Seven Fairies of the Dong Family: A Poverty Alleviation Team in Dashan, Guizhou
From 0 to more than 800 live broadcasts, in the past three years, they have brought goods and promoted Dong culture, helped their hometown to get rid of poverty, and sent more and more "Qian goods" out of Dashan.
Downstairs with wooden slings, there are several Dong girls in costumes active, their silver ornaments clanging.
Make food and celebrate the Dong Year.
A girl stepped on a tool shaped like a seesaw to make it rise and fall, while the girl at the other end swept repeatedly with rice.
This is the "churning rice" of the Dong people. After several times of rolling, the fallen grains fell on the stone pan.
This short video released by the live platform account "Dong Family Seven Fairies" has received 42.26 million views. The protagonist in the video comes from Gaibao Village, Liping County, Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou Province. They have more than 1.2 million fans.
In May 2018, Wu Yusheng, then the “First Secretary of Poverty Alleviation” in Gaibao Village, proposed the “short video, live broadcast + poverty alleviation” model, and formed the “Seven Fairies” live broadcast team.
A video sold out the rice and sweetfish in the village; a live broadcast helped poor households solve 60,000 catties of unsalable small yellow ginger; a live broadcast room deep in the mountains changed the plight of the village's occlusion and backwardness.
Over the past three years, more than 800 public welfare live broadcasts of the "Seven Fairies of the Dong Family" have driven the hometown to alleviate poverty.
Through the lens, they showed the world activities with ethnic characteristics such as Dong weddings, glutinous rice cakes, bullfighting, and long table banquets, which allowed more and more "Qian goods" to come out of the mountains and also allowed more and more young people to return home.
The first secretary of "not doing business properly"
Liping County is located in the south of Qiandongnan Prefecture in Guizhou Province, and is the county with the largest population of Dong people.
Gaibao Village is more than 100 kilometers away from Liping County. Surrounded by mountains, wooden houses are staggered on both sides of the river.
On February 14, 2018, Wu Yusheng, who originally worked at the Liping County Commission for Discipline Inspection, came to Gaibao Village for the first time.
He seemed to have walked into a paradise hidden deep in the mountains, where not only terraced fields, drum towers, and flower bridges, but also the original wooden stilts and Dong culture.
But the Dongzhai in the deep mountains is trapped by the word "poor", surrounded by mountains, inconvenient transportation, and scarce industries.
The villagers maintain a primitive farming life, planting rice every year, and the yield is not high.
Cultivated land is scattered on different hills and cannot be used for industrial farming with machinery.
In summer, villagers have to pick up the cut rice grains down the mountain by winding mountain roads, and it takes half a day to go back and forth.
Some villagers were lighting kerosene lamps a few years ago, and they had to rely on young people to go out to work to get rid of poverty, while the elderly and children stayed at home.
Most of the poor households in Gaibao Village are in Yangwei Village where Wu Yusheng settled in. Yangwei Village has more than 500 households, including 109 poor households. At that time, 52 households had not been lifted out of poverty.
Based on previous experience in poverty alleviation, Wu Yusheng feels that traditional agricultural assistance has limited effectiveness in minority villages.
After some research, he found that Gaibao Village has beautiful scenery and the birthplace of Dong Pipa Song, which is very suitable for the development of tourism.
In the end, Wu Yusheng decided to use the Dongfeng live webcast to tell the story of Gaibao Village.
In March 2018, Wu Yusheng convened a meeting with village officials, hoping that the whole village would raise 200,000 yuan as the start-up fund for the live broadcast team.
But as soon as the voice fell, he was questioned.
In desperation, he promised to "borrow" 50,000 yuan from the village in the form of a risk guarantee. "If I lose the money when I leave the village, I personally bear all the losses."
After hesitating again and again, everyone slowly raised their hands in agreement, but there were still doubts: "If we don't have fans in two years, we will be dead", "If you don't have money, you can't afford the anchor", "The risk is too great."
In the end, Yangwei Village lent Wu Yusheng 50,000 yuan.
After the funds were in place, Wu Yusheng bought an Apple mobile phone for video shooting, and took care of the shooting, editing and live broadcast alone.
After a month of busy work, his account has fewer than 1,000 fans.
