The Role of "Female Captain": Alumna Zhong Xian's Struggle and Sentiments in Rural Revitalization

(Reported by Cai Jianping) Recently, the results of the first "National Rural Revitalization Youth Pioneers" jointly organized by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs were announced. “Female Captain” Zhong Xian, an alumnus of CUG, received the award. Zhong Xian, a graduate from the Department of Industrial Design of the School of Mechanical Engineering and Electronic Information in 2011, is now the executive director of Hainan Qionghai Xiangban B&B Travel Service Co., Ltd and the member of the 14th Qionghai Municipal Committee of the CPPCC.

Strong cultural atmosphere in “Hello Captain” B&B

Zhong Xian was born in 1988 in Yutang Village, Chaolie Village Committee, Boao Town, Qionghai City, Hainan Province. When she was admitted to China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) in 2007, villagers from the Chaolie Village Committee spontaneously donated to Zhong Xian for her college education, and leaders from Bo'ao Town Government personally came to her home to give financial encouragement, and these things have always been in Zhong Xian's mind.

When she came to CUG, Zhong Xian studied hard and achieved excellent results. She was the national inspirational scholarship winner and university-level "outstanding student model". She actively participated in science and technology innovation and was brave to undertake social work, such as the editor-in-chief of the newspaper of School of Mechanical Engineering and Electronic Information, and won the "personal conduct excellence award". She was cheerful and was always active on the basketball court. She won the "Women's One-minute Shooting" championship and was the captain of the women's basketball team of the School of Mechanical Engineering and Electronic Information.

After graduating from university, Zhong Xian did not forget the expectations of the villagers and moved forward step by step towards the goal of serving her hometown and building a new countryside. In 2012, she set up her personal design studio in Guangzhou, which accumulated the start-up capital for her return to the island to establish her business. At the end of 2014, she returned to Hainan and set up Hainan Aishang Tour Products Industrial Co., Ltd. which is a cultural and creative company. In 2015, she opened a public class and volunteered to give lessons to children once a week. In 2016, she returned to her hometown Boao, and invested in Hainan Xiangban B&B Travel Service Co., Ltd., which is mainly engaged in B&B and rural cultural tourism, and created "Hello Captain" cultural creation-B&B-cultural travel industry chain.

While operating "Hello Captain" B&B, Zhong Xian actively participated in the rural culture construction, held traditional culture salon and B&B operation sharing sessions from time to time, to share the concept of rural B&B sharing and implementation experience, and to improve the life quality and cultural cultivation of the people, which not only increased the popularity of B&B, spread the new business concept, but also enriched the cultural and artistic atmosphere of Boao.

Boao Charity School, serving rural children

In 2017, Zhong Xian officially founded the Boao Public Class, which focuses on quality education. In her free time on weekends, she volunteered to give lectures to children aged 6-16 years from surrounding villages, and offered courses such as handmade cultural creation, handmade shell painting, seaside sketching, hand-painted postcards, and fun reading. Children can also read, draw, play chess by themselves and the B&B provides all materials and venues for free.

In April 2018, Zhong Xian taught the children to create handmade shell paintings in Boao Public Class

The Boao Public Class has lasted for nearly 5 years now, held 60 times and benefited about 920 students. In 2018, it was highly recognized and supported by the government, and was officially awarded the "Youth House", "Boao Public Class" and "Boao Culture and Art Exchange Center".

In 2019, with the strong support of the Qionghai Municipal Committee, Zhong Xian created the "Colorful Hut" project under "Hello Captain", which is a shared cultural art space and open to local people and tourists for free.

The "Colorful Hut" is built in the sea view penthouse on the top floor of "Hello Captain" B&B, with a total area of about 120 square meters, and can accommodate about 40 people. The "Colorful Hut" is supported by the "Road Library" project of Hainan Provincial Library; together with the books donated by friends, there are about 1,500 books, one third of which are books and picture books for teenagers and children.

Give full play to her strengths to lead the way in entrepreneurship and chasing dreams.

In order to lead more young people to participate in entrepreneurship, in 2018, Zhong Xian created a new rural B&B shared business model, i.e. with a single room as a unit, recruit shared hosts for some young people who want to start a business but do not have sufficient conditions. This business model has not only broken the situation of competition without cooperation between peers, greatly improved the turnover, but also driven more young people to start a business together to get rich, benefiting more than 600 people. At present, she is still practicing and exploring the operation of this model.

Design works by Zhong Xian

Zhong Xian gives full play to her design expertise to serve the revitalization of rural economy. The betel leaf series of creative products designed by her won the bronze medal in Hainan Tourism Commodity Competition, the finalist award in China Tourism Commodity Competition, and the excellent award in Hainan Environmental Protection Bag Creative Design Competition.

After winning the prize, Zhong Xian directly contacted farmers. She planned to set up a betel leaf products workshop in the village and train farmers to make betel leaf products by hand for free of charge. The farmers complete semi-finished products processing, and she is responsible for the acquisition and sales, so as to promote farmers' employment and increase farmers' income.

At present, all products have been for trial sale in B&B, Taobao, Tik Tok and other platforms, which are quite popular and appreciated by consumers. In the future, she will continue to improve the design and development of products, go online for global sales in an all-round way, and make Hainan's cultural characteristics go global.

In the first half of 2020, during the fight against COVID-19, “Hello Captain” distributed free masks to guests before closing down. In July, 2021, Henan suffered heavy rain and flood, and Zhong Xian actively donated money for disaster relief.

Realizing the entrepreneurship dream and playing a role in rural revitalization

The story of "Female Captain" Zhong Xian serving her hometown and revitalizing the countryside spread in Hainan. In 2018 Spring Festival, "Hello Captain" B&B was elected in the Program "Find a B&B for Spring Festival" of Hainan TV, which was reported by Hainan TV, Tourism TV and other media.

In 2019, Zhong Xian was rated as "China B&B Fashion People", and in 2020, "Hello Captain" B&B was rated as Bronze B&B in the Hainan Rural B&B Rating.

In January 2020, as a rural youth representative in Qionghai City, Zhong Xian participated in a forum organized by Hainan Provincial Committee on the theme of "Building the B&B Brand to Help Rural Revitalization", and delivered a speech. In April 2020, she was selected as one of "Nanhai Series" Nanhai Local Talents of Hainan Province and was interviewed by Qionghai TV and Hainan TV.

In July 2021, Zhong Xian participated in Hainan Free Trade Port Entrepreneurship Competition and won the second prize in Qionghai Division.

In 2021, "Hello Captain" cultural creation - B&B - cultural tourism industry chain project participated in the 2021 Free Trade Port Entrepreneurship Competition and won the second prize in the Qionghai Region. In December of the same year, Zhong Xian was selected as the first "National Rural Revitalization Youth Pioneer".

Currently, Zhong Xian is employed as an expert in B&B tourism standardization in Qionghai. Behind each honor, there is Zhong Xian's love for the motherland and hometown. On the road of rural revitalization in Hainan, she left her solid footprints. She hopes that more college graduates will take root at the grassroots level, dedicate their youth and wisdom, and realize the value of life in the journey of rural revitalization. (Source: CUG News)