Date: November 10, 2025
Authors: Chen Taotao, Fan Jiwei, An Haozhen, Rong Yu, Feng Jian, Qiao Ziyi, Song Qing
Case Introduction
This case introduces Rongjiang County in Guizhou Province, which has pioneered an effective path of systematic poverty alleviation with Chinese characteristics for underdeveloped regions through the "Village Super League" (Cun Chao) model. Centered on football, rooted in culture, empowered by new media, and driven by universal participation, the model integrates football matches, ethnic cultural performances, agricultural product exhibitions, and tourism experiences. Building on the experience of "five county-level cultural brand building attempts," leveraging over 80 years of local folk football traditions and thousands of years of ethnic cultural heritage, the CPC Rongjiang County Committee and People's Government have innovatively utilized new media and established a three-level linkage governance mechanism (county-township-village), a "benefit-sharing for all" model, and a 10,000-person new media communication matrix. These efforts have engaged all 385,000 Rongjiang residents in co-building the "Guizhou Village Super League" brand, transforming county resources into developmental momentum and providing a replicable Chinese solution for poverty alleviation in developing countries worldwide.
The following sections first outline the basic context of Rongjiang County and the "Village Super League" practice. Subsequently, using the "5W1H+" poverty alleviation analysis framework, it elaborates on two core modules: "Analysis of Poverty Scenarios and Causes" and "Analysis of Poverty Alleviation Solutions and Implementation." Finally, it summarizes the outcomes and experiences of the poverty alleviation project, extracting replicable poverty alleviation strategies.
I. Overview of Rongjiang County, Guizhou
Rongjiang County is located in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou Province, nestled in the hinterland of the Moon Mountains at the junction of Guizhou, Guangxi, and Hunan provinces. Covering a total area of 3,315.8 square kilometers, it administers 6 towns and 13 townships, with a total population of 385,000 (including 294,000 permanent residents). Ethnic minorities such as the Miao, Dong, Shui, and Yao account for 83.9% of the total population. As one of the last counties to lift itself out of poverty in China, Rongjiang has long been constrained by its geographical conditions of "eight parts mountains, one part water, and one part farmland." It faced a complex predicament characterized by the decline of the traditional wood processing industry (its pillar secondary industry), low industrial added value, and population outflow.
To address the dual challenges of traditional industrial decline and geographical constraints, the CPC Rongjiang County Committee and People's Government adopted a "track-switching" strategy to explore new development paths and actively build county-level cultural and tourism brands. The government successively launched five integrated county-level cultural IP initiatives: "CBA in the Mountains," "Leli Dong New Year + Bullfighting," "Baibei Miao Guzang Festival + Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)," "Sanbao Dong Village Sama Festival + Marathon," and "Rural Basketball Exchange Match (Touch the Ground and Ignite Basketball Professional Match)." Although these attempts failed to achieve sustained effects due to factors such as pandemic disruptions, cultural symbol controversies, and festival cycle limitations, they accumulated critical experience in mass mobilization, event operation, and new media communication—laying the foundation for subsequent breakthroughs.
The experience from these five "trial-and-error" attempts ultimately led to a qualitative leap in the sixth endeavor. By leveraging innovative approaches and tapping into grassroots potential, Rongjiang systematically integrated local resources including ethnic culture, ICH characteristics, cuisine, and internet communication to create a "People's Football" model. This model positioned every resident as a participant, honoree, proud contributor, and beneficiary of joyful football, successfully building the "Guizhou Village Super League" brand as a Chinese model for poverty alleviation in similar regions globally.
II. Case Study: Rongjiang's "Village Super League" – Systematic Poverty Alleviation Driven by the Integration of Agriculture, Culture, Tourism, Sports, and Commerce
(I) Analysis of Poverty Scenarios and Causes (What, When, Where, Why)
As China concluded its decisive battle against poverty in 2020, Rongjiang County—one of the last ethnic minority-inhabited counties to eliminate absolute poverty—faced severe challenges in the post-poverty era. Despite lifting itself out of poverty, the county grappled with the decline of traditional wood processing, high youth outflow, and the risk of disruption to multiple national-level ICH heritages. Led by Xu Bo, Secretary of the CPC Rongjiang County Committee, the county party committee and government proactively addressed these issues through innovative paths, reverse thinking, and a "leapfrog development" strategy, exploring a poverty alleviation model tailored to Rongjiang's characteristics.
1. Discovery of Poverty
A key opportunity for Rongjiang's poverty alleviation emerged from China's national targeted poverty alleviation strategy, formally proposed in 2013, which elevated poverty reduction to a national strategic priority. Guided by this strategy, the Guizhou Provincial Government invested heavily in infrastructure such as transportation and communications, expanding high-speed rail and highway networks and achieving full 5G coverage. The opening of the Guiyang-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway in December 2014 was a milestone, as the "Rongjiang Station" effectively broke the county's long-standing geographical isolation.
However, since 2021, Rongjiang's traditional pillar industry—wood processing—faced mounting pressures due to weakening market demand and cyclical adjustments in the real estate sector, leading to an industrial decline. The economic structure centered on wood processing lost vitality, resulting in weakened county economic momentum, immense pressure for traditional industrial transformation, and structural development bottlenecks. Some poverty alleviation gains were at risk of reversal. In response, the county party committee and government explored innovative poverty alleviation paths, aiming to achieve leapfrog development through industrial restructuring and county-level brand building.
2. Basic Context of Rongjiang
Rongjiang, characterized by rugged terrain and a high concentration of ethnic minorities, was once a "tough nut to crack" in China's poverty alleviation campaign, with complex and deep-rooted poverty issues.
