Better platform

Lin says around 60 percent of the new settlers are in their 20s or 30s, and the art project director says the recent arrivals have lit up the villages in the county with their youthful vigor.

"These young people with their better educational background and wider horizons can 'shed their urban skins' by trying the new daily routines they find in the countryside," says Lin. "And the countryside will serve as a bigger stage for them to go out there and promote their work."

Duan Hongfa, 24, an art-and-design graduate from the Southwest University of Science and Technology in Sichuan province has found his bigger stage in Xiadi, another village in Pingnan.

Duan has been a volunteer worker in the renovation of the ancient village since 2016, under the direction of Cheng Meixin, a Chinese-Swedish art critic and an expert in art and architecture. The renovation of village houses is part of the art project in Pingnan.

The past two years have seen more than 50 volunteers join Cheng's conservation team to work on restoring dilapidated buildings around Pingnan by working around their original framework, according to Duan.

"I first need to check through the county annals to find out the stories behind the house-owners and try to ascertain the function of each room," says Duan. "Then we sketch out a layout before we start to do any carpentry."

This year, as the leader in renovating a historical mansion called Xue Fu (Xue's residence) in Shuangxi, Duan worked from dawn to dusk to convert the ramshackle complex covering an area of some 1,500 square meters into a public cultural center, which will jointly function as cinema, library, cafe and exhibition hall.

"The mansion's facelift may inspire wonder in others, but for me, it comes as no surprise. It's the result of a lot of hard work," says Duan, who adds that he was satisfied with the results, despite a few setbacks. "Honestly, there were times when I grow impatient about the progress of work, especially when there are no profits or promotions on the horizon."

However, Duan says the best thing about the project is that he is able to single-mindedly complete each process without being rushed, something unimaginable in a commercial project.

His job includes negotiating land use rights with the local villagers, budgeting the restoration work and organizing formal receptions for the many officials and artists who visit the mansion.

"I've become a multitasker now," says Duan. "It's a great platform to improve myself, because the creativity and power of the younger generations are cherished by the community here."