Panshui village in Fengyang county, Qingyuan city, Guangdong province, is home to both old and new houses built in a classic style. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Liu Jianming has made the filming of short videos to promote his hometown part of his daily routine.
"Video-streaming provides a good platform to showcase our rural lifestyle and market local farm produce like fresh vegetables," says Liu, who co-owns a homestay in Shuixi village in Guangdong province's Qingyuan city.
"And our homestay has been attracting more guests."
Qingyuan's government initiated a project to select spokespeople such as Liu in its villages in August. They publicize rural sceneries, local specialties and historical sites on social media.
The city government recently entered into a strategic cooperation with the Chinese short-video app, Kuaishou. It calls the move an innovative experiment to enhance publicity.
Over 300 spokespeople have been designated. They open Kuaishou accounts, receive basic training and share short videos about their villages.
Outstanding contributors will be selected to join higher-level trainings in different fields like intangible cultural heritage and farm produce.
The city government's official Kuaishou account promotes Qingyuan's tourism resources, such as cultural sites and hot springs.
Kuaishou is also making the city's promotional videos and encouraging local users to film short videos about local customs and traditions.
Qingyuan is located on the border of Guangdong with Hunan province and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
It takes 24 minutes by high-speed train to Guangdong's capital, Guangzhou.
The city is a major agricultural producer. The China Geographical Indications Industry Association recognized its chickens in 2010. Residents have raised chickens for over a millennium, and the local variety is known for its tender and flavorful meat.
A butcher sells dried beef at a marketplace in Panshui. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Qingyuan welcomed about 40 million tourists, 30 percent of whom were overnight visitors, last year, a 14 percent increase over 2016.
Tourism income increased nearly 17 percent to 31.5 billion yuan ($4.54 billion).
About 1.1 million of Qingyuan's 3.84 million residents are registered Kuaishou users. Over 200,000 are active daily, according to the company.
Kuaishou's vice-president, Long An, expresses confidence that short videos will hone the spokespeople's new media skills.
"Over 10 million Kuaishou users have made money by livestreaming or marketing products in the past year," he says.
"Our platform is playing an important role in improving individual lives, boosting industries and spreading positive energy."
Long says the company will give full play to its expertise in artificial intelligence, big data analysis and advanced technologies to boost innovation, communication and mutual understanding among the users of Kuaishou.
He says he also hopes that influencers on Kuaishou will support public service activities and contribute to poverty alleviation in their hometowns.
Yi Xuan, who's in charge of government affairs in Kuaishou, says: "The creativity and quality of short videos made by users in Qingyuan are above average among all regions. These short videos attract more "likes" and hits. And that means that other users are interested in what they share in the videos."
She says influencers in Qingyuan have large fan bases. They range from singers to craftspeople, who sculpt clay figurines.
It's part of Kuaishou's project, Discover the Beauty of China, which aims to promote distinctive resources in China's small cities and counties, and to improve local economies.
The company has also partnered with Yongsheng, a county below the poverty line in Lijiang, Yunnan province.
Yi believes such short videos will help areas under the poverty line address the problem of poor communication with other places by, for example, promoting local farm produce and showcasing local lifestyles.
Kuaishou plans to select 100 potential users in the Chinese countryside within three years and invite them to Beijing for professional training in such areas as marketing to enable them to generate income from video-sharing.
"Our selection of government partners is largely dependent on the regions' user bases, and user-generated content is important," she says.
Over 15 million short videos are uploaded on Kuaishou every day, she says. Many are about people's ordinary lives.
The Kuaishou program shows that the mobile-internet era makes it increasingly convenient for people from different regions to create mutual understanding.
And it creates job opportunities and business cooperation, especially in developing areas.