•Pre-targeted poverty alleviation (before 2013): By 2014, Rongjiang had 160 poor villages (including 115 deeply impoverished villages), with a poverty incidence rate as high as 35.5%. By the end of 2019, 23 villages and 11,793 people (3,974 households) remained in poverty. Geographically, the "eight mountains, one water, one farmland" landscape caused poor transportation—prior to the 2014 high-speed rail opening, travel from Rongjiang to Guiyang (the provincial capital) took 8 hours, leading to high loss rates for agricultural product transportation. Economically, the county relied heavily on wood processing, featuring a short industrial chain, a single industrial structure, low added value, and vulnerability to real estate market fluctuations. Culturally, despite boasting world-class and national-level ICH (e.g., the Dong Grand Song), 29 traditional villages, and 19 ethnic minority characteristic villages, the lack of cultural-tourism conversion paths, aging ICH inheritors, and rural hollowing due to youth outflow posed significant challenges.
•Post-targeted poverty alleviation (after 2013): With the advancement of national targeted poverty alleviation, Rongjiang's infrastructure improved significantly. The Guiyang-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway and 5G technology enhanced connectivity to external markets. Measures such as relocated poverty alleviation and multi-industry support alleviated poverty, but the accelerated decline of the wood processing industry exposed the fragility of single-industry dependence. Issues such as unemployment and youth outflow persisted, and insufficient endogenous motivation for poverty alleviation emerged as new challenges.
Amid these difficulties, Rongjiang's unique resource endowments offered opportunities for poverty alleviation:
•Geographical advantage: As a hub connecting Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (a developed region) and the underdeveloped southwest hinterland via the Guiyang-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway, Rongjiang's improved transportation facilitated the outflow of characteristic products and the development of potential tourism markets.
•Ethnic and cultural richness: Rongjiang boasts pristine ethnic customs, including the world-class ICH Dong Grand Song and 12 national-level ICH items (e.g., the Dong Sama Festival and Dong costumes).
•Sports culture heritage: Over 80 years of folk football traditions fostered a strong sports atmosphere, with villagers organizing voluntary village-level football leagues.
Effective integration of these resources to create differentiated cultural-tourism experiences promised to activate county economic momentum and provide a practical path for poverty alleviation.
3. Analysis of Poverty Causes
Rongjiang's poverty stems from a combination of "general causes" (shared with other poor regions) and "unique causes" (specific to Rongjiang):
(1) General Causes: Geographical Isolation and Fragile Single-Industry Structure
Rongjiang's predicament aligns with that of other mountainous counties in central and western China:
•Geographical constraints: Its mountainous location led to long-term underdevelopment of transportation infrastructure. Prior to the high-speed rail opening, weak connectivity to external markets hindered the conversion of characteristic resources into economic value, making agricultural product transportation difficult.
•Fragile industrial structure and pillar industry decline: Over-reliance on wood processing created a vicious cycle—fluctuations in real estate demand triggered employment shrinkage and population outflow, leading to reduced consumer markets and further industrial decline.
(2) Unique Causes
① Disconnect Between Rich Cultural Resources and Industrial Conversion
Rongjiang's core challenge lies in the misalignment between its abundant cultural resources and modern development paths:
•Ethnic cultural resources (e.g., Dong Grand Song, indigo dyeing) and traditional villages remained underutilized due to a lack of modern conversion channels. Aging ICH inheritors and youth outflow exacerbated cultural discontinuity.
•Over 80 years of folk football traditions remained voluntary and lacked IP development, failing to integrate deeply with cultural-tourism industries. Villagers' passion for football could not be converted into derivative consumption (e.g., hotel bookings, ICH experiences), and modern sports industry elements such as commercial sponsorships and media broadcasts were absent—preventing traditional advantages from driving economic growth.
•Folk activities such as bullfighting, Guzang Festival, and Sama Festival only attracted short-term crowds due to limited festival cycles. The lack of professional planning led to simplistic activities and shallow tourist experiences, failing to extend industrial chains such as catering, accommodation, and handicraft sales—resulting in "popularity without sustainable industry."
Overall, the economic value of Rongjiang's ethnic culture, folk activities, and sports traditions remained untapped, creating a stark contrast between cultural richness and economic poverty.
② Short Industrial Chains and Weak Factor Integration Capacity
Known as "Sweet Rongjiang" for its high-quality fruits (e.g., passion fruit, watermelons, bayberries, navel oranges, and citrus), Rongjiang faced a dilemma of "increased production without increased income" due to short industrial chains and low added value:
•Dispersed farming led to inconsistent product quality. The lack of standardized sorting meant products were sold as low-value bulk goods in wholesale markets.
•The absence of processing links prevented agricultural products from gaining added value through deep processing, leaving farmers trapped at the bottom of the value chain. The lack of pre-packaged products and distribution systems further lost consumer demand, failing to convert high-quality agricultural resources into competitive advantages.
In the entire chain from production to consumption, factors such as land, labor, capital, technology, and management were fragmented and poorly coordinated. Characteristic fruits remained in the primary processing stage, unable to enter high-end supermarkets or develop value-added products (e.g., fruit juice, dried fruit)—missing opportunities for industrial chain extension and large-scale market access.