The villagers watched him holding his mobile phone every day, and didn't see the actual profit. They questioned more: "This first secretary is not doing business all day, so he wants to play with his mobile phone."
Looking for the "Seven Fairies"
Seeing that the live broadcast plan for poverty alleviation was going to fail, Wu Yusheng often couldn't sleep all night.
One night, a melodious Dong song floated into the window. He was curious about the song and asked the elderly in the village.
The old man told a legend: "A long time ago, the seven fairies in the sky passed through Gaibao Village and found that the people here were diligent and simple but not very happy. They scattered fairy songs into the river. From then on, the villagers only had to drink the Gaibao River. The water will sing. The singing makes the whole Dong village happy, and the Dong people’s pipa song is also passed on from generation to generation."
"Isn't the Dong girl in full costume the seven fairies in real life?" That ancient legend inspired Wu Yusheng. He wanted to find 7 Dong girls to broadcast live, so as to spread Dong culture and contribute to Gaibao Village. Bring goods.
In May 2018, Wu Yusheng registered the account of "Romantic Dong Family Seven Fairies" and began to search for "Seven Fairies".
In Wu Yusheng's vision, the "seven fairies" must be local Dong girls who must be able to sing and dance and speak Mandarin.
After setting the standard, he first found the Pipa Singing Team in the village, and selected the youngest member Yang Yanjiao, the "eldest sister" in the "Seven Fairies".
Yang Yanjiao joined the team regardless of family opposition.
Yang Yanjiao has never been exposed to webcast before.
At first, she was shy and didn't know what to say when facing the camera.
"Catch the fish in the morning, make the sour soup fish in the afternoon, and live the story of the sour soup fish in the evening." Recalling the live broadcast time at that time, Yang Yanjiao felt that he didn't have many live broadcast skills, and was more about recording real life. Chat with fans sincerely.
The voice of the villagers never stopped.
Every time Yang Yanjiao goes out, some people say that she "looks like crazy" and "doesn't do business all the time."
At the same time, Wu Yusheng found the middle school student "Seven Sister" Wu Meiqiong in Gaibao Village, and she promised to participate in the live broadcast of "Seven Fairies" during the holidays.
In a beauty contest in Liping County, Wu Yusheng "photographed" Wu Jiajia of the Qiandongnan Prefecture Song and Dance Ensemble. After several "phone bombings", Wu Jiajia took Yang Wanling, who was also with the Song and Dance Ensemble, to meet Wu Yusheng's team and decided to join .
Later, Wu Juan from Liping County Art Troupe, college students Kong Fanfang and Luo Shengdan joined the team and became "full-time fairies."
After nearly half a year, the "seven fairies" finally got together.
Wu Yusheng recalled that the conditions were difficult and the shooting equipment was only a mobile phone.
During the day, they wandered in the mountains and rivers of Gaibao Village, shooting short videos, making ud rice, catching rice and sweet fish, digging ear roots, filming Dong weddings, live bullfighting...
In the evening, they returned to the live studio at the foot of the mountain.
The team rented a wooden board room in the village as a live broadcast room, with two rice ears hung on the wall, and a cartoon of the Dong drum tower as the background.
At 8 o'clock every night, the "Seven Fairies" will change into Dong costumes and set up a mobile phone to broadcast live, which lasts two to three hours.
The content of the "Seven Fairies" is getting richer and richer, and the fans are getting more and more.
In just three months, their fans in Kuaishou quickly exceeded 100,000.
"In the beginning, people who watched the live broadcast didn't know where Gaibao was." Wu Yusheng guessed that 90% of Liping people didn't know Gaibao Village before, and they started to understand the village through the "Seven Fairies".
Bringing goods for poor households
With the increase of fans, the live delivery plan of "Seven Fairies" is also on the agenda.
Every time the live broadcast, netizens are interested in Dong costumes and agricultural products.
The "Seven Fairies" gradually began to sell some products on the live broadcast platform, and focused on helping poor households in the village sell special agricultural products.
The cooperative of poor household Wu Yongrong has planted 17 acres of turmeric on the mountain, but it has been suffering from poor sales.
The Seven Fairies took the initiative to help. They changed into Dong people's casual clothes, picked up their hoes and went to the mountain to dig yellow ginger.
Wu Yusheng told them to pay attention to interacting with fans while filming.
