Decoding the Prosperity Code of Tangxi: A Model of "Harmonious and Beautiful Village"
In order to deeply study and implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress, fully implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on the “Thousands of Exemplary Villages and Tens of Thousands of Renovated Villages” Project [1], and assist in rural revitalization, on December 25, 2023, Researcher Peng Haihong of the Institute of Marxism Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) led a 26-member research group to Tangxi Village, Tangxi Town, Linping District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. The group conducted a thematic investigation on rural revitalization to deeply explore and understand the practical paths for achieving common prosperity in rural areas and building "harmonious and beautiful villages" (hemei xiangcun). Tangxi Village attached great importance to this research activity; Tang Guobiao, Secretary of the Village Party Committee, personally received the group and arranged the investigation.
Shen Qichao, Deputy Director of the Tangxi Village Committee and Secretary of the Communist Youth League Committee, accompanied the research group on a site visit to Tangxi Village. Located in the northeastern part of Hangzhou, Tangxi Village is the heart of the thousand-year-old ancient town of Tangxi. To the north, it overlooks the Grand Canal, a World Cultural Heritage site; to the south, it borders the Chaoshan Provincial Scenic Area and the Dingshan Lake Marsh, an original ecological wetland. The Tang-Chao Path "Water Rhythm" scenic line runs through the village from north to south. The village has a total area of 4 square kilometers, comprising 13 natural villages and 30 villager groups, with a total of 1,020 households and a population of 4,285. It is a typical Jiangnan "land of fish and rice" and a national "One Village, One Product" [2] demonstration village. By the end of 2022, Tangxi Village’s collective assets reached 206 million yuan, village-level collective operating income reached 8.13 million yuan, and per capita disposable income for farmers reached 59,000 yuan.
Figure 1: The research group visiting Tangxi Village
The research group visited Tangxi Village’s "Covenant Tree." It is understood that at the beginning of the "Beautiful Village" construction, the village’s "two committees" [3] cadres invited Party members, villager group leaders, and villager representatives many times to collect opinions on the preliminary plan for building a "Beautiful Tangxi." Many plans were discussed and decided upon under this tree. It was during the process of building a harmonious and beautiful village that Tangxi Village gradually explored a set of democratic deliberation, consultation, decision-making, and disclosure systems suited to its own conditions. The village aimed to collect public opinion as extensively as possible, truly "asking the people about their needs, their wisdom, and the effectiveness of policies," thereby finding the "greatest common denominator" of villager sentiment. In 2015, Tangxi Village drafted a Villager Covenant, which was revised again in 2018; this "Transparent System" (yangguang zhidu) was also written into the covenant. Subsequently, Tangxi Village named this ancient camphor tree the "Covenant Tree" to constantly remind Party members and cadres to maintain their original aspiration of serving the people heart and soul, while hoping this ancient tree would continue to witness the beautiful transformation of Tangxi Village.
Figure 2: The research group visiting the "Covenant Tree"
Next, the research group followed the cultural corridor to trace the development history of Tangxi Village. In 2003, the former Caijiadai Village and Sanguantang Village merged to form Tangxi Village. At that time, the village's collective economic income was only 58,000 yuan, ranking third from the bottom in the town—it was a well-known poor village. Over the past 20 years, under the leadership of the village "two committees," Tangxi Village has implemented a series of measures such as consolidating consensus, making good use of collective assets and resources, and creating a "Beautiful Village." This has allowed the village's collective economy to grow from weak to strong and from small to large, carving out a new path for common prosperity in rural areas. Tangxi Village jumped from being a "dirty" and "poor" village to becoming a "bellwether" for "Beautiful Village" construction and a "vanguard" of rural revitalization. In 2023, Tangxi Village’s collective operating income reached 9.3268 million yuan, and its collective assets reached 217 million yuan.
Figure 3: Brief history of Tangxi Village
The five "Thousand-Person" banquets represent Tangxi Village’s "good governance code" for cultivating a collective consciousness among villagers and achieving effective governance. Since 2016, Tangxi Village has consecutively held five unique large-scale "Thousand-Person" series activities: the "Thousand-Family Banquet," the "Thousand-Blessing Banquet," the "Thousand-Longevity Banquet," the "Thousand-Wedding Banquet," and the "Thousand-Family Photo." At the "Thousand-Family Banquet," each household sends a representative to a roundtable meeting to discuss the village's development plans, mediate neighborhood disputes, and share stories of pioneer models, working together to provide ideas for collective development. The "Thousand-Blessing Banquet" invites women from 1,221 households to showcase the style of women in the New Era, motivating them to play their role as "half the sky" [4] by handling the "two small matters" of creating "Beautiful Courtyards" and waste sorting. The "Thousand-Longevity Banquet" for the Double Ninth Festival [5] invites elderly residents over 65 to provide them with practical services and care, allowing them to share the fruits of Tangxi Village’s development. The "Thousand-Wedding Banquet" invites couples registered between 2000 and 2019 to inject momentum into "beautiful industries" and vitality into a happy life. The "Thousand-Family Photo" involves a total mobilization of more than 4,000 villagers for a group photograph. Through these five activities, the villagers have become more united and motivated, gaining a sense of happiness, gain, and identity. This has laid a solid foundation for coordinating neighborhood relations, bridging the gap between cadres and the masses, and advancing central work, creating a festive atmosphere of stability, unity, and harmony.