③ Insufficient Cross-Departmental Collaboration and Lack of Organizational Mechanisms
Rongjiang's poverty was also exacerbated by inadequate cross-departmental coordination and the absence of professional organizers:
•Early cultural and sports activities were voluntary, with football matches funded and organized by villagers, festivals limited to annual folk rituals, and ICH workshops operating as family-run small-scale enterprises. While this preserved authenticity, it led to superficial resource development, unstable event cycles, insufficient innovation, and low visibility due to the lack of professional operation and media teams.
•Despite government attempts to intervene, traditional fragmented departmental management hindered effective collaboration between culture-tourism, agriculture, and commerce departments, which failed to establish regular joint mechanisms. The absence of professional organizers left ICH, sports events, and product sales operating in silos—wasting potential value and hindering sustainable economic development.
4. Iterative Logic of Rongjiang's Five Integrated Cultural IP Attempts
Between 2021 and 2023, Rongjiang conducted five consecutive cultural IP initiatives centered on new media. This iterative exploration laid the internal logical foundation for the ultimate success of the "Village Super League":
Attempt No. |
Event Name |
Success Factors |
Reflections |
Experience Gained |
1st (Dec 2021) |
"CBA in the Mountains" (Dong New Year Basketball Tournament) |
Innovatively integrated basketball's popularity with Dong New Year's cultural uniqueness, exploring a new path for sports-culture integration. |
Pandemic restrictions limited on-site participation; weak local basketball grassroots support; inadequate new media infrastructure hindered communication. |
Deepened sports-culture integration; trained local live-streaming talent; improved mobile live-streaming equipment; laid the groundwork for the "10,000-person new media communication matrix." |
2nd (Dec 2021) |
Leli Dong Village Bullfighting Tournament |
Leveraged the Dong New Year time node and bullfighting's visual appeal; attracted over 20,000 viewers in one day, verifying the market potential of folk cultural activities. |
Safety risks and ethical controversies (bloody scenes) limited mainstream communication; lack of commercial supporting facilities prevented traffic conversion. |
Enhanced safety management; transformed bullfighting into interactive performances (preserving cultural essence while eliminating bloodshed); began building a composite business model integrating culture, events, cuisine, and tourism. |
3rd (Dec 2022) |
Baibei Miao Village Guzang Festival |
National-level ICH performances went viral on new media platforms. |
13-year festival cycle hindered sustained traffic; inadequate village infrastructure (accommodation, catering, transportation) failed to accommodate large tourist inflows. |
Adopted the methodology of "cultural depth in villages, traffic absorption in the county seat"; established regular ICH performance sessions; introduced professional operation teams. |
4th (Mar 2023) |
Sanbao Dong Village Sama Festival + Half-Marathon |
Linked ICH sites via the race route, creating a "mobile cultural corridor"; integrated sports and culture spatially. |
High marathon participation thresholds limited local engagement; short event duration and low frequency failed to drive sustained economic impact; cultural displays remained superficial. |
Selected sports carriers aligned with daily public participation; designed regular extensions for short-term events; deepened integration of cultural content and form. |
5th (Mar 2023) |
Rural Basketball Exchange Match (modeled after Taijiang's "Village BA") |
Attempted to leverage the popularity of Taijiang's "Village BA" by inviting grassroots teams and integrating ICH elements. |
Homogeneous competition failed to break Taijiang's established cultural ecosystem; weaker local basketball foundations and lack of unique cultural binding limited impact. |
Abandoned copycat strategies; tapped into Rongjiang's 80-year folk football traditions; integrated experiences from previous attempts (mass mobilization, ICH activation, commercial supporting systems). |
6th |
"Village Super League" |
Integrated experiences from the first five iterative attempts. |
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Summary of the Five Attempts: Faced with deep-seated challenges post-poverty alleviation, the Rongjiang government adopted a problem-oriented approach, focusing on improving people's living standards. It systematically addressed key contradictions such as idle cultural resources, short industrial chains, and organizational gaps, and launched five iterative cultural IP initiatives over three years. These efforts accumulated experience in integrated operation models, urban-rural linkage, participatory innovation, and cultural IP selection—while building communication capabilities and nurturing new media talent. The sixth breakthrough attempt, the football-centered "Village Super League," achieved deep integration of agriculture, culture, tourism, sports, and commerce, creating a sustainable poverty alleviation path.
(II) Analysis of Poverty Alleviation Solutions and Implementation (Who, How)
Based on the five cultural IP attempts, the Rongjiang government systematically addressed key poverty-causing factors (idle cultural resources, insufficient industrial collaboration, lack of organizational mechanisms). The sixth attempt, the "Village Super League," positioned "joyful football" as a core carrier, coordinating multiple stakeholders to build a systematic poverty alleviation framework led by the government, with universal participation and market empowerment. Through a three-level linkage governance mechanism, a "benefit-sharing for all" model, and new media traffic conversion, the initiative achieved deep integration of agriculture, culture, tourism, sports, and commerce—mobilizing all residents to co-build the "People's Football" and "Guizhou Village Super League" brand. Guided by the concept of "making mobile phones new farming tools, data new agricultural materials, and live streaming new farm work," the county brand gained widespread new media exposure, empowering multiple industries, extending industrial chains, and exploring an innovative poverty alleviation path for underdeveloped mountainous counties.
1. Government-Led Three-Level Linkage Governance Mechanism: Addressing the Lack of Organizational Mechanisms
Rongjiang established a three-level linkage governance system (county party committee coordination, township mobilization, village-level implementation) to resolve issues such as insufficient cross-departmental collaboration, weak grassroots execution, and inefficient resource integration. The core of this governance structure is the "Village Super League Coordination Office" (referred to as "Cun Chao Ban"), established and operated under the leadership of the county government.
