From “Hoe in the Day, Pen at Night” to “Over 300 Million Yuan in Financing,” How Did Yudong Village Achieve IP Co-abundance
Folk paintings, agricultural innovators, intellectual property alliances… If you associate these terms with the countryside, what picture would form in your mind? Over 200 trademarks, more than 1,000 copyright registrations, over 600 patents, patent-secured financing amounting to over 300 million yuan… If you associate this data of intellectual property with the countryside, would you be amazed and astonished?
This village is Yudong Village in Keqiang District, Quzhou City, located in the western part of Zhejiang Province. Here, “one painting” drives an industry, enriching the people of the region; a group of “agri-entrepreneurs,” using intellectual property as a link, form alliances and build platforms, transforming “IP” into “assets,” achieving a vivid transformation of “one painting” and painting a magnificent picture of rural revitalization.
One Painting” Drives “One Industry
Green mountains and clear waters, white walls and gray tiles, cobblestone roads, farmer’s paintings… Walking into Yudong Village in Gouxī Township, Keqiang District, known as the “First Farmer’s Painting Village in China,” is like stepping into a slowly unfolding pastoral art scroll. The fresh and elegant Huizhou-style architecture contrasts harmoniously with the vibrant and bright farmer’s painting murals.
Some winning Yudong peasant paintings
At the entrance of Yudong Village, nestled against Luohan Mountain, a uniquely designed rural Chinese art museum stands quietly. Opposite the museum, the giant rooster painting on a village house exudes a strong visual impact. “This rooster is the most representative work in our village’s farmer paintings. In the early 1970s, six farmers responded to the call of ‘bringing culture to the countryside’ and began learning painting. They ‘used hoes by day and brushes by night,’ persistently immersing themselves in farmer painting creation, producing numerous vibrant and rustic works that attracted more and more villagers to participate.” The museum guide enthusiastically explained the origins of the farmer paintings to the reporter.
The rooster wall painting on the architecture of Yudong Village
Thus, the seeds of art took root, sprouted, and bloomed in the hearts of generation after generation of villagers, gradually forming a sense of cultural identity and belonging to Yudong Village. During farming breaks, the villagers would create art based on the landscapes and lifestyles of their hometown. In 2003, the Yudong Farmers’ Painting Association was established, and farmers’ paintings transitioned from “self-entertainment” to a cultural brand. Through participation in domestic and international exhibitions and auctions, they gradually gained market recognition, with over 300 works winning various awards. In 2017, the Yudong Farmers’ Painting Company was established by the “village collective + farmers’ painters + professional operation team,” and the development path of “culture + tourism” for Yudong Village also gradually became clear.
The art museum is a window showcasing local culture and a platform for promoting the integration of culture and tourism. Every weekend, many visitors come from afar to admire various types of peasant paintings displayed in the museum. Creative products featuring peasant art, such as wallets, umbrellas, porcelain, and silk scarves, attract many people to stop and browse. In the various uniquely designed shops throughout the village, a wide array of creative products are on display. Among them, the “Yudong Xiu” brand clothing, which combines traditional peasant painting hand-drawing techniques with modern aesthetics, stands out particularly. It is reported that in recent years, Yudong Village has intensified the research and development of non-material cultural heritage derivative products, creating a series of products with Yudong’s regional characteristics and cultural connotations. This has helped establish a distinctive peasant painting industry brand for Yudong, and has even brought peasant paintings onto mobile wallpaper stores, extending the “Peasant Painting+” industry chain from offline to online.
Yudongxiu products printed with Yudong peasant paintings on clothes
Dive deep into the rural painting resources, develop cultural tourism formats such as camping and leisure, study tours and sketching, and artistic clay craft experiences, Yu Dong Village has established a cultural industrial chain of “rural painting + cultural and creative + tourism + study tours.” Out of the 800-plus residents in the village, over 300 are engaged in painting-related careers. Many villagers, in addition to earning sales revenue from hand-painted and wall-painted artworks, also receive painting commission fees and profit-sharing from the village collective. The exploration of a rural future community construction model with the distinctive characteristics of Yu Dong Painting Village has not only transformed the appearance of Yu Dong Village but also changed the lives of many villagers.
With colorful brushes in hand, the villagers of Yu Dong have used “one painting” to create “an industry,” crafting a better life.
“A bridge” spans to connect the “rainbow” of common prosperity.
