Xinhua News Agency Jishishan, Gansu, Xunhua, Qinghai, September 13th title: Crossing the junction of Gansu and Qinghai - the poverty alleviation story of the Baoan and Salar people
Xinhua News Agency reporter
At the junction of Gansu and Qinghai, there is a series of peaks stretching for 50 kilometers. , legend has it that Nuwa piled up stones, and people call it "Jishishi Mountain". This is also the iconic mountain range that transitions from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the Loess Plateau. On both sides of the
mountain, one is Jishi Mountain in Gansu and Xunhua in Qinghai on the other. The two counties are home to ethnic groups with a population of about 20,000 and 101,000 - the Baoan ethnic group and the Salar ethnic group, both of which belong to the 28 minor ethnic groups in my country.
These two ethnic groups, which have lived along the Yellow River for hundreds of years, have been mainly engaged in farming and animal husbandry for generations, and many people live in poverty. Since the start of a new round of poverty alleviation, with the support of the party and the government, what changes have taken place between the two ethnic groups with adjacent mountains and rivers and similar customs?
This is the Xunhua section of the Yellow River (unknown) taken in Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Qinghai Province Man-machine photo, taken on September 9). Photographed by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Gang
This is part of the mountain range at the junction of Gansu and Qinghai (drone photo, taken on August 9). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xing Guangli
"Thousands of times tempered" and "full of spiciness"
On the hot stove, the steel sheets used to make the security waist knives burned red. The sweat on Ma Ga's temples dripped onto the hot blade, making a "squeaking" sound. He is 41 years old, of medium height and dark skin. He has been practicing knife surgery for more than 20 years.
"My family was poor when I was a child. When I was a teenager, I started to earn a living by making knives with my father. I used to work for more than ten hours a day and more than 300 days a year." He lives in Dahejia Town, Baoan Dongxiang Salar Autonomous County, Jishishan, Gansu Province. Maga Zhuma is the inheritor of the Baoan people's waist knife forging skills.
The three villages of Dadun, Meipo and Ganhetan in the town are known as the "Three Baoan Villages" and are the gathering areas for the Baoan people. The waist knife is the treasure of the Baoan clan.
"Knife making is hard work, but the waist knives can be exchanged for the herdsmen's cattle and sheep, and can also be bought and sold to supplement the family income." In Ma Gazhuma's memory, in the past, the only way for people to make a living in the village seemed to be hammering and making knives.
In the past, a waist knife required dozens of processes and was made purely by hand, which took weeks or even months. In 2006, the Baoan waist knife forging technique was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists.
Nowadays, processes such as grinding and polishing can be completed by machines. In Ma Gazhuma's small courtyard, next to the dilapidated earthen stove and rusty hammer, there are brand-new knife-making equipment and standardized operating tables.
"I have recruited more than 50 apprentices, most of them from poor households, and some with disabilities, so that they can learn a skill that can help them get out of poverty stably and pass on national skills." He said.
Workers forge waist knives in the poverty alleviation workshop run by Ma Ga Zhuma (photo taken on August 10). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xing Guangli
In recent years, with the support of the government and through the establishment of poverty alleviation workshops, this characteristic handicraft industry has released significant poverty alleviation benefits.
The Yellow River flows through Xunhua, Qinghai Province. The Danxia landforms on both sides of the river bank are lined with thousands of cliffs.
In the eyes of outsiders, this is a majestic mountain and river that makes people yearn for, but the Salar people who have lived here for a long time often look at the river and sigh. The river bed is too low to divert water for irrigation, so it has been known as "dry circulation" since ancient times. Xunhua Salar Autonomous County is also included in the concentrated contiguous poverty-stricken areas of Liupan Mountain.
58-year-old Ma Rezhe Bu is a villager in Xinjian Village, Xunhua County. His wrinkled face was like the land under his feet that lacked water. At the end of 2015, as a poor household, he received more than 10,000 yuan in household industry support funds.
"I don't make any money growing wheat, and I don't have the skills. What can I do?" He was confused. The village cadre helped him purchase a few kilograms of pepper seeds, which he planted in his 3 acres of land.
This kind of slender, thread-like pepper has thin skin, thick flesh, bright red color and mellow flavor. "Chili peppers were not easy to sell in the past, but now the owners of ramen restaurants come to the village to buy them, and the first crop can be sold for 25 yuan per catty." Ma Rezhebu said that with three crops a year, the annual income from one acre of land is at least 5,000 yuan. In Xinjian Village, more than 20 poor Salar households like Marezhebu have grown peppers.
In Xunhua, the pepper planting area has now reached 25,000 acres.From "I want to plant" to "I want to plant", the hot line pepper planting has given tens of thousands of Salar people a taste of the sweetness.
On the way out of poverty, the fragrance of chili peppers lingers.
Villagers in Tiangai Village, Qingshui Township, Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Qinghai Province, sort through the picked peppers (photo taken on September 9). Photographed by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Gang
Villagers in Tiangai Village, Qingshui Township, Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Qinghai Province, are picking peppers (photographed on September 10). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Gang
Going out to start a business and returning home to start a business
In Xiakewa Village, Xunhua County, the reporter met Ma Jinjin, a young man from the Salar ethnic group, who was busy building a house.
"I have been home for more than four months this time, just to build a house, but my parents' wishes have been fulfilled. They have suffered from poverty for half their lives." Behind Ma Jinshan, on one side is a fire-kang bungalow where he has lived for almost 30 years, and on the other side is a high-rise building. A 3-story building.