•Government's core role: While not taking a frontline role, the county party committee, government, townships, and village committees provided solid institutional support for the event. For example, the government played an irreplaceable role in publicity and external resource introduction—actively engaging official media such as Xinhua News Agency and People's Daily, as well as international media, to build initial visibility for the event. Functional divisions varied by level:
￮County-level: Responsible for high-level resource docking and overall coordination.
￮Township-level: Undertaking specific implementation tasks (e.g., venue guarantee, community mobilization, characteristic exhibitions, and food activities in Guzhou Town).
￮Village-level: Directly organizing teams and mobilizing residents.
•Establishment and functions of Cun Chao Ban: Initially a temporary coordination team established in 2023 to prepare for the first "Village Super League," it was led by the county party secretary and magistrate, with core staff seconded from various county departments. Its main responsibilities included event planning, professional management, and resolving cross-departmental collaboration issues. As the event grew, it became a permanent institution with cross-departmental resource allocation authority, evolving into four functional modules:
a.Comprehensive Coordination: Overall event planning, resource allocation, progress supervision, staffing, and documentation.
b.Investment Promotion: Attracting investment and connecting with enterprises in the "Village Super League" industrial chain.
c.Brand Management: Protecting IP intellectual property rights, commercial operation, collecting 3% royalty fees from cooperative enterprises using the "Village Super League" IP, and promoting national events to enhance IP value.
d.Cultural-Tourism Operation: Showcasing events, ICH, and cuisine; organizing folk performances; and conducting live-streaming e-commerce.
•Operation of the three-level linkage system: Directed by the county party secretary and magistrate, Cun Chao Ban served as the core hub, transmitting government directives to townships, villages, and ultimately village groups. This realized the concept of "development relying on the people, mobilizing the people through activities, and driving progress through events" emphasized by Secretary Xu Bo. Townships refined and decomposed county-level tasks, selected capable village cadres, and unified thinking through meetings. Village cadres—typically local residents with strong community influence—mobilized residents via village meetings, emphasizing the event's significance for village image and collective honor. Village football teams were voluntarily organized by residents (including frontline workers from various industries), and referees were local villagers. Ethnic cultural performances and ICH elements were integrated into pre-match, in-match, and post-match sessions, with prizes such as cattle, sheep, and glutinous rice (local agricultural products) to align with rural emotional identity.
•Integration of market forces: As the event expanded, the three-level linkage system alone could not meet complex operational needs. Rongjiang gradually introduced market-oriented teams and resources to enhance professionalism and sustainability:
￮2023 initial stage: 3-4 market teams provided support (creative design, live streaming, equipment/technology).
￮National event stage: 8 professional teams covering creative planning, brand design, venue/equipment support, high-definition live streaming, new media promotion, talent training, and advertising.
￮Critical support: A local enterprise provided free high-definition live-streaming equipment for two years during the financially constrained initial phase.
2. "Benefit-Sharing for All" Model: From Spiritual Identity to Economic Inclusion
To transform Rongjiang's folk football traditions and ethnic cultural resources into developmental assets, the county designed a "benefit-sharing for all" model that links spiritual identity, universal participation in the "Village Super League" economy, and improved living standards. Rather than direct profit distribution, the model—centered on 80 years of football history and cultural foundations such as the Dong Grand Song and indigo dyeing—built an ecosystem of co-creation, co-construction, and shared benefits. Its core is to connect scattered cultural resources, characteristic agricultural products, and market demand through the "Village Super League" platform, addressing deep-rooted contradictions such as short industrial chains and weak factor integration, and ultimately realizing the transformation of resources into assets, culture into capital, and villagers into shareholders.
•Foundation of emotional and trust building: Football transcends mere mass sports in Rongjiang—nearly 40 years of village-level matches have made it a core carrier of village identity, uniting 385,000 residents into a community co-building the "Village Super League" brand. A pivotal trust-building moment occurred in 2021, when the newly appointed county party secretary fulfilled a promise to complete a long-unfinished bridge within 10 months—laying the groundwork for mobilizing residents to participate in the five IP attempts and the "Village Super League." Initially, the government mobilized 23 teams to participate, with participation growing organically as residents recognized the event's potential ("snowball effect").
•Spiritual incentives: The "Village Super League" serves as a stage for all residents—farmers, craftsmen, students, elders, and children can play football or perform ethnic songs and dances, gaining unparalleled honor. The county also established honorary titles such as "Most Beautiful Village Super League Person," "Most Beautiful Promoter," and "Ambassador," fostering a sense of gain and pride. Some teams and performers even gained opportunities to exchange and showcase in cities like Beijing and Shanghai—creating profound spiritual motivation.
•Institutionalized profit distribution: Building on spiritual identity and public enthusiasm, the "Village Super League" converted participation into tangible economic benefits through structured profit sharing:
￮51% of revenues (from IP authorization, commercial sponsorships, etc.) were injected into the collective economies of 250 villages, supporting infrastructure improvement (e.g., road repairs), ICH workshop construction, and public cultural space development.
￮49% were allocated to a football development fund, supporting village team training, cheerleading squads, campus football systems ("Class Super League"), and youth football cultivation.
