A fireworks display at the final match of the “Village Super League” in Rongjiang County, Guizhou Province, on July 20, 2024 Photo: IC PHOTO

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Since the widespread popularity and phenomenal success of China’s “Village Super League” (Cun Chao) and the “Village Basketball Association” (VBA) in 2023, Guizhou Province has witnessed a proliferation of rural sports initiatives, including the Village Horse Racing and the Village Runway. Concurrently, similar rural intellectual properties (IPs) have proliferated across China, culminating in the emergence of a dynamic, transregional matrix of super IPs that transcend conventional spatial and temporal boundaries. Created by and for agricultural communities, these initiatives have rapidly evolved from community-level experiments into nationally trending phenomena—driven in large part by the proactive and autonomous engagement of local villagers. It is this self-initiated participation—from organizing tournaments to cultivating cultural expression and fostering innovation in the agricultural sector—that has given rise to a distinctive constellation of rural IPs.

Evolving role of village-based IPs in Guizhou

Rural residents have emerged as the core participants and primary organizers of major rural sports events. A deep-rooted local sports culture has cultivated a robust base of amateur athletes in Guizhou, enabling broad participation in tournaments. Several branded IPs have subsequently been built by villagers, spurring a wave of team formation at the community or group level. This enthusiasm has enabled amateur players to compete with a level of passion that often surpasses that of professionals.

In Taipan Village, where the VBA originated, two-thirds of residents regularly play basketball. In the area where Cun Chao is held, more than a quarter of the population plays soccer—making it easy to mobilize broad community involvement. Volunteer referees operate independently of corporate interests, and the agricultural offseason has become a time for collective celebration.

Tens of thousands of villagers have become livestream content creators. In Cun Chao alone, over 12,500 villagers have embraced livestreaming, providing timely coverage to a global audience of soccer fans. These livestreamers, from elderly spectators to young children, never boo or jeer, but instead create an atmosphere of support that brings players a profound sense of ease and emotional intimacy with the setting. Their work has breathed new life into depopulated villages, turning them into vibrant social spaces and transforming villagers into commentators, documentarians, and digital ambassadors.

These self-driven livestreamers also serve as key ambassadors of Guizhou’s agricultural products. Riding the wave of online traffic generated by rural IPs, and with support from primary-level government training programs, many villagers have learned short video production and livestream sales techniques. These tech-savvy and business-minded “new farmers” are pioneering new models for marketing local mountain products on short video platforms. The mud courts of VBA games have spotlighted the region’s green food from fertile farmland. Live demonstrations of intangible cultural heritage cuisine, paired with opportunities for free tastings, have ignited a wave of interest in Guizhou’s culinary traditions. Prizes such as locally raised chickens and pigs lend a strong rural flavor to these events, invigorating the food service industry and raising the profile of goods with agro-product geographical indications.

Local performers play a key role in preserving and transmitting Guizhou’s ethnic cultural heritage. The captivating performances by local folk artists have made them the most outstanding cheerleaders. Their interlude shows during competitions highlight the region’s most distinctive local and multiethnic cultures. These performances transform the competitive arena into a stage for joy, justice, and virtue, offering audiences an authentic experience of Guizhou’s rustic charm. Rooted in grassroots cultural expression, such displays make intangible heritage tangible, evoking a pastoral ideal—“seeing the mountains, the waters, and remembering one’s roots”—and reflecting the public’s aspiration for a fulfilling life.

Expanding influence of rural IPs

Rural IPs have redefined and surpassed traditional notions of regional IPs. As these initiatives rapidly spread and intensify across China, some have transcended spatial and temporal limitations to become aggregated national phenomena. For instance, the once annual “Village Spring Festival Gala” has evolved into a year-round cultural series infused with themes such as ecological preservation. The VBA, which began as a rural basketball tournament, has expanded into urban areas, progressing from inter-village matches to county-level competitions and interprovincial invitationals. Meanwhile, Cun Chao is attracting international teams, blending local identity with global cultural elements and solidifying a robust, interconnected matrix of village-themed IPs.

Guizhou’s current ecosystem of rural IPs includes not only widely recognized cases like Rongjiang’s Cun Chao and Taijiang’s VBA, but also locally distinctive initiatives such as Sandu’s Village Horse Racing, Kaili’s Village Runway, Congjiang’s bullfighting competition, Leishan’s “Auntie” Basketball Tournament, Tongren’s dragon boat race, and Liping’s village songs. This momentum is mirrored nationwide—in Zhejiang Province, initiatives like village painting, village opera, and village cafés are gaining traction; Hunan has developed the Village Prize (literary award dedicated to farmers), the Village Book (a collection of poems and essays by rural literary enthusiasts), a rural-based writers’ association, a rural Chinese chess tournament, and village culinary events; Hainan is promoting village volleyball, while other provinces and municipalities (cities) are preparing village-themed table tennis and badminton tournaments.

