AS the first sunlight penetrates the dense mist of Gaibao Village, seven girls are busy putting on silver jewelry and dainty headwear to prepare for their daily meeting with about 1 million Chinese fans.

For hours, they will use a smartphone to live broadcast themselves operating looms, catching fish in rice paddies and answering questions about this mountain village in Southwest China’s Guizhou Province.

While raising eyebrows and grabbing attention on China’s bustling social media, the “Seven Dong Fairies,” named after figures from local mythology, know their real job is fighting off poverty in their village.

With a loyal following, the seven have the magic touch of turning every farm produce featured in their videos into online bestsellers, from traditional Dong garments to salted fish. Last year, when local farmers were struggling with lagging sales for their ginger, the “fairies” touted them online, and the ensuing influx of orders dissolved the village’s ginger stock within a month.

“The seven fairies are part of our poverty relief drive,” said Wu Yusheng, the Party chief of the village, who came up with the fairy idea. “With their help and government support, the village was removed from the list of poverty-ridden areas last year.”

Gaibao Village, once classified as a “deeply impoverished area,” represents the grass-roots ingenuity and flexibility of China’s anti-poverty campaign as it steers into the country’s least developed areas.

Answering the central leadership’s call for “precision poverty alleviation,” which demands the adjustment of policies to suit the various local situations, such local-level wisdom is powering China’s battle to wipe out absolute poverty by 2020.

Out of the comfort zone

As the first developing country to pass the U.N. Millennium Development Goals poverty reduction mark, China has slashed the amount of its population living in poverty by more than 700 million since 1978, when the reform and opening-up drive was launched.

Its anti-poverty campaign entered the fast lane between 2013 and 2018, when about 82 million people in China’s countryside cast off poverty. At the end of 2018, China’s rural population living under the national poverty line of 2,300 yuan (US$327) in annual income was down to 16.6 million.

However, the remaining part of the mission is said to be the toughest. According to the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, nearly half of China’s impoverished population now comes from areas of extreme poverty.

Experts said that these areas feature weak industrial foundations, adverse natural environments and poorly educated populations that lack motivation. Tackling poverty there has forced China to step out of its comfort zone.

“What China’s poverty alleviation campaign faces now is the poorest of the poor, who can hardly pull themselves out of the mire by simply receiving transfusions of funds and resources,” said Sun Zhaoxia, a professor and researcher on poverty reduction at Guizhou Minzu University.

“Apart from ‘blood transfusions,’ China is building ‘blood production functions’ for these areas, with measures including developing industries and promoting education,” she said.

The Central Government had announced it would allocate 214 billion yuan from 2018 to 2020 to places where abject poverty still persists. More resources have also been promised to support various anti-poverty initiatives, including financial and ecological anti-poverty approaches and the establishment of area-specific industries.

Bring back talent

In mountainous Guizhou, stories abound of local innovation turning the outpouring of national support into self-development.

In the “deeply impoverished” county of Zheng’an, favorable tax and land policies were put in place to nurture a guitar industry, which has lifted 6,640 local people out of poverty with employment.

The agricultural county’s relationship with the musical instrument began in the 1980s, when many villagers, fleeing grinding destitution, flocked to guitar factories in other cities. Then, starting in 2013, officials endeavored to woo back some uprooted locals, as well as their investments and skills.

“We thought (back then) why not bring back home our fellows, so we would have all the technologies and skilled personnel to start a guitar industry of our own?” said Deng Zhaotao, the county’s Party chief.

“There is no fixed pattern for poverty relief. The key is encouraging the locals to do what they are good at,” said Huang Ying, chair of the women’s federation of Zhijin County in Guizhou Province.

In 2017, the China Women’s Development Foundation invited professional designers to create more marketable patterns for Zhijin’s batik and embroidery workshops. Answering the calls of the local government, many local women, after years of toiling in factories in other cities, returned home to engage in traditional craftsmanship.

(Xinhua)