Head hammer shot, midfield hanging, ultra-long free kick straight into the dead corner - this is not the World Cup, this is the "village chao" in Guizhou, China. "Village Super League", full name Rongjiang (Sanbao Dongzhai) and American Rural Football Super League, is based on the representative teams of 8 villages in Sanbao Dongzhai, and invites each township (street) to form a team to participate in the village.
On the evening of July 7, after three months and 29 games, Guizhou "Village Super League" ushered in the decisive moment, and Chejiang Yicun defeated the loyal village team after a penalty shootout to win the championship.
▲On June 6, the scene of the Rongjiang County Village Super League in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, the villagers danced dragons during the intermission. (Image source: China News Network)
This summer, Rongjiang, a small county town with a population of less than 40,5, became as hot as the weather because of this "village-flavored" football match. More than one million people rushed to Rongjiang to feel the joy of football, with <>,<> on-site viewers and tens of billions of views on the whole network...
Why can "Village Super" catch fire? And why is the fire in Guizhou? Is it only football that fires? Recently, "Dao China" conducted an exclusive interview with Guo Weihe, professor of the School of Ethnology and Sociology of Minzu University of China, on this topic.
Dao Zhonghua: When people think of Guizhou, they think of high mountains and rivers, rich folk customs, and unique customs, but with the explosion of "village super", today's Guizhou seems to be different from the past. What do you think about this?
Guo Weihe: The "village chao" in Rongjiang County, Guizhou, was unexpectedly "out of the circle" this time.
People always complain that Chinese football is uncompetitive and lacks a mass base, but when you suddenly know that in the mountains of Guizhou, football has such a broad mass base, you can respond to it; An inter-village football match can have both systematic and efficient organizational skills and superb football skills - people's inherent impression of the ethnic region in Guizhou has been surprisingly refreshed.
In fact, since a series of policies such as rural revitalization have been implemented in ethnic areas, Guizhou has long been no longer the impression in people's minds in the past: it has the world's highest bridge, the world's largest single-aperture radio telescope, and one of the regions with the largest concentration of large and ultra-large data centers in the world. Guizhou is rapidly integrating into the process of Chinese-style modernization through overtaking with modern transportation and communication technology.
The "village super" of Guizhou "out of the circle" this time, this carnival full of national cultural elements, vividly shows the modern spirit of hard work, obedience to rules and fair competition of all local ethnic groups.
Today's Guizhou gives people the impression of not only rich folk customs, rich folk customs, and long people's feelings, but also passion and hospitality, hard work and friendliness, fairness and unity.
▲Tai Wenyong, a member of the football team of Chejiang Second Village in Rongjiang County, Guizhou Province, drove agricultural machinery to plough paddy fields. (Photo by Zhou Yanling, China News Network)
Dao Zhonghua: As you said, Guizhou's "village chao" can be called a "carnival full of national cultural elements". How do you evaluate the "head-to-head" confrontation between "nationality" and "modernity" shown by "Village Chao"?
Guo Weihe: In the "village chao" in Guizhou, we can see colorful traditional ethnic elements, which appear on the same scene as passionate modern sports elements.
For example, professional games generally have cheerleaders, halftime performances, media broadcasts, and audience support. These elements are all in Guizhou "village chao", but they are not exactly the same.
For example, when we mention cheerleaders, we often think of young and beautiful boys and girls in cheerleading uniforms, shouting slogans and dancing, stacking arhats, but the cheerleaders of Guizhou's "village super" are the villagers of the village where the participating teams are located, and are the brothers and sisters of the participating players, fathers and elders. They carried watermelons produced in the village and pastries packed in bamboo dustpans to support the sons and daughters of their village. There is also a halftime performance, which is not a star like "Super Bowl" to invite Beyoncé and "Brother Mars" to sing and dance, but the traditional asparagus dance performed by the locals.
The addition of this ethnic element is based on the "village super" format, reflecting the love of the organizers and players for their hometown. These elements are in harmony with the atmosphere of the arena and do not feel stiff. Wearing national costumes is to show solemnity; Singing and dancing is to welcome guests from all over the world and express their joy. These traditional ethnic elements are distinctive, but not heterochromatic.
Today, with the rapid development of China, when we look at the "village super", or when we look at the culture of ethnic areas, we must no longer observe and understand with the mentality of "curiosity", but should have a mentality of experience and appreciation. I believe that out-of-town spectators who drive more than ten hours to the game are most likely to go because of "it's so exciting, I want to see it", rather than "It's so weird, I have to go and see it". The "national" and "modern" in Guizhou's "village super" are not so much "head-to-head" as "mutual reflection".
Dao Zhonghua: How do you think ethnic minority areas should balance the relationship between "the protection, inheritance and innovative development of excellent traditional culture" and "ensuring and improving people's livelihood and promoting the modernization of social governance"?
Guo Weihe: In recent years, when I have been researching ethnic areas, one of the issues I am most concerned about is the internal mechanism of development and governance in ethnic areas. The first research site I chose was a village cooperative in Liping County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province.
Is Guizhou beautiful? Beauty! I used to take the high-speed train from Guilin and Guiyang to Liping via the Rongjiang River, and I also took a car from Daodao County in Hunan to Liping, walking on the top of the mountain, the scenery is magnificent and amazing. However, this has made me more concerned about the internal mechanism of the development and governance of ethnic areas.
For the development and governance of ethnic areas, some people take a romantic stance, strive to revive and inherit national culture and folk rituals, and reject modernity; Some people take a developmentalist position, advocating that the development of modernity should penetrate into all corners and replace national culture. But in either case, they fall into an either/or binary opposition, believing that the cultural traditions of ethnic regions are incompatible with modern society.
Guizhou "Village Chao" refutes this point with reality: the national costume show before the competition, the national characteristic prizes in the competition, and the national special food after the competition show the fusion of tradition and modernity, rather than binary opposition.
Rongjiang County, which hosted the "village super" this time, was once a key county in the national poverty alleviation and development work, and now it is also a key county for national rural revitalization. After getting rid of poverty, Rongjiang has been exploring good experience and practices to promote rural revitalization. The phenomenal sports event of "Village Super" is not only fun, but also a road, cultural stage, sports singing, tourism income-generating can be called the high score of rural revitalization in recent years.
Excavating its own resource endowments from the inside out and inheriting excellent traditional culture have become a new driving force for modernization, transformation and development. We can fully say that the shot of Guizhou's "village chao" scored rural revitalization, won the local people, and cheered all the people who yearned for a happy life.
[The above content is the personal opinion of experts and does not represent the position of this platform.] 】
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Guo Weihe is a professor at the School of Ethnology and Sociology, Minzu University of China.
Executive Producer | Yang Xinhua
Co-ordination | Kang Kunquan Liu Jia
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Audit | Lan Xifeng
Writing | Li Yilin
Production | Hu Qi
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