On March 17, teachers and students from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (SCFAI) drew pictures in the Ganyuan Village of Quchi Township, Wushan County, to support rural vitalization and develop rural tourism with art. This is a part of the event – Ten Schools to Beautify a Hundred Cooperative Villages with Art.
These murals are colorful and fantastic, becoming a unique cultural logo of Ganyuan Village.
Ganyuan Village stands beside the Yangtze River, over 100 kilometers away from Wushan County, and covers an area of 12 square kilometers. Ships can be berthed here when sailing through Wuxia Gorge. Thanks to humidity and abundant rainfall, the village is favorable for crispy plum and orange growing. It features 186.7 ha of crispy plums and 120 ha of oranges, and the revenue generated by the fruit industry reached over 63 million yuan (about 9.7 million U. S. dollars) last year.
How to further improve the cultural quality and connotation of Ganyuan Village? In 2020, the Publicity Department of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee and Chongqing Municipal Education Commission co-launched the event Ten Schools to Beautify a Hundred Cooperative Villages with Art. The Academy of Public Art, SCFAI, which is expected to support Ganyuan Village, tried to figure out solutions.
From the summer vacation last year, the faculty of the Academy led junior and senior students majoring in Mural Painting to visit the village multiple times to understand its geographical environment, infrastructure, and industrial layout. They finally decided to focus on the wharf there.
Creation started at the end of 2020. As the area to be painted was large, students and teachers were divided into groups. Sun Xinyu, one of the students, said, "We smoothed the wall, applied the ground, and painted the frame first. Then, we composed and shaped the pictures and applied colors." They worked several days before finishing the five giant murals.
These murals are colorful and fantastic, becoming a unique cultural logo of Ganyuan Village. "Tourists will take pictures in front of the murals after getting off the ship." Xu Peitao, Secretary of the CPC Ganyuan Village Branch, said the Village is developing rural tourism and the homestay industry, and these murals can advertise its images, which attracts visitors and improves the quality of local rural tourism.