Shanghai Jiangnan Rural Cultural Inheritance and Innovation Forum Convened
On the afternoon of March 31st, 2023, Shanghai Jiangnan Rural Cultural Inheritance and Innovation Forum was convened in Wufang Village, Qingcun Town, Fengxian District, Shanghai. The forum was sponsored by the Shanghai Federation of Social Science Associations and the Publicity Department of the CPC Fengxian District Committee and co-organized by Shanghai Rural Economy Academy. The guests, experts, scholars and rural representatives discussed the “New Jiangnan Landscape” and the Most Jiangnan Countryside based on Shanghai as an international metropolis.
Sun Lei, former Director of Shanghai Municipal Agricultural and Rural Committee and President of Shanghai Rural Economy Academy, observed that to promote rural culture, we need to base on rural revitalization and closely integrate the promotional effort with the economic and social development of the region to strengthen the impetus and vitality of rural cultural development; we need to combine it with enriching the life of villagers and make villagers the masters of rural culture; we need to uphold fundamental principles and break new ground, cultivate and utilize rural cultural backbone talents, and build a beautiful and harmonious countryside that is desirable to live and work in.
Li Tiangang, a professor of the School of Philosophy of Fudan University, said that the Jiangnan region has always been rich in economic, cultural and human resources. An international metropolis in Jiangnan, Shanghai also enjoys abundant natural resources. In the future, we should focus on the concept of “supporting rural areas with urban development”, promoting the advanced experience and practice of Wufang Village, concentrating our efforts in modernity and tradition, fashion and art, and creating more and more “New Jiangnan” models.
Zhang Xueliang, Managing Director of the Yangtze River Delta and Yangtze River Economic Belt Development Research Institute, professor from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, advised that we focus on “the Five Paths for Cultural Revitalization in Jiangnan” to inherit “the most Jiangnan” culture under the rural revitalization program. The Jiangnan culture can be revitalized through digital empowerment, scenario display, industrial development, market-oriented allocation and path exploration. “We can use the power of the market to give play to cultural vitality and promote rural revitalization.”
Li Yajuan, an associate professor at the Teaching and Research Department of China Executive Leadership Academy in Pudong, focused on “the value and path of the Jiangnan culture and rural revitalization in the Yangtze River Delta”. She stressed that culture is the foundation of rural revitalization. In the urban-rural integrated development, we should fully release and highlight the value in rural culture; we should create effective narratives of sentimental value so that the Jiangnan culture can become a “cultural benchmark” to measure the rural revitalization of the Yangtze River Delta; we should make good use of “cultural governance” and build the “cultural consensus” to promote rural revitalization in the Yangtze River Delta.
All the attendees are agreed that Shanghai’s rural culture has distinct traits of the Jiangnan culture. In the process of implementing the rural revitalization strategy, Shanghai’s rural areas have embarked on a journey to transform the ecological and aesthetic values of rural culture into the economic and industrial values by exploring the cultural resources in Jiangnan and relying on Shanghai’s unique market advantage. Successful practices and their modelling have emerged one after another, which are worthy of continuous and in-depth studies and promotion.