Rural IPs leverage massive online traffic to showcase how farmers achieve prosperity through hard work, spreading positive energy by sharing the joy of the harvest with a broader audience of tourists and viewers. Sporting events contribute to cultivating civic values in rural life, reflecting the vigor and optimism of a new generation of farmers in the new era. Agricultural fairs and cultural performances serve as platforms for enhancing ecological consciousness and promoting Guizhou’s agricultural and other green products beyond the mountains and into broader markets. During tournaments like Tianjin’s Village Horse Racing, events rich in rural elements served as promotional platforms, bringing widespread attention to the region’s scenic landscape, boutique homestays, and high-quality agricultural products. The Village Café experience—sipping coffee by rice paddies or facing the sea—has captured the public’s romantic imagination.

Moreover, rural IPs have spurred the growth of emerging industries and facilitated their initial integration. These village-branded IPs emphasize demonstrative leadership and the aggregation of productive factors, creating a comprehensive advantage that enables model villages to drive the concurrent development of neighboring communities and the broader rural economy. Centered around competitive events, these initiatives have effectively stimulated tourism, offering greater exposure for local landscapes and specialty products. They have also facilitated ecological agriculture focused on crop cultivation, sales, and semi-product processing, advanced the health and wellness sector through educational tours and outdoor activities, and fostered the integrated development of health tourism by combining forest experiences with hot spring wellness.

Rural residents’ agency and transformation of local society

The active participation of rural residents has catalyzed an organic transformation in rural governance. Rural IPs are primarily people-led, driven by local initiatives and collective enthusiasm. These events foster both online and offline engagement, generating a festive atmosphere rooted in solidarity, health, and communal joy. Programs like the Village Spring Festival Gala emphasize farmer participation and rural cultural expression, significantly enhancing cultural literacy and local morale. Audiences of the Cun Chao and VBA are shaped by both primary-level self-governance and traditional clan-based social structures. Surname-based rivalries foster a heightened sense of collective honor and kinship, reinforcing villagers’ sense of belonging and identification with local culture. This dynamic reflects an enhanced capacity for self-governance and self-renewal within the rural communities hosting these events.

Diverse forms of participation have revived confidence in rural culture. Most village-based IPs stem from grassroots cultural and sporting traditions, deeply embedded in regional heritage. In Shengzhou City of Zhejiang, nearly every resident can perform traditional Yue Opera, while village cafés flourish in repurposed barns. The VBA aligns with ethnic festivals like the Harvest Festival, which fell on the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, and the success of Village Horse Racing is rooted in the Shui people’s equestrian traditions. As a grassroots performance platform, the Village Spring Festival Gala showcases rural life, speaks in local dialects, sings of rural affection, and dances to village rhythms. The vibrant soccer matches of the Cun Chao have brought a hopeful new lifestyle to the countryside. Many traditional cultural and sporting activities, once dismissed as outdated or insular, have now gained widespread popularity across social circles, revealing their vitality and inclusiveness.

Viral exposure of local products has positioned villagers as direct beneficiaries of this phenomenon. Rural IPs have enhanced farmers’ economic status, contributing to both individual prosperity and collective recognition. Amid the sweeping changes driven by cultural influence, primary-level governments have invested resources, while the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has decentralized authority accordingly, generating substantial attention economies. Despite the low commercial profile of the events themselves, mechanisms such as shareholding dividends, land asset revitalization, employment, and cooperative ventures have enhanced rural collective incomes—transforming traditional sentiments of nostalgia and attachment into tangible wealth. 

The rise of rural IPs has contributed to fostering a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, particularly in ethnic regions. Events like the Cun Chao and VBA have attracted tourists from across the country to Guizhou for cultural and sport exchange. The proliferation of distinct village-based IPs nationwide serves as a model for intercultural engagement, laying the emotional groundwork for building a shared national spirit and showcasing the exchanges and integration of all ethnic groups in the new era.  

The central role of villagers in cultural production exemplifies rural China’s pursuit of common prosperity and offers a localized expression of Chinese modernization. As the rural IP ecosystem expands, infrastructure development and professionalization are accelerating. Integration of advanced technologies such as AI and digital platforms will extend these initiatives to more villages, complement heritage preservation, and contribute to balanced urban-rural development. Enhanced collaboration across rural IPs is expected to follow.

Wang Weijie is a professor from the Institute of Ethnology at Guizhou Minzu University.

Edited by REN GUANHONG