China News Service, Beijing, June 21 (Reporter Xing Rui) June 21 is the International Yoga Day.
This ancient sport originated in India is very popular among urban white-collar workers in China.
People always involuntarily associate it with modern words such as fashion and trend.
However, in a small village only more than 200 kilometers away from Beijing, there is a group of elderly "yoga gods" hidden.
The aunt who breaks corn in the yard can easily lift her legs above her head, and the aunt who digs wild vegetables in the field can do a handstand while she is busy.
Even the uncle who is sunbathing at the entrance of the village can give you a split if he disagrees.
This magical village is located in the north of Zhangbei County, Zhangjiakou City. It has an unforgettable name - Yugou Liang.
Yugooliang Village is more than 200 kilometers away from Beijing.
Here, in addition to eating, sleeping and working, practicing yoga is now a part of daily life.
There are no bright and clean classrooms and complicated equipment. The field is their show, and white gloves and blue headscarves are their standard.
The imported product of yoga has broken the "dimension wall" between the city and the countryside, and made many people know Yugooliang.
break the circle
When a reporter from Chinanews.com called 79-year-old Wu Qilian, the old man was busy making a fire and cooking.
Yugoulang is located in the Bashang grassland at the border of Hebei and Mongolia. The climate is cold and dry. Potatoes and noodles are the main products here.
If there is no farm work, the villagers generally eat only two meals a day.
Wu Qilian has been practicing yoga for 5 years. She is not only a "yoga master" in the village, but also a celebrity on the short video platform.
Screenshot of Wu Qilian's short video account.
In 2019, Wu Qilian's grandson accidentally uploaded a video of his grandmother practicing yoga to the Internet.
In the video, there is a thin yoga mat on the kang in the countryside. Wu Qilian, who is wearing red socks, squatted down slowly, put her hands on the yoga mat, and wrapped her legs around her arms. The whole body is propped up.
The difficult yoga movements and the silver-haired rural elderly form a strong sense of contrast.
This kind of picture constantly stimulates the attention of viewers, and this video finally received 76,000 likes.
And with the activity of Wu Qilian's video account, Yugou Liang also unexpectedly became popular.
Taking advantage of this "Dongfeng", more and more people in the village have registered short video accounts.
Some have also started making money by filming videos.
Wu Qilian's account currently has more than 160,000 followers. Her online "Effective Fitness Yoga Course for Beginners and Intermediates" is priced at 19 yuan, and more than 700 people have paid.
question
Another "Internet celebrity" of Yugoulang is Lu Wenzhen, the first secretary of the village.
In fact, before he came to the village, Yugouliang had almost no connection with yoga.
At the beginning of 2016, Lu Wenzhen and two other colleagues settled in Yugouliang, which was still a national poverty-stricken village at the time, to carry out targeted poverty alleviation work.
The weather was 27 to 8 degrees below zero, and there was still unmelted snow on the road.
After a bumpy ride, the group of them came to the village first.
At that time, the village party secretary of Yugouliang rode an electric tricycle, wore an old felt hat, wore a military coat that was almost covered with starch, and held a candy old man's mobile phone, and took them to Yugou Liang. Dog Liang Village.
When the working group first arrived, the village party secretary of Yugouliang Village.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Until now, Lu Wenzhen still has a fresh memory of this scene.
In his past life, he rarely saw such poor and dilapidated mountain villages: "The young people have all gone out to work, leaving only the frail and elderly people. There is not even a canteen in the village, and there are ruins everywhere. ."
Today, with the help of the national poverty alleviation policy, Yugoulang has long ceased to be the dilapidated appearance through the efforts of the villagers.
However, for Lu Wenzhen at that time, it was indeed a difficult situation to face.
After the settlement, how to help the villagers get rid of poverty has become a headache for the working group.
By chance, Lu Wenzhen discovered that the elderly in the village love to cross their legs on the kang, and this action is very similar to the "double cross" in yoga.
A bold idea appeared in his mind: "Teach the big guy to practice yoga, and take good care of your body before you can work and earn money."
The fact that the first secretary taught everyone to practice yoga quickly spread in the village.
"Is it really yoga?" was the first question raised by the fellow villagers. After Lu Wenzhen's explanation, everyone quickly understood that yoga is physical exercise.
Photo courtesy of Lu Wenzhen.
Photo by Zhao Zhannan
Doubts ensued.
"You are here to help the poor. Can you get rid of poverty by practicing yoga?" "People in the city like sports. We are very tired from farm work every day. We can only exercise if we have nothing to do when we are full." Some people even reported to the village: Yugooliang The village is engaged in a "cult".
At first Wu Qilian felt that this was a joke: "We don't agree with Secretary Lu. Even if we are old and practice yoga, we are not afraid of being laughed at."
In order to attract villagers to join, Lu Wenzhen bought a batch of white gloves and yoga mats at his own expense, and whoever came to practice yoga could get a mat for free.
For the free gifts and the persuasion of the women's director, some people began to exercise with Lu Wenzhen.
Change
It is said that it is a call to practice yoga, but Lu Wenzhen is also a layman himself.
