Qiandu Village opened a cooperative to establish a community of shared interests and risks shared by the village collective and the masses. This not only solves the employment problem of the villagers, but also effectively promotes the villagers to embark on the fast lane of increasing income and becoming rich. ".
Yang Fei reports from Shandong Jiaxiang
Editor in charge: 【Luo Pan】