•Economic empowerment: During the event, ICH inheritors moved from village workshops to handicraft markets near the stadium, with indigo-dyed products, ethnic costumes, and "Village Super League" souvenirs reaching national and international markets via tourist consumption and live-streaming e-commerce. Characteristic agricultural products upgraded from bulk goods to pre-packaged products, with "Sweet Rongjiang" signature products (e.g., passion fruit, navel oranges) expanding into deep processing (juice, dried fruit). Residents took on multiple roles—cultural performers, event organizers, product producers, and e-commerce sellers—restructuring traditional production factors. For example, villagers at the Yishanren ICH Indigo Dyeing Workshop reported: "In the past, our dyed cloth only circulated locally. Now, tourists come to Rongjiang for the 'Village Super League,' doubling our orders. Women in the village can work near home, taking care of their children while earning income."
•Outcomes: The dual role of spiritual and material incentives rooted the "benefit-sharing for all" model. Residents witnessed local products (e.g., indigo-dyed scarves, pre-packaged fruits) entering high-end markets, transitioning from passive participants at the bottom of the value chain to co-owners of the "Village Super League" brand. Youth outflow reversed, with over 30,000 people returning to start businesses (e.g., homestays, catering, farming). Rongjiang's resident deposits and loans rose from second to first among similar counties in Qiandongnan Prefecture.
3. 10,000-Person New Media Communication Matrix: Traffic Fission Driving County Brand Value Conversion
(1) Top-Level Design and Strategic Guidance: Establishing the "New Three Rural Issues" Concept
The Rongjiang government grasped the laws of digital-era communication, proposing the innovative development concept of "making mobile phones new farming tools, data new agricultural materials, and live streaming new farm work." Treating the new media industry as a core tool to address the "good products lacking visibility" dilemma, it built a "government-guided, public-co-created, market-operated" 10,000-person communication matrix—driving the "Village Super League" brand from a local event to a national and global phenomenon, and injecting strong digital momentum into resource value conversion.
(2) Foundational Support: Building Talent and Organizational Guarantees
•New Media E-Commerce Industrial Park: Established in November 2021 as a base for training new media talent, providing live-streaming studios and integrating functions such as talent training, content production, e-commerce public services, and warehousing and logistics. It adopted a "professional guidance + universal participation" model, attracting residents to participate in training—enabling them to master live-streaming sales and promotion, and supporting community anchors in selling agricultural products to drive local entrepreneurship.
•Talent cultivation initiatives:
￮2022 "10,000-Person New Media Rural Revitalization Plan": Trained 35,000 people, converting ICH inheritors, left-behind women, and returning youth into "Village Super League" ambassadors, nurturing over 2,200 local live-streaming teams and 12,800 new media accounts.
￮2022 "Talent Gathering Initiative": Invited senior national artists (e.g., You Shouyi, chief planner and consultant) and private entrepreneurs (e.g., Ouyang Zhangwei, chief communication and industrial consultant) to participate in brand building. Attracted 528 development consultants, honorary village chiefs, and cultural-tourism promoters.
•Enterprise incubation: By the end of 2024, the New Media E-Commerce Industrial Park had attracted over 50 agriculture-supporting e-commerce and new media enterprises (e.g., Huiyuan, Beijing "Hometown Guest," Guizhou "Shanxiaga"). These enterprises provided skills training, supply chain support, and talent introduction, promoting Rongjiang's stories (e.g., "Village Super League," agricultural product cultivation) via short videos and live streaming, enhancing the premium of pre-packaged products, and expanding national sales channels.
(3) Core Implementation Path: Building a Progressive Traffic Pool
The new media communication matrix relied on a three-level new media linkage network (county-level task force, township-level new media service centers, village-level service stations). During the event:
•A new media leading group, led by key county government officials, coordinated communication resources, with a dedicated "Village Super League" new media task force seconded from government departments, cultural-tourism bureaus, media centers, and schools. The task force managed documentation, press releases, media services, logistics, media reception, and material libraries—responding quickly to interview requests.
•20 personnel were dispatched weekly from township new media service stations to conduct zoned shooting at the stadium. Footage was shared in editing WeChat groups, with professional teams handling selection and editing. The media center director proposed 50 daily content topics, clarifying story backgrounds, scene designs, and potential hotspots to guide shooting.
•Cooperating enterprises (e.g., "Shanxiaga") provided professional shooting/editing personnel and equipment (e.g., aerial photography) to support publicity.
The matrix adopted short video fission communication as a key tool to break geographical limitations, building a "government-led, public-participated" communication ecosystem through three stages:
① Building an Internal Traffic Pool: Decentralized Communication with Professional Guidance
Drawing on experience from previous IP attempts, Rongjiang recognized that concentrated public posting of topic-related content triggers platform algorithms to drive national visibility. For the "Village Super League" IP, it adopted a "decentralized communication" model, encouraging professional guidance and universal participation to build a basic traffic pool through self-media:
•Core account leadership: The official WeChat video account "Guizhou Village Super League Documentary" served as a content hub, guiding local self-media accounts to act as sub-accounts—publishing promotional videos from diverse perspectives with the unified hashtag #GuizhouVillageSuperLeague to leverage algorithmic promotion.
•"Village Promoters" training: Over 2.5 years, Rongjiang trained 10,000 "Village Promoters," categorized into three tiers:
a.Head accounts: Professional teams from enterprises like "Shanxiaga" and "Hometown Guest" operated accounts such as "Guizhou Village Super League Promoter" and "Guizhou Village Super League Aerial Photographer," complementing core account content.
b.Progressive accounts: Long-term active in local publicity with solid new media operation capabilities.
c.Active accounts: Possessing basic new media awareness and willingness to participate.