After watching a lot of video tutorials on the Internet, he found that many movements are not suitable for the elderly in the village: "First of all, we must ensure safety and do not pursue difficult poses. Yoga is just a name, and organizing everyone to exercise is the goal."
He started teaching from the simplest movements, and any movements must be practiced by himself first to ensure safety before teaching them to the villagers.
After two or three months, many people have tasted the sweetness of practicing yoga.
Because of their long-term work, Wu Qilian and his wife suffered from leg pain and arm pain.
A few months after Wu Qilian's wife joined the yoga team, these problems actually improved.
At the recommendation of his wife, Wu Qilian also began to practice yoga: "After seeing that Secretary Lu taught very well, and the old man's health is good, I went there."
Practicing yoga once in the morning and once in the evening has now become Wu Qilian's life habit.
And because of yoga, her old life has also undergone earth-shaking changes.
Photo courtesy of Lu Wenzhen.
Photo by Zhao Zhannan
At the end of 2016, the Social Sports Guidance Center of the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China noticed this group of elderly people practicing yoga.
In 2017, the official website of China Yoga praised Yugooliang as "the first village of yoga in China".
Then came the media attention.
A TV station invited the villagers to record the program, and many elderly people also walked out of the village because of this, which opened their eyes and saw the world.
Wu Qilian told reporters excitedly: "I have never been to the city in my life before. Now I have been to more than a dozen places because of yoga practice. I have taken high-speed trains, trains, and planes. Even my son has never been on a plane. ."
There is also one thing that makes her most proud - her grandson who is single-handedly married because she practiced yoga: "They met in my live broadcast room."
The changes in Yugouliang have attracted villagers working outside to come back to build their hometowns.
The average age of the new village committee is less than 50 years old, and they are all the hopes of Yugooliang.
Sun Junxian, the new women's director, has been leading the elderly to practice yoga every day since returning to Yugouliang last year: "I knew that Yugouliang was on fire for a long time, and I have to come back and contribute."
In 2021, the Social Sports Guidance Center of the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China officially awarded Yugouliang the honorary medal of "China Fitness and Yoga Demonstration Village".
Yugouliang's future seems bright.
Dilemma
The overwhelming coverage has brought real benefits to Yugouliang.
2018 is also a harvest year for Yugou Liang.
That year, the village introduced quinoa cultivation and built a photovoltaic power station, and the income of the villagers continued to increase.
Lu Wenzhen introduced that the annual per capita income increase can reach more than 1,100 yuan just by planting quinoa.
Villagers who plant a lot can earn nearly 10,000 yuan a year.
Photo courtesy of Lu Wenzhen.
Photo by Zhao Zhannan
With the short video boom in recent years, the Internet has also become one of the channels for some villagers to increase their income.
However, the development process also encountered difficulties.
The homogenization of villagers’ accounts is relatively serious, and there is a competitive relationship with each other. Naturally, friction is inevitable, which once led to the decline of yoga practitioners in the village.
The old people who have worked in the fields all their lives have no concept of marketing, and some people can't even communicate with the "family" in the live broadcast room in Mandarin.
Coupled with the impact of the epidemic in recent years, Lu Wenzhen's idea of to engage in tourism in the village has also been temporarily put on hold.
Photo courtesy of Lu Wenzhen.
Photo by Zhao Zhannan
Yugouliang, which seems to be infinitely beautiful to the outside world, is now standing at the crossroads of development once again.
Lu Wenzhen himself is not sure when the traffic will fade from Yugou Liang.
The top priority, what he thought was: "To build the Yugooliang brand as soon as possible."
In fact, as early as the end of 2017, the first round of poverty alleviation tasks had ended, and Lu Wenzhen's term of office was about to end.
But at that time, Yugouliang's development had just picked up a bit. He didn't want to leave, and the villagers wanted him to stay.
This is another 3 years.
During the more than 1,000 days and nights in Yugouliang, Lu Wenzhen developed a deep relationship with the elderly in the village.
There are people in the village who kill pigs and build houses. Everyone will ask Lu Wenzhen to go to dinner, and they will give him another piece of meat after eating.
Sometimes when he was practicing yoga, he could not be seen, and the villagers would look for him everywhere and bring him some potatoes, noodles, and shredded radishes.
Photo courtesy of Lu Wenzhen.
Photo by Zhao Zhannan
Over time, Lu Wenzhen became dependent on the old people in the village. "I dare not leave them. After I leave, they are very worried."
After the second term expires, Lu Wenzhen, who was born in 1966, is approaching retirement age.
"Yugouliang hasn't fully developed yet, and I'm not reconciled." After discussing with his family, he started his third term in Yugouliang.
This time, he will end his career here.
Lu Wenzhen's WeChat avatar.
Lu Wenzhen's WeChat avatar is an elm sapling with only two leaves but a long rhizome.
He said: "Yugouliang's future path should be like an elm sapling, walking steadily and steadily."
Now, Lu Wenzhen wants to develop some cultural and creative products under the Yugouliang brand.
He turned his attention to the dandelions that were all over the mountains.
He hopes that the seeds of dandelion can take root and sprout wherever they fall with the spirit of the old man of Yugou Liang Yoga.
(Finish)