The day after the video was sent, someone placed an order for more than 10,000 catties of turmeric.
Within two months, more than 60,000 catties of small yellow ginger from 15 poor households including Wu Yongrong were sold out.
The "Seven Fairies" team gave them confidence in the market. The cooperative expanded the planting in the second year, allowing more farmers to gain profits.
A poor household found the "Seven Fairies" because of a family member's illness, hoping they could help sell their own peppercorns to raise medical expenses.
Yang Yanjiao recalled that they not only sold out the peppercorns for the poor household, but also donated the live broadcast of the day to him.
The help brought by the live broadcast of "Seven Fairies", the villagers are all in their eyes.
The 200,000 yuan that Wu Yusheng planned to raise from the villagers is finally in place, and 10 of the 18 shareholders are poor households.
The road to poverty alleviation for the villagers of Gaibao Village is also getting wider and wider.
In addition to the live broadcast of the "Seven Fairies", the online sale of agricultural products and handmade products, the arrival of foreign tourists has also increased the income of the villagers. Their accommodation, food and travel will drive the village's economy.
Wu Yusheng roughly estimated that the “Seven Fairies of the Dong Nationality” had watched more than 200 million people in Liping County's tourism promotion videos. The village sold agricultural products and drove more than 3 million yuan in tourism income, and more than 30 million yuan in sales and tourism income for the county.
With the support of the local government and the leadership of the "Seven Fairies" team, Gaibao Village has achieved complete poverty alleviation.
The roads in the village have been repaired, the new gates have been erected, and small brick houses and guest houses have sprung up like mushrooms...
"Seven Fairies" team "breaks the circle"
The "Seven Fairies of the Dong Family" were on fire.
There are more and more foreign vehicles driving into Gaibao Village. Before the visitors could speak, the owner of the restaurant at the entrance of the village pointed his finger: "Go straight along this road and turn left." In his impression, some fans would I went to see the "Seven Fairies" from other provinces, and followed them live, "I kept taking pictures of the fairies with my mobile phone, and I felt that they were also broadcasting."
In 2019, the draft men's team R1SE and "Seven Fairies" recorded variety shows in Dongzhai.
Fans from all over the country flocked, and all the major hotels in Liping County were booked out.
In the words of Fanquan, the "Seven Fairies" team "broken the circle".
"Sometimes there are more reporters than tourists." Wu Yusheng estimates that in 2019, about 60 or 70 media will come to Gaibao Village for interviews.
"Seven Fairies" have also been invited to participate in CCTV, People's Daily, Hunan Satellite TV and other media programs, showing the customs of the Dong nationality to audiences across the country, and letting more and more people know Liping County and Gaibao Village.
Liping is a key tea-producing county in the country, and the tea industry is also an important local poverty alleviation industry.
In March 2020, Liping County Party Secretary Zhou Wenfeng and Deputy County Mayor Zhang Wanguang endorsed Liping Tea, and together with the "Seven Fairies of the Dong Family" to help "Li Huo" come out.
According to statistics, the live broadcast received more than 1.1 million views and realized an online and offline transaction volume of 1.8 million yuan. Only on-site direct sales reached 2300 orders, which promoted the increase in sales of Liping tea by more than 6 million yuan.
"The whole county and the whole state are watching our live broadcast!" Kong Fanfang transferred the live broadcast link to the family group. The thumbs of the family members lined up. She really felt the attention and support from her hometown.
Two months later, the "Seven Fairies" boarded the highest stage of live broadcast sales-CCTV's live broadcast of goods.
Together with the host Zhu Guangquan and others, they brought goods for Guizhou.
Under their recommendation, delicacies such as Guizhou mutton noodles, sour soup fish sauce, and Xianghe glutinous rice were sold out as soon as they hit the shelves.
Over 3 hours of live broadcasts, with 9.08 million views and total sales of 137 million yuan.
In December 2020, the short documentary "Seven Fairies of the Dong Family" filmed by the Propaganda Department of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee was selected as the "Top Ten Outstanding Cases of External Communication in 2020".
This is the second time that Guizhou Province has won this award since 2015.
The story of "Seven Fairies" has been on the international stage and is known by more people.
