China News Service, Zhoushan, June 9 (Reporter Xiang Jing) On the coast of the East China Sea, an island with a land area of less than 3 square kilometers-Ant Island in Putuo District, Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province, is like a "little ant" on the vast sea.
From a poor and white barren island to today’s advanced model of the national fishing area, a reporter from China News Agency recently visited Ant Island and found that behind the “counter-attack”, generations of women held up the “half of the sky” of the island.
Women don't let the eyebrows be shaved, and the confidante is better than the son.
As far as island families are concerned, it is normal for men to go out to sea and women to guard their homes. However, on Ant Island, three generations of women, old, middle and young, continue to carry forward the Ant Island spirit of "working hard, daring to gnaw on the bones, and striving for first-class" together. The revitalization dream of a suspended island.
Women are weaving and repairing fishing nets. Photo by Xiang Jing
The accumulation of the older generation: stories of wind and rain inspire newcomers of the era
"The sky is bright, fighting for time with the tide, working against the wind and rain, going home with the stars and the moon..." In the Auditorium of the Venture Square in Ant Island, 74-year-old Ding Heye said passionately, watching tourists from all over the country under the stage. The history of island women's participation in island construction.
The slender grandmother was full of pride in her words.
Half a century ago, she and her sisters on the island were once prosperous "heroes."
Ant Island in the 1950s was still a poor island with scarce resources and suffering from disasters all the year round.
After the founding of New China, in order to solve the problem of food and clothing, the women staying at home tried every means to change their hometown.
"Poor, poor, difficult, dangerous." This is the first impression of Ant Island by Ding Heye, a "post-40".
"The conditions on the island are very poor. The women together built the'straw rope boats' and'fire chimney boats' to help men better go fishing." In 1954, Li Xuenong served as the director of women in Changshatang Village and the captain of the agricultural team. Today, the grandmother of the maiden year recalled that in the 1970s, the island called for "three years of hard work to build farms around ponds". As men had been fishing for a long time, more than 300 women took over the task of building sea ponds.
Slipping mud, dragging rocks, lifting rocks, dragging sand, women used the simplest tools to open mountains and fetch rocks, and take advantage of the low tide to build seawalls... In just one year and four months, the seawall was successfully completed.
Li Xuenong, who has lived on the island all his life, has been telling people around him-"The hard work and entrepreneurial spirit cannot be forgotten".
In order to carry forward the arduous entrepreneurial spirit of the older generation of island women, since June 2018, Li Xuenong, Ding Heye and other people from the era have formed a storytelling team to tell the story of self-reliance to tourists traveling from the north to the south. The spirit of Ant Island is also known to more and more outsiders.
In the past three years, the storytelling team has told 3798 times, with an audience of nearly 50,000.
In order for the students from other places to hear clearly and understand, Ding Heye, who is over the past few years, practiced Mandarin. In her opinion, "the spirit of hard work back then is the most precious wealth for future generations."
Today, the Sanbahaitang is still a haven for the people of Ant Island.
In the night, 38 street lamps light up the islands and land and waves, reminding contemporary people of this historical miracle.
Many sculptures stand on the Ant Island Venture Square, including many scenes praising the spirit of women. Photo by Xiang Jing
The watch of middle-aged women: keep the green waters and green hills well after generations
"Ant Hill, Ant Hill, Ant Hill, the ant was originally the'Leotou Mountain'. The hill is rocky, and the hill is the beach." Walking into Ant Island, the verdant mountains and forests merge with the seemingly residential houses and the sea water, which is unimaginable. This harmonious "picture scroll" was once sung by the above-mentioned folk songs.
In the 1960s, in order to change the backwardness of the island, the people of Ant Island, under the leadership of Sheng Zaitang, winner of the "National Model Worker for Greening", began to implement the policy of closing mountains for forest cultivation.
"My father did one thing all his life, and that was planting trees." When talking about the late father Sheng Zaitang, the former captain of the Ant Island Forest Ranger Sheng Chengfen couldn't hide his admiration. "It's not easy to go from a barren hill to a forest. A lot of my father’s efforts have been devoted. My father once said that a large number of women who stayed behind on the island were also witnesses."
Inspired by Sheng Zaitang's lifelong cultivation of mountains and forests, his daughter Sheng Chengfen took over his father's "forestry dream" and chose to stay on the island for forest protection.
