The Grinning Scarecrow

Chen Ke

At around 8 a.m.， LianshanIndustrial Park in HuitongCounty， Huaihua City，Hunan Province， startsbuzzing with the arrival ofworkers from local villages.one of the park’s tenantsis a 1，500-square-meter straw craftfactory owned by Chen Zhuolin， a rural entrepreneur who returned to herhometown deep in the mountains after 20 years away.

Chen has since won manyawards for her straw craft business including a silver medal in theChina Rural Entrepreneurship andInnovation Competition， a goldmedal in the Hunan Provincial RuralEntrepreneurship Innovation ProjectCreative Competition， a National Young Woman Agricultural EntrepreneurAward， and a National OutstandingLeader of Rural EntrepreneurshipAward.

What other opportunities are hidden in this fertile rural land？ Chen is notsure. But she will continue her effortsto inherit rice culture nonetheless.

Dream Weaving

Early one morning， Chen Zhuolindeparted her home in a village in thesuburbs of Huaihua City to make the20-kilometer trip to the factory. Thatday， she planned to put some finishing touches on an urban landscape project for a traffic island in Huitong County.

“Choose high-quality straw

ropes and straw curtains from thewarehouse，” Chen instructed heremployees. “The main frame has to becarefully welded with reinforcing bars.” She still manages to track every detailof the production process despite anincreasing number of urban landscapedecoration orders with the approach of the Spring Festival.

Chen accumulated her experienceover years of exploration. She studiedarts and crafts at college. Aftergraduation， her first job was in sales in Zhejiang Province， far from home. She had to leave her daughter behind. In2015， she decided to return home.

“I wanted to get involved in arts butdidn’t know how，” recalled Chen. “InZhejiang， I experienced the popularityof agricultural tourism and weekendgetaways， but they were not yet popular in my hometown.” She decided to start a business involving a flower sea with1.2 million yuan （US$185，000） sheborrowed from relatives and friends.

Huaihua City is one of China’snational agricultural preservationexperimental areas， where YuanLongping， a scientist known as the“father of hybrid rice，” developedChina’s first high-yield hybrid ricestrain in 1973. Huitong County， under the jurisdiction of Huaihua， is anagricultural county with abundantstraw resources. Chen tried using it to build some scarecrows in the flowersea， which added new flavors to thescenic spot and boosted visitor flow.

While she was there， a trend inZhejiang Province was buildingmonotowns with specialized industries such as film， medicine， fashion，energy， or robotics. “I thought aboutthat experience but chose to investin straw crafts， which are even moreprofitable than agritourism，” said Chen. She learned a whole set of productiontechniques from experiencedcraftsmen including selection of rawmaterial， design， framing， and coloring before establishing her own eco-agricultural company in November2015.

The flower sea became a perfectlocation for Chen to advertise her straw crafts， and orders soon started rollingin. “If the workers finish all the orderson time or ahead of time， they get abonus of 3 to 5 percent of the total value of the orders，” explained Chen. “Aftereach autumn harvest， I look aroundthe local villages to buy fresh straw at25 yuan （US$3.85） a bundle， which adds about 250 yuan （US$38.5） per mu （0.07ha） to farmers’ income.” Chen startedorganizing production of various straw sculptures in different designs such asanimals and cartoon figures.

Chen still remembers a cliententrusting her with the landscapedesign of an entire park. To satisfythe client， she paid a handsomeamount of money to hire a qualifieddesigner. “Later， I consulted aprofessional branding agency andincorporated brand planning， design，and landscaping into the business ofmy company，” she recalled. The movemultiplied her revenues. Now， herstraw crafts sell to more than 120 cities around the country and produce anannual sales volume of over 7 millionyuan （US$1.08 million）. “Orderscome from as far as Jilin Province innortheast China，” she said， “To prevent the straw sculptures from beingdamaged on the long journey， I arrange localized production.”

Chen never expected the opportunity to meet with Yuan Longping. “In 2018， I won a silver medal in the Second China Rural Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition，” she recounted. “I showed Yuan my straw creations， and he waspleasantly surprised to see the strawtransformed into art. In 2019， I wonanother prize and visited him again， so we agreed to meet every year. Becauseof the COVID-19 pandemic， we didn’tsee each other again until I learned ofhis passing last year.”

Chen hung calligraphy by Yuanreading “Study Rice Culture; InheritRice Civilization” and a photo withhim on the wall in her office. Looking back at her years of entrepreneurship， she felt the most difficult thing wasfirst getting recognized. “I’m just a145-centimeter-tall girl，” she said，“Many people acted like this was thewrong thing for me. I don’t hear much of that anymore.”

Poverty Alleviation

After lunch， Chen Zhuolin traveledto another installation site in HuitongCounty to join her workers. “The roadfoundation is uneven right there，” sheexplained to them. “If the joints are not welded properly， the whole structurewill collapse in heavy wind. I will have to inspect the joints carefully.”

As the Spring Festival drawsnear， many cities carry out holidaydecoration projects. Chen receivedorders from six counties in Huaihua City worth about 3 million yuan（US$461，500）. She traveled to threecounties in a single day to supervise.

“Urban landscape decoration issimilar to straw craft production，”Chen said. “Practice makes perfect. The workers are farmers from local villages. To make a new product， we have athree-member team plan and design it before assigning tasks to workers. Wecheck in on them when we have time.”

For the local villagers seeking towork while taking care of family， thejob is ideal. In 2019， China launcheda nationwide battle against poverty.Chen’s company helped lift 204registered poor households and sixseverely impoverished households out of poverty.

In 2020， the COVID-19 pandemiccut the argitourism industry almost inhalf and trapped most of her labor force at home. But Chen’s straw crafts weredesignated by the local government asa means of employment promotionand poverty alleviation. In April 2020，a poverty alleviation workshop wasestablished in Wangdong Village inHuitong County， Huaihua City， withsupport from the Huaihua MunicipalPublicity Department. On July 23， itsfirst livestream took place. Six “ModelHunan Residents” and provincialinfluencers sold 1，257 straw basketsonline in just 90 minutes. Each basketadded 2 to 10 yuan （US$0.3-1.5） tofarmers’ income. “At the height of theworkshop’s production in June and July that year， 50 to 60 local villagers wereinvolved.”

“With the economic recovery in thesecond half of 2020， the governmentorganized two groups of our workersto transfer to coastal areas，” said Chen.“Because of that， our productioncapacity dropped. To maintain ourmarket share， I started doing a lot of the work myself. Still， we suffered greatlyfrom the pandemic. The new urbanlandscape projects are a huge deal forus.”

Urban landscape projects involveheavy physical labor， so Chen didn’twant to hire elderly people in localvillages. “We published informationabout our demand for labor on theplatform of the Lianshan IndustrialPark and the county’s human resources and social security bureau，” said Chen.“We offered an average monthly salaryof around 6，000 yuan （US$920）. During holiday seasons like National Day andSpring Festival， workers can make asmuch as 10，000 yuan （US$1，540） in amonth.”

Against the backdrop of ruralrevitalization， an increasing numberof “rural makers” are heading home.Chen feels strongly that governmental support increases the opportunityin rural areas. “Just be dedicated toa certain cause， whether straw orsomething else， and you will achievesomething，” she said. “When I startedmaking straw crafts， they nicknamedme ‘scarecrow.’At first， I thought theywere making fun of me， but I like being the ‘scarecrow girl’ now.”

Chen has some new ideas for thefuture. “I want to build a floral town in my village，” she reported. “My vision is to build a rural leisure attraction witha fine collection of flower markets and straw products.”