The indigo dye was applied on the cotton cloth, and the childish voice echoed in the ancient alley of the village. On July 6, a Sino-Polish children’s art exchange event was held in Liyang Village of Liyang Town, Ninghai County.

Under the guidance of Huang Xiaohua, a city-level cultural envoy and associate professor from the School of Design of Ningbo Tech University, a dozen of children from Da Vinci Private Primary School of Poland experienced the traditional Chinese tie-dyeing techniques, composed and recited children’s poems, and engaged in a deep artistic dialogue and cultural exchange activity with the local children from Liyang Town.

Huang Xiaohua referred to this cultural exchange full of childlike charm as the “journey integrating three beauties”: experiencing the beauty of traditional intangible cultural heritage of tie-dyeing, appreciating the beauty of traditional Chinese dwellings in the ancient village, and feeling the beauty of Chinese poetry and Chinese language in composing children’s poems.

In the afternoon, Xue Ye, a well-known children’s literature writer and poet in China, led the children on a stroll along the “Road of Children’s Poetry” in Liyang Village, with green bricks and black tiles, experiencing the long history of the development of Chinese children’s poetry. Subsequently, a “multilingual” children’s poetry class kicked off, when the Polish children sang their school song in Polish, while children from Liyang Town presented such renowned children’s songs as “Whitewasher”.

At present, Liyang Village is presenting its golden name card of “children’s poetry” nationwide and even globally. In 2018, Xue Ye and over 50 education experts on children’s poetry from all over the country established the country’s first children’s poetry research center in the village. Over the past seven years, the Annual Conference for Chinese Children’s Poetry has permanently settled in Liyang Village, as well as the National Children’s Poetry Forum. The village has also been regarded as the birthplace of the National Children’s Poetry Competition.

Having been stationed in Liyang Village for over a year, Huang Xiaohua has explored a path of utilizing culture to promote rural revitalization. From planning the “Walking Artists Classroom” to stimulate the artistic potential of rural children to enhancing the cultural landscape of time-honored brands, he has conducted the in-depth “decoding” and “visualizing” of the local culture to make it “go global”.

“With the tie-dyeing technique as a medium, children’s poetry as a link, and the ancient villages as a stage, we aim to transform the unique traditional culture, including intangible cultural heritage skills and the traditional architecture, into a ‘global language’ that children can perceive and participate in,” said Huang Xiaohua. “We hope to take advantage of this opportunity to activate the cultural vitality of the millennium old village, and at the same time help its culture go global, allowing more international friends to learn about the stories of Ningbo and China.”