Figure 4: Research group viewing the "Thousand-Family Photo"
In recent years, Tangxi Village has actively promoted the development of a "Beautiful Economy" by establishing "Common Prosperity Workshops," innovating common prosperity crowdfunding models, building Rural Common Prosperity Academies, and creating Red study-tour bases [6], thus continuously strengthening the loquat industry and developing rural tourism. Currently, the "Common Prosperity Paradise" has completed more than ten amusement projects, including go-karts, zip-lining, jungle trekking, kayaking, boating, BBQ, and camping bases. During holidays, the daily foot traffic reaches tens of thousands, with daily operating income as high as 60,000 yuan. Known as the "Number One Town for Loquats in China," Tangxi Village has firmly grasped the "Golden Business Card" of loquats as a "fruit for getting rich." Using modern agriculture as a lever, it has strengthened the loquat industry and combined loquat picking with agritainment (nongjiale), forming a series of modern leisure tourism and folk culture experience projects. Beyond loquats, Tangxi Village is also building a "Four Seasons Orchard."
Accompanied by Zhu Weiyang, the research group visited the Common Prosperity Paradise and the Four Seasons Orchard. It is understood that in May 2023, Tangxi Village introduced the "Mr. Strawberry" brand to build a Future Village Strawberry Garden. Currently, 100,000 strawberry plants are cultivated using a suspended soilless cultivation model, effectively improving quality and efficiency. The greenhouses are clean and orderly, with humidity, temperature, and ventilation all managed via a mobile APP, demonstrating the charm of modern agriculture. In the future, Tangxi Village will further develop high-end fruit cultivation for loquats, blueberries, and crispy persimmons, which, together with the Common Prosperity Study-Tour Center and Paradise, will build a modern agricultural base integrating picking, sightseeing, and research.
Figure 5: Research group visiting the Common Prosperity Strawberry Orchard
Following the visit, Tang Guobiao, Secretary of the Tangxi Village Party Committee, along with members of the "two committees," held a symposium with the research group at the Tangxi Village Common Prosperity Study-Tour Center.
Figure 6: Symposium and exchange
Tang Guobiao introduced the experience and practices of Tangxi Village in rural revitalization and common prosperity from three aspects: the capacity building of village cadres, grassroots governance methods, and industrial planning for the village collective economy. He highlighted the "Five Thousand-Person Banquet" activities, detailing how Tangxi Village aims to improve villager cohesion through diverse organizational forms, integrating the resources of "鄉賢" (xiāngxián - local sages or gentry) [7] to enhance the collective’s organizing power and ensure orderly grassroots governance. Tangxi Village will continue to implement modern management concepts, fully tap into rural resources, and leverage the advantages of the new type of collective economy. It will focus on internal cohesion and autonomy, using the optimization of industrial spatial layout as a lever to further expand the village-level collective operating income, striving to exceed 15 million yuan by 2025.
Figure 7: Experts from the research group speaking at the symposium
On behalf of the research group, Researcher Peng Haihong thanked Secretary Tang Guobiao and Tangxi Village for their hospitality, introduced the group members, and summarized Tangxi Village’s experience in "Five Manifestations." First, the development of the collective economy and rural revitalization practice fully manifest the Party’s leadership, with Party organizations playing the role of a leadership core and a "fighting fortress" [8]. Second, it fully manifests that industrial revitalization is the key to rural revitalization. Through the integration of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, and the combination of production, education, research, agriculture, culture, and tourism, a solid industrial foundation is provided. Third, it manifests that the revitalization of talent is the basis of rural revitalization; Tangxi’s leadership is young and capable, ensuring successors for the cause. Fourth, it manifests organizational revitalization; whether through formal organizations (Party, cooperatives, women’s federations, etc.) or the "organization of hearts," it has successfully unified the people. Fifth, it manifests effective rural governance, where the "two committees" have used diverse platforms to organize all demographic layers—the elderly, the strong, the young, and the children—to jointly promote the collective economy and "harmonious and beautiful villages."
Research group member and First-Class Writer of the China Writers Association, Wang Hongjia, pointed out that rural revitalization cannot succeed without leaders; a village leader with sustained confidence and a fighting spirit is a significant asset. As Zhejiang is the most developed region for private enterprises in China, Tangxi Village, under the guidance of its leaders, has leveraged Zhejiang's characteristics of strong autonomy and "wealth hidden among the people" to tap into the resources of local sages. He suggested that in the future, Tangxi Village should focus more on cultivating local talent and improving the cultural literacy of villagers. Under the new era background, it is necessary to profoundly grasp the significance of the "Two Combinations," [9] especially the "Second Combination," to consolidate the foundation of cultural confidence. Strengthening rural spiritual civilization and achieving cultural revitalization is the only way for the development of all Chinese villages in the future. The Common Prosperity Study-Tour Center is a highlight of Tangxi Village and an excellent platform for training. In the future, the village should further extend the functions of this platform to enhance the endogenous power of rural revitalization.
Researcher Zheng Yougui from the Institute of Contemporary China of CASS affirmed Tangxi Village’s practices from the perspectives of enhancing farmers’ agency and cultivating professional managers. First, he noted that focusing on farmers’ participation is the most important experience. Rural revitalization is for the farmers and built by the farmers. Neglecting their agency and over-relying on external forces would lead to "hollowing out." The broad masses of farmers are the fundamental force, and their enthusiasm and creativity are the endogenous drivers. The most important part of this is the "revitalization of the heart." He suggested deepening the theory of the "Five Thousand-Person Banquets" from an academic perspective, promoting the practical experience widely, and using modern media like films and TV dramas to share these excellent experiences. Second, the emphasis on cultivating professional managers is a distinctive feature of Tangxi Village's management philosophy. Introducing professionals to do professional work and "operating a village like a company" is a beneficial practice for effective modern governance.
(Written by: Gan Tingting, Lu Fengyi, and Peng Haihong of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)