From the "Seven Fairies of Gaibao", to the "Seven Fairies of Liping", and then to the "Seven Fairies of Guizhou", they took two years to get out of the mountains and gradually became known to the world.
Wu Yusheng knows the ups and downs, "We have cried, laughed, and been tired, but we have never relaxed. This is the battlefield for poverty alleviation."
Come back, take root in the country
It is the wish of the "Seven Fairies" to send more "Qian goods" out of the mountain and call more young people back to their hometowns.
In order to better integrate local live broadcast resources and help more poor households get rid of poverty.
The "Seven Fairies" led the establishment of the Liping County Internet Celebrity Helping Poverty Alleviation Association, the Internet Celebrity Academy "Zhushui Academy", and the country's first short video online sales park.
"Bamboo Water Academy" invited local non-genetic inheritors, well-known internet celebrities and live broadcast tutors, etc., to provide trainees with free explanation, live broadcast, and shooting.
20 students are enrolled in each term, and 6 sessions have been held, and nearly 200 e-commerce talents have been trained.
In Wu Yusheng's plan, the academy cultivates new internet celebrities and live broadcast talents, the association convenes mature internet celebrities to live broadcast and sell goods, and the sales park integrates the county's agricultural product supply anchors.
He hopes to cooperate with more enterprises and poor households, open up offline production, packaging, logistics and other links, and establish a complete internet celebrity poverty alleviation industry chain.
Today, the "Seven Fairies" team has more than a dozen people, including young people who have just graduated and returned to their hometown.
They used to yearn for big cities, but now they feel that returning to build their hometown is also a kind of "breakthrough".
Like most young people in the village before, Wu Changyue, a poor householder, also went to work in Guangdong and did not return to Gaibao until 2019.
When working outside, she has to work more than a dozen hours a day, squeezing into a small dormitory with her colleagues.
After returning to the village, Wu Changyue opened the first homestay in Gaibao Village. It was built at the foot of the mountain. The first floor was a brick house with tiles and the second floor was built of wood.
Roses are planted in front of the house, and the vegetable field behind the house is full of green lettuce.
She feels contented, and now she can accompany the elderly and children as well as receive guests from afar.
Wu Changyue chatted about her changes while swiping her mobile phone: "I used to be stupid, and now I can also take short videos on my mobile phone."
"To get rid of poverty through the Internet, there is no mistake on this road to the Gaibao Dong Village. We will continue to walk." The person in charge of the Gaibao Village Committee believes that while digging and protecting the cultural resources of the Dong ethnic group, it will also attract more tourists. .
From the initial questioning of the villagers to the current recognition and active learning, Wu Yusheng was very pleased: “After the poverty alleviation is over, the villagers’ concept has changed to better realize rural revitalization.”
In May 2020, Wu Yusheng was transferred back to Liping County Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Film and Tourism, and no longer served as the first secretary of Gaibao Village.
The "Seven Fairies" are also continuing to sow live broadcast seeds.
As night fell, the sound of the stream accompanied the drum tower in Dali Dong Village, Rongjiang County, and there was a burst of singing. This is the combination of "Dong Family Seven Fairies" and Shui Mu Nianhua in "Lianmai", and the song "Away from Home" ignited live broadcast fans Our passion.
"I have you in my whole life-My home in Liping, Dong Township, Liping Tea is the world", this is a recent collaboration project between the "Seven Fairies" team and Shuimunianhua. It will be broadcast live every Thursday at 8pm.
Dali Dong Village is "China's first batch of traditional ancient villages", and it will become a new position for "Seven Fairies" to promote Dong culture.
Every weekend, Wu Yusheng would take time to come to Dali Village.
He will guide the team to live broadcast, help adjust the lighting, teach the anchor how to interact, and remind the operation staff to reply to fans regularly...
Speaking of future plans, Wu Yusheng hopes that in the future, he can unite live broadcast teams of 56 ethnic groups, take root in rural areas, discover ethnic culture, and then promote local agricultural products and tourism.
The "Seven Fairies" also have new goals. In a "Goodbye, 2020" poster, Wu Jiajia's photo is next to the popular Ding Zhen.
"Ding Zhen has driven tourism in Litang County. Maybe we also have this opportunity?"
Beijing News reporter Wu Caiqian, intern Mu Hongju and Xie Jingwen