"I learned from my father the spirit of not being afraid of hardship and tiredness, and being brave to innovate." Raising, planting, and protecting trees has been like a day for decades. Sheng Chengfen is like a father, taking care of the wind and rain, carefully guarding, "daughter body, male heart. My original intention was to keep the "green dream" of my father and the people of Ant Island well."
For more than 30 years, the ecological hard bones of Ant Island have been "gnawed" continuously.
Today, the forest coverage rate on Ant Island has reached 70%, the green area has grown to 1,760 mu, and there are as many as 300 species of plants for garden greening. Ant Island has become a veritable ecological green island.
On this small island, batches of middle-aged women who have participated in the construction of the island are still playing their residual heat in front of their homes on the road to comprehensively promoting rural revitalization.
In the tourist service center, several middle-aged aunts sew fishing nets here every day, not only to mend tools for men going out to sea, but also to provide an "important window" to understand Ant Island's past and present lives when visiting the island.
On Ant Island’s Yingbin Avenue-Ant Avenue, a business called "Fish House Le" called Ant Gear is booming. It is run by four aunts in partnership.
The "female chef" Zou Jiye, who was in charge of cooking, was once a member of the mountain quarrying team during the construction of the March Eighth Seawall. "Our gears have been relocated three times. Compared with the original small place, the current gear house is new, with a better view, and business. It’s even better. I have also hired 3 more local waitresses."
Today's March Eighth Seawall, a photo by Xiang Jing
Responsibility for the youth of the "post-90s": the spirit of Ant Island revitalizes the island
From the wind and rain of older women to the watchful watch of middle-aged women, Ant Island has turned earth-shaking.
Today, the young people on Ant Island understand that the spirit of Ant Island created by the older generation is not only not outdated, it will continue to be carried forward.
At the Ant Island Wharf, there is an endless stream of tourists boarding the island every day, most of them rushing to the "Ant Island Spiritual Red Education Base".
Zhoushan Putuo Ant Island Hongfan Culture Development Co., Ltd. General Manager Li Zhesheng introduced that in 2018, in order to fully activate the "red gene" on Ant Island, the Ant Island Spirit Red Education Base was officially opened, which is also the fourth batch of Zhejiang Party History Education Bases .
Hongfan Company is the operating unit of Ant Island Spirit Red Education Base.
From a small clerk to the general manager of the operating company, this "post-90s" young woman Li Zhesheng has long regarded Ant Island as "the second hometown."
She recalled that when she first came to work in Ant Island, she was deeply moved by the entrepreneurial stories of women's hard work.
With this belief, she has often drove a sightseeing battery car for 4 years, and by receiving batches of foreign tourists, she told and spread the story of Ant Island.
"As young women in the new era, we should use our own means to firmly inherit the spirit of Ant Island." Li Zhesheng said.
Today, the small Ant Island has formed a red education and training closed-loop system that integrates visits, explanations, learning, interaction and other functions.
There are many women like Li Zhesheng. They are not afraid of the scorching sun or cold, and they have shown their youthful responsibility in their respective positions.
As the starting place for the red ship of the Chinese revolution, Zhejiang is the "red roots" of the Communist Party of China.
In March 2021, Yuan Jiajun, secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, identified the spirit of Ant Island as one of the "red roots" of Zhejiang led by the Red Boat Spirit at the mobilization and deployment meeting for the study and education of party history in the province, and included the spirit of Ant Island in Zhejiang. Provincial Party History Study and Education Program.
Luo Yanhong, member of the Party Working Committee and Deputy Director of the Ant Island Management Committee, mentioned that in order to allow the Ant Island spirit to continue to be passed on in the new era, the local area has continuously exerted its "red roots" advantage over the years and upgraded the Ant Island Spirit Red Education Base to Relying on, take multiple measures to promote the construction of "beautiful island".
The green hills are faintly flooded, and the waves are endless.
"The hometown of shrimps", "the hometown of lanterns", and "the typical fishing area"... Today's Ant Island has many "golden business cards" shining. Behind it, generations of "she" have adhered to the spirit of Ant Island. Keep pace with the times, pioneer and innovate, and jointly draw a new picture of the island’s revitalization.
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On the side of Ant Island, a small fishing boat docked. Photo by Xiang Jing