•Incentives and technical empowerment: Regular "check-in" activities and short video contests were organized for promoters, with unified shooting guidelines and rewards (certificates, bonuses) for outstanding performance. An AI editing system for promoters reduced barriers—allowing users to generate videos and copy via QR codes, with options for secondary creation. The model of "universal promotion of the Village Super League" and "tourists as promoters" drove hot topic creation, attracting media participation and reversing the decentralized-to-centralized interaction.
② Expanding the External Traffic Pool: In-depth Cooperation with Mainstream Media
Rongjiang established a "Village Super League" media contact group, sharing curated content and copy daily to enable efficient media editing and publishing. Mainstream media (Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily New Media Center, Douyin, Sina Weibo, Kuaishou) set up dedicated workgroups for the event—with Xinhua News Agency's Sports Department and New Media Center playing a key role in its growth.
A core content distribution mechanism was established: high-quality daily content produced by the task force was prioritized for sharing with national media and 10,000 "village ambassadors" for secondary creation—enhancing content quality and creating a strong matrix effect. Douyin served as the main communication platform, with 12,800 local "village ambassadors" building a matrix account. Over several months, nearly 20,000 Douyin topics related to the "Village Super League" emerged, with 185,000 participants. Rongjiang also leveraged Douyin's open platform to launch a "universal submission" program, providing one-stop services for "shooting, editing, broadcasting, submission, and management" to support rural digitalization. A media live-streaming group offered free traffic sharing, helping media outlets increase followers and visibility.
③ Igniting Communication Momentum: Breaking Through with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs)
Local Guizhou bloggers first promoted the event, followed by national KOLs. Rongjiang dispatched professional teams to provide content support, planning assistance, and shooting coordination—enabling KOLs to produce high-quality content efficiently. The event evolved into a public communication carnival, with media coverage and KOL participation driving widespread visibility.
To refine internal communication and expand external reach:
•In 2024, 100 outstanding self-media creators were selected from 12,800 accounts to produce high-quality content during the event—boosting visibility of the "Village Super League," ICH, and agricultural products.
•Events such as the National ICH Food Football Friendly Match and the Belt and Road Village Super League Friendly Match expanded the communication radius, with new media teams from other regions and countries engaging in mutual promotion and follower sharing.
Guided by the "New Three Rural Issues" concept and adhering to the principles of "no good videos, no communication; no positive energy, no communication; no truth, goodness, and beauty, no communication," Rongjiang abandoned traditional government-led publicity in favor of a "government-guided, public-narrated" model. The "main account + sub-accounts" matrix, combined with big data traffic rules and 12,800 "digital new farmers," drove content fission. By highlighting touching stories of ordinary people behind the event, the "Village Super League" achieved "phenomenal" positive energy communication in a short period. As noted by the New Media Industrial Park director: "In Rongjiang, everyone is a creator. The communication of the Village Super League does not rely on official channels—personalized expressions of tens of thousands of people about the event and Rongjiang are the key to the new media matrix achieving 85 billion views."
4. Typical Case: Rongjiang's Indigo Dyeing Industry
Rongjiang's indigo dyeing industry—leveraging the "Village Super League" platform to achieve integrated cultural, economic, and tourism development—exemplifies the integration of traditional craftsmanship with modern industries. As a craftsmanship-based ICH rooted in local natural endowments and cultural vitality, it connects industrial chains of planting, processing, and tourism—addressing the fragmentation of Guizhou's ICH and enhancing the vitality of local characteristic economies.
4.1 Rongjiang Indigo Dyeing: From Rural Craft to Industrial Starting Point
Rongjiang, known as the "Hometown of Thousands of Crafts," boasts abundant folk handicrafts (e.g., wax printing, dyeing, weaving, embroidery, silverwork, bamboo weaving, wood carving). It is China's most traditional wax printing museum and a "protected area" for pure natural plant-based indigo dyeing, preserving a complete traditional "weaving-dyeing-embroidery" system and the only intact living indigo dyeing industrial chain and lifestyle in China.
•Resource foundation: Indigo dyeing originates from isatis root—Guizhou is China's largest indigo paste trading market, with Rongjiang as the core producing area. Local ethnic minorities (Miao, Dong) have used isatis root as a natural dye for clothing and textiles for centuries. Indigo dye offers pure color, durability, heat-clearing, detoxifying, and skin-protective properties—endowing Rongjiang's indigo dyeing with significant industrial potential (accessible raw materials, inherited craftsmanship, and sustained demand). However, for a long time, the industry remained confined to self-sufficient family workshops, lacking market awareness and economic value due to limited outreach channels.
•Pioneering entrepreneurs: The industry was revitalized by returning entrepreneurs such as Yang Chenglan:
￮In 2016, Yang resigned as a music teacher and returned to her Dong village. Discovering that hand-woven cloth produced by her family was underutilized, she posted it on social media—attracting unexpected orders. Motivated by the decline of traditional crafts among young people, she founded "Yishanren" with 40,000 yuan in start-up capital, converting an abandoned pigpen into a workshop.
￮To expand production, Yang persuaded village women (many in their 50s and 60s) to resume weaving by offering a "payment before delivery" guarantee—purchasing all woven cloth and providing standardized training. By 2018, she established the "Rongjiang Yishanren Traditional Weaving and Dyeing Farmer Professional Cooperative," employing over 200 weavers (including 77 registered poor households) and lifting 90% of the village's poor households out of poverty.
•Collective practice: Yang's success was not isolated. Other pioneers contributed to the industry's growth:
￮In 2015, Lai Lei founded "Guizhou Niangmei Cloth Color Dyeing Workshop," improving traditional looms, innovating Dong dyeing techniques, integrating modern fashion elements, and producing textiles, clothing, bags, and bedding—employing over 1,000 women in Rongjiang and Congjiang counties.