From “a painting” to “an industry,” the development path of “culture + tourism” is not uncommon. On this track where competition has become fiercely intense, why can Yu Dong Village maintain steady progress and achieve long-term success? According to the reporter’s interviews, this is thanks to the intellectual property operation “bridge” built by the Zhejiang Agricultural Innovation Entrepreneurship Intellectual Property Alliance (hereinafter referred to as the Agricultural Innovation Entrepreneurship Alliance).
The agricultural innovator products exhibited by the Zhejiang Agricultural Innovator Intellectual Property Alliance
To further activate rural painting resources, in early 2022, under the guidance of the intellectual property management departments at the Zhejiang Provincial and Quzhou Municipal levels, Keqiang District boldly explored and pioneered the establishment of the Quzhou Yudong Rural Painting Intellectual Property Co-op Prosperity Promotion Association in Yudong Village, aiming to integrate intellectual property with rural paintings. In the same year, in August, the provincial-level intellectual property alliance—Agricultural Creators Alliance—was established in Yudong Village, linked by agricultural creators’ intellectual property and dedicated to rural co-op prosperity. It aims to leverage the collective operational functions of professional organizations to promote the collaborative use of intellectual property among enterprises in the “Rural Painting +” full industrial chain, helping to enhance agricultural and rural brands and boost farmers’ income.
Entering the Agricultural Creators Alliance exhibition hall, the infinite potential of intellectual property creation, protection, and utilization in agricultural fields is fully demonstrated, from agricultural patents to geographical indication products, to Agricultural Creators products.
Fang Honghua, Director of the Keqiang District Administration Market Supervision Bureau, told reporters that the Agricultural Creators Alliance has endowed Yudong Rural Painting with more intellectual property elements, focusing on creating a regional brand for the “Rural Painting +” modern industrial cluster. The alliance, as a bridge between creators and consumers, promotes the integrated development of patent rights, trademark rights, and copyright, revitalizing intellectual property and transforming “intellectual property” into “assets.” It equips rural paintings with the wings of intellectual property, accelerating the release of their value.
“Currently, the Agricultural Creators Alliance has enrolled 186 member units and nurtured 1,080 agricultural creators,” introduced Li Sheng, Director of the Intellectual Property Bureau of the Keqiang District Administration Market Supervision Bureau. Since its establishment, the alliance has actively integrated intellectual property creation, utilization, protection, and management with intellectual property science popularization, being selected as one of the first intellectual property culture education and publicity bases in Zhejiang Province. It has guided multiple local business entities to integrate rural painting elements into product packaging. One food business entity applied a rural painting design patent to its products, doubling the selling price and achieving annual sales of over 7 million yuan. Keqiang District’s innovative approach of establishing the Agricultural Creators Alliance to support rural revitalization has been selected as a case study in the first batch of Zhejiang Province’s intellectual property strengthening initiatives in 2023.
Tourists selecting Yu Dong peasant painting cultural and creative products
2024, the agricultural innovator alliance, leveraging the Four-Provinces Border Agricultural Science and Technology Park within Kequng District, began to develop an agricultural innovator intellectual property operation center, establishing an “government-industry-academia-research-practice” integrated and unified agricultural technology transfer and transformation platform. “This operation center actively builds databases such as the modern agricultural patent pool, the modern agricultural expert database, the agricultural innovator database, and the agricultural innovator intellectual property product database, carrying out agricultural innovator empowerment and the transformation and application of modern agricultural patents,” Li Sheng introduced. Under the promotion of the center, by the end of last December, “Yudong Farmer Painting” achieved 1016 copyright registrations, completed 210 China trademark registrations, and incorporated 656 patents into the modern agricultural patent pool, with patent pledge financing registration amounting to over 300 million yuan.
Amid the green mountains and clear waters of Western Zhejiang, a new scroll of rural revitalization is being painted with intellectual property as ink and innovation as the brush, as farmers wield their pens, creating infinite possibilities on the canvas of the new era.
Journalist’s Note
Spring sowing and summer planting, autumn harvest and winter storage. Farmer painting sprouted from the local soil, grew on the land, and bloomed throughout the four seasons. From Yudong Village’s art-driven village revitalization to the agricultural innovator intellectual property alliance effectively protecting innovative achievements and further releasing the value of intellectual property, Kequng District’s exploration and practice on the path of rural revitalization not only brings new opportunities for local development but also provides valuable references for rural revitalization in Zhejiang Province and even across the country. We look forward to more innovative and developmental paths, using intellectual property as the brush, breaking ground in the future, allowing the path of rural revitalization to become wider and broader, and mapping out a more splendid new landscape for rural development.
