DM Monitoring
GUIYANG: An ethnic handicraft training base in the city of Liupanshui bustles every morning during the summer vacation period. What’s intriguing — the visitors to the center are children aged between five and 14.
Bai Enqi is one of the children. She learned making bracelets using colored beads with the help of a teacher at the training base. After several rounds of practice, the 12-year-old girl can make a bracelet bearing features of the Bouyei ethnic minority in just five minutes.
“It’s much more fun here than in my old hometown. I used to do homework or help my family in farm work there. I seldom had a chance to play with other classmates as we lived far away from each other,” Bai said.
Many children living in rural areas, poverty-stricken, in particular, had no access to various summertime activities. The training base is located at a relocation site in Liupanshui, southwest China’s Guizhou Province. Bai’s family moved to the place from an inhospitable village in 2016. Since then, Bai has been looking forward to the summer vacation every year.
During the summer vacation, Bai and her sisters usually have handicraft classes at the training base in the morning and do their homework at home in the afternoon.
“The handicraft classes are very popular. Around 40 kids participate in our class every year,” said Wei Houzhen, who is in charge of an ethnic handicraft cooperative in the relocation site. Wei is also an inheritor of the local intangible cultural heritage.
With the help of the local Communist Youth League, Wei arranges venues and organizes handicraft classes for children in the relocation site every year.
“I’m glad the children like the classes. It can not only enrich their summer life but also help the inheritance of Bouyei traditional skills,” Wei said. In order to help the children cope with their new lives in the relocation sites, many projects, including a variety of extracurricular activities, have been introduced, and college students volunteer in these projects.
Jufuxinyuan is another relocation site in Liupanshui, which more than 5,400 residents from 14 townships and villages call their new homes.
Chen Lijing, 8, is learning Hulusi, or cucurbit flute, with more than 10 peers at an extracurricular class during the summer vacation this year. “She was shy and didn’t talk to others when she first came to our class in 2019. But now, she’s a completely different girl,” said Long Feng, a student volunteer of the class.
“I can play four songs. I gave a Hulusi performance on stage on the International Children’s Day on June 1st,” said Chen, as she smiled with pride.
“The activities can encourage children to foster a new hobby or new skill, which can induce happiness and boost confidence. When children move to a new place, they have to face new challenges.