￮In 2018, returning youth Qingman (Liu Zhi) established the "Moon Hometown Cultural and Creative Center," and in 2020, promoted the construction of Asia's largest traditional indigo paste production base in Rongjiang. Her "Mother's Return Workshop" (a poverty alleviation workshop) drove village cooperatives to participate in indigo dyeing production via order-based models—laying a solid foundation for industrial chain improvement.
4.2 Pandemic Challenges: Exploring "Study Tours + New Media" New Formats
The 2020 pandemic severely impacted overseas orders for Rongjiang's indigo dyeing industry. However, entrepreneurs identified study tours as a resilient demand—with channel partners and their families preferring homestays over hotels to fully experience local culture.
•Study tour development: Yang Chenglan transformed her home into a homestay and restaurant, launching "ICH + Lifestyle Aesthetics" study tour products. She organized cultural-tourism and ICH study courses, built a Dong cloth-themed homestay, promoted the development and application of Dong traditional culture, created local employment for women, and reduced rural left-behind children. Her workshop expanded into a 2,500-square-meter comprehensive base integrating production, teaching, and accommodation. The "Blue-Seeking Journey" study tour—highlighting interactions between indigo dyeing culture and ethnic villages—gained popularity among tourists, creating new consumption demand.
•New media promotion: The pandemic also accelerated the adoption of new media for promotion. Since 2021, Rongjiang established a "New Media for Rural Revitalization" institution led by key government officials, with new media service centers and stations at township and village levels—cultivating 12,000 new media accounts. Platforms such as Taobao collaborated with top sellers to launch ICH cultural and creative product lines, standardizing and commercializing folk crafts. In May 2022, Yang's Dong cloth products were exported to the United States via e-commerce—marking Qiandongnan Prefecture's first cross-border e-commerce order—subsequently expanding to Japan, South Korea, Italy, and Australia, with prices ranging from tens to hundreds of yuan per meter. Teams like "Moon Hometown" and other local workshops also adopted online sales and live-streaming e-commerce to broaden promotion channels.
4.3 "Village Super League" Traffic Empowering Industrial Growth
While new media and e-commerce opened markets, indigo dyeing remained a niche track with limited live-streaming results. The 2023 boom of the "Village Super League" brought unprecedented opportunities, driving the industry's key leap from "having products" to "having a brand":
•Increased visibility: As a phenomenal sports and cultural event, the "Village Super League" attracted tens of billions of online views, putting Rongjiang and its ICH in the national and global spotlight. ICH performances during halftime and cultural and creative markets around the stadium introduced indigo dyeing to hundreds of millions of viewers—transforming it from a local specialty to a "Guochao" (national trend) symbol with fashion and cultural connotations.
•Product innovation and sales growth:
￮The Qingyulan Indigo Dyeing Art Center in the Tehe resettlement community saw a surge in tourists post-"Village Super League," developing over 30 "Village Super League" peripheral products in two months and achieving sales of approximately 400,000 yuan.
￮Guizhou Qingyulan Agricultural Investment Co., Ltd. expanded its indigo dyeing business into two sectors, seven product lines, and over 400 products. In early 2023, it co-developed isatis root shampoo, body wash, and skincare products with Beijing Qingteng Culture Co., Ltd., and launched isatis root craft beer with "Niupitang"—creating a diversified product matrix integrating health and lifestyle.
￮Peripheral products such as "Village Super League" T-shirts, wax-printed footballs, indigo-dyed scarves, and embroidered accessories sold well both on-site and online. A single company's "Village Super League" indigo-dyed peripheral products exceeded 1 million yuan in sales, with online ICH cultural and creative products frequently selling out—extending production lines to surrounding villages.
•Income growth for residents: Baibei Village received over 200,000 tourists in 2023, generating 400,000 yuan in collective income and 2.8 million yuan in resident income growth. Miao embroiderer Yang Zairong from Dangxi Village and resident Shi Benran from Tehe Community achieved stable employment through embroidered and indigo-dyed accessories—with Shi noting: "In the past, no matter how well we made products, we couldn't sell them. Now we have endless orders every day."
•Value enhancement: Prior to the "Village Super League," indigo-dyed products were low-priced (e.g., 3-yuan handkerchiefs) with weak market bargaining power. Post-boom, IP-driven products such as indigo-dyed T-shirts, scarves, and embroidered accessories priced between 35–280 yuan—reflecting market recognition and the industry's leap from low-value craftsmanship to high-value cultural and creative industry.
4.4 From Indigo Dyeing to Cross-Industry Resonance: Rongjiang's Industrial Transformation Driven by the "Village Super League"
The rapid growth of the indigo dyeing industry epitomizes the "Village Super League's" role in driving the expansion of Rongjiang's industrial system. As the brand's influence expanded, traffic dividends spilled over to diverse sectors (e.g., bullfighting, homestays, ethnic cultural experiences), forming an integrated industrial pattern centered on the "Village Super League," rooted in ICH, and supported by tourism—promoting the integration of Rongjiang's characteristic industries.
•Industrial chain extension: The "Village Super League" IP drove the expansion from a single sports event to a full chain of agriculture, culture, tourism, sports, and commerce. The stadium became a window for showcasing Rongjiang's diverse culture, with ethnic performances (e.g., Dong Grand Song, bullfighting, Miao embroidery) featured in matches and new media live streams—attracting more visitors.
