Xiayuan Village is not large, with registered population of only 400 people, most of the local young people have moved to the city, so the village is dominated by the elderly. Here, you can often see old people sunning themselves in the streets or tending vegetables and crops on their plots. You can also often see sketching artists and children near the village reservoir, on the hills and in the woods. These famous artists live the ordinary life here. Every Wednesday afternoon, female volunteers in the village can still be seen picking up garbage. Since 2017, they have been voluntarily promoting garbage sorting, thus creating a clean and tidy environment in Xia Yuan. The rhythm of the whole village is slow, like shallow ripples on a still lake.

Over the past 20 years, art has infiltrated the land and gradually blended with villagers' lives. The ceramist Zheng Yukui has long taught free classes in his studio, and the villagers of Xiayuan can more or less pinch something. When they were young, villagers Wang Baozhu and Liu Xiufen transported artists' works for exhibitions. After much contact, they also picked up brushes to paint the rural life they were familiar with. Their paintings, though untrained, are so vivid and charming that dozens of them have been collected and one has even been sold across the ocean to Germany. Chen Deming, a villager, is a carpenter. He often helps artists with carpentry, and he falls in love with wood carving. He often plays with his work in front of his house. Xingshou town strawberry is big and sweet. It is well-known in the village that Chen Deming likes to carve a big strawberry and brush on the red paint. Chen Yongzhong, deputy secretary of the village Party branch, painted a "Pine Crane Asahi Map" on the wall of the alley. He is familiar with the streets, alleys and every household in the village. He is the "living map" of Xiyuan Village. As he likes painting and calligraphy, he often communicates with artists in the village and becomes a bridge between artists and villagers. In 2016, the Xingshou Branch of Changping District Senior Cadres University was established in Xiayuan Village. Courses such as calligraphy, traditional Chinese painting, Tai chi and pottery were opened, with Chen Yongzhong as the principal. The artists in the village gave free lessons, attracting many people from the surrounding villages to come and learn.

Art and the garden, symbiotic and inseparable. Art comes from life, and life itself constitutes art. The mountains and rivers in the countryside, flowers and plants, warblers singing and butterflies dancing, dogs barking and chickens crowing, those lovely people and things, all of which are not replicable works. When art is rooted in the countryside, it seems more soulful and down-to-earth, which is a feeling you can't get in the city.

Translator: WANG Yiwen

Reviewer: ZHANG Ruochen