28-year-old Ma Jinshan is thin and fair. He has worked in ramen restaurants in Shaanxi, Zhejiang and other places for more than ten years. He first worked as a waiter in other people's ramen restaurants and later opened his own shop.
opened a noodle shop in Hangzhou four years ago with an investment of 150,000 yuan, of which 50,000 yuan was paid by himself, and the other 100,000 yuan was industry-to-household funds and poverty alleviation entrepreneurship loans provided by the Xunhua County Government to support the ramen industry.
"The cost was recovered that year, and the profit after one year was about 200,000 yuan." Ma Jinshan took out his Hangzhou "citizen card" and showed it to reporters. He said that he also wants to open a few more noodle restaurants and send his children to school in Hangzhou in the future.
In the village where Ma Jinshan is located, 60% of the people now eat a bowl of "ramen". Now, ramen has become the leading industry for the Salar people to escape poverty.
"Change the function of ramen from subsistence to livelihood, and livelihood to business." Han Zhongyong, deputy director of the Xunhua County Poverty Alleviation and Development Bureau, said that through skills training and other methods, more than 7,000 ramen restaurants have opened out of Xunhua County. It is located in more than 100 cities across the country, exporting more than 40,000 laborers, with an annual per capita income of more than 50,000 yuan.
National costumes hang on the walls, waist knives are displayed in the windows, and yellowed literature is placed on the bookshelves... In a courtyard in Ganhetan Village, Jishishan County, there is such a Baoan Folklore Museum. The owner is Ma Xiuqin, a Baoan woman. Perhaps because she has been engaged in dance work for many years, the 55-year-old has a slim figure and always has a smile on her face.
When she was 15 years old, Ma Xiuqin, as the only representative of the Baoan ethnic group, took a two-day train to Beijing to attend an ethnic minority performance at the Great Hall of the People. Ma Xiuqin, who had worked hard outside and devoted herself to art all her life, returned to the village in 2013, contracted an acre of land, and opened the Akeke Farmhouse Compound, not only building a museum but also a clothing workshop.
"In the Baoan language, 'Akeke' means top-notch. Baoan women have learned embroidery since childhood and are good at it. They sew traditional Baoan clothes here and find jobs without leaving the village," she said.
In 2019, the workshop sold 70,000 yuan of vests, trousers, belts and other Baoan national costumes. Rural tourism has become popular in recent years, and the farmhouse she opened specializes in Baoan cuisine.
After 30 years away from home, Ma Xiuqin feels that the biggest change in her hometown is education. In the past, girls were married off at an early age and had no good prospects. "Now many students in the village have gone to college and need ethnic costumes. My clothing workshop can help."
This is Ma Xiuqin's Akeke Farmhouse Compound (photographed on August 10). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xing Guangli
"New fashion" and "constant discussion"
"If we go by the previous 'market', my younger son will definitely have to borrow debt to marry a wife." Han Zhongming, a farmer from the Salar ethnic group, said with emotion when talking about the happy event at home.
He is a villager in Yirihai Village, Xunhua County. Last year he married wives for his two sons. "The money spent on two weddings was not enough to hold one wedding in the past!"
Comparison was once popular in Xunhua County. The cost of wedding gifts and favors increased, and some families often fell back into poverty as a result.
"Before 2018, the average wedding gift of the Salar people reached 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, and a funeral cost 150,000 to 150,000 yuan. They really can't afford to get married, and they can't afford to die." A county cadre who participated in the work of changing customs Han Qinggong said.
Now all villages in Xunhua County have established red and white committees. By formulating charters and setting up voluntary supervisors, the bad habit of holding weddings and weddings in a big way has been basically eliminated.
Ma Hongtao, deputy head of Xunhua County, said that the implementation of changing customs has consolidated the results of poverty alleviation, reduced the burden, and made life more promising.
Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Qinghai Province (drone photo, taken on September 10). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Gang
For Sister Zhou, a poor woman from the Baoan ethnic group, the turning point in her life also came from a new local arrangement.
Sister Zhou, 40, is illiterate and lives in Ganhetan Village, Jishishan County. Six years ago, her husband passed away unexpectedly, putting her and her two school-going children's lives in trouble.
"The whole village brought small benches to the village committee for a meeting. The village cadres discussed my family's difficulties at the meeting, and the villagers gave me ideas." Sister Zhou said.
The meeting Sister Zhou talked about was called the "Village Information Meeting", which is a poverty alleviation method promoted by Jishishan County.
"It is held right on the village. There is no time limit. All the villagers can speak and communicate and discuss all matters big and small." said Ma Dengzhuo, leader of Bao Village in Ganhetan Village.
"Now that my family has raised cattle, I have worked in a poverty alleviation workshop. My eldest son has gone to the county's free skills training class to learn cooking." Sister Zhou said that now her family has been lifted out of poverty, and two new houses have been built next to the old house. "I want to save it for my eldest son to get a wife."
htmlOn August 26, the village’s third villagers’ informed meeting this year was held. It was raining that day, but Sister Zhou came to the village committee door early with a small bench because she had some new questions to ask everyone and wanted to help others.Jishishan County and Xunhua County face each other across the Yellow River. The lives of the Baoan and Salar people have undergone tremendous changes here. In the big test of poverty alleviation, the two places handed in their answer sheets: Xunhua County was lifted out of poverty in September 2018; Jishishan County was lifted out of poverty at the end of 2019. (Reporters Xiong Zhengyan, Ma Sha, Luo Xiaofei, Chen Weiwei)
This is Ma Xiuqin’s Akeke Farmhouse Compound (photographed on August 10). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xing Guangli
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