•Consumption ecosystem construction: Led by "Super Tasty," "Super Fun," and "Super Comfortable" sub-brands, Rongjiang built a multi-level consumption matrix. By July 2024:
￮1,850 new cultural and tourism market entities were added (including 1,179 catering businesses).
￮County urban catering revenue reached 1.416 billion yuan; the number of hotel beds increased from 5,958 to over 11,000.
￮Nighttime consumption exceeded 3.65 million person-times, generating 309 million yuan in revenue.
￮Wholesale income increased by 26.3% year-on-year; retail sales by 73.2%; accommodation income by 188.6%; catering income by 235.6%.
￮Over 10,000 flexible jobs were created.
￮Online and offline sales of agricultural products exceeded 401 million yuan; total tourism revenue reached 3.834 billion yuan—forming a county-wide economic growth chain driven by the "Village Super League."
•Rural space upgrading: Rongjiang renovated village buildings and revitalized idle houses, developing high-quality homestay villages (e.g., Dali, Jiayi, Xiaodanjiang) and ethnic cultural tourism clusters centered on indigo dyeing and wax printing (e.g., Fengdeng, Zaidang, Guiliu, Lexiang, Baibei villages). Since the "Village Super League" launch, 29 traditional villages have received 205,000 tourists, creating over 700 jobs and 36 million yuan in comprehensive income. Characteristic homestays like "Jingshangjian" in Dali Dong Village integrated traditional Dong wooden architecture with modern accommodation experiences—allowing tourists to "stay, experience culture, and touch local life."
Today, the "Village Super League" serves as Rongjiang's core IP and sustained driving force. Guided by culture, it integrates online and offline traffic through a core brand, converting external attention into endogenous motivation and forming a closed loop from ICH inheritance to county-wide industrial development. Rongjiang has established a multi-layered ecological chain: ICH drives cultural and creative products, which link to homestays, extending tourism that feeds back agriculture. A single village-level match has revitalized indigo dyeing and sparked cross-industry resonance across the county.
4.5 Summary of the Indigo Dyeing Industry Case
Rongjiang's indigo dyeing industry reflects the "Village Super League's" role in driving local industrial integration and upgrading. From a rural craft rooted in natural resources and traditional skills, to industrialization via returning entrepreneurs and new media e-commerce, and finally to branding and county-wide integration driven by the "Village Super League," it has become a model for the living inheritance of traditional crafts, poverty alleviation, and cultural revitalization. Rongjiang has achieved a systematic transformation from "being seen" to "being recognized," and from "having products" to "having an ecosystem."
The "Village Super League" has brought unprecedented public exposure and market value to ICH industries like indigo dyeing, with traffic dividends spilling over to bullfighting, homestays, and cultural-tourism consumption—promoting the integrated development of agriculture, culture, tourism, sports, and commerce. It has created a path for reconstructing rural industrial chains and achieving cultural empowerment and economic prosperity through a single core IP.
(III) Project Outcomes: Dual Economic and Social Benefits – A Model of County Poverty Alleviation Through Integrated Agriculture, Culture, Tourism, Sports, and Commerce
By systematically integrating cultural resources, sports events, and digital economy around the "Village Super League," Rongjiang has transformed county resources into developmental momentum—achieving remarkable poverty alleviation outcomes. It has not only addressed challenges such as traditional industrial decline and population outflow but also explored an effective poverty alleviation path for underdeveloped mountainous counties through organizational mechanism construction, universal participation and benefit sharing, and new media matrix empowerment.
Core Logic of Systematic Poverty Alleviation
•Starting point: The "Village Super League" IP, rooted in 80 years of folk football traditions, lowers participation thresholds (e.g., simplified rules, local prizes) to attract public engagement—serving as an emotional focal point and initial traffic entry. The universal carnival nature of football makes "joyful football" a symbol connecting Rongjiang's agriculture, culture, tourism, sports, and commerce resources.
•Key enablers:
a.The three-level linkage governance system (county-township-village) drives universal participation, with Cun Chao Ban acting as a cross-departmental coordination hub for resource allocation, event operation, and commercial development.
b.The "benefit-sharing for all" model positions residents as cultural performers, agricultural product producers, new media anchors, and collective economic shareholders.
c.The 10,000-person new media matrix leverages a "government-guided, public-participated" strategy—with core accounts guiding content and sub-accounts using unified hashtags to achieve tens of billions of views, breaking mountain isolation.
•Dynamic resource activation:
￮ICH resources (e.g., Dong Grand Song, indigo dyeing) are converted into cultural and creative products via event performances, entering consumer markets through stadium markets and live-streaming e-commerce.
￮Dispersed agricultural products (e.g., passion fruit, navel oranges) are upgraded to pre-packaged products with brand premium, with collective economic revenues investing in deep processing industrial chains—enhancing farmers' bargaining power.
￮Sports events are professionally operated to develop international IPs such as the "Village Super League World Cup."
￮Tourism resources are integrated through urban-rural linkage ("cultural depth in villages, traffic absorption in the county seat"), connecting high-speed rail routes, homestay clusters, and ICH villages into in-depth tourist experience scenarios.
•Closed-loop ecological co-development: Industrial chain extension drives "Sweet Rongjiang" products into supermarket channels, addressing the "increased production without increased income" dilemma. Living ICH inheritance doubles orders for indigo dyeing workshops, enabling women to work near home. Tourism growth boosts the tertiary industry. Sports co-creation encourages entrepreneurship and improves grassroots governance efficiency. Commercial brand value appreciates through IP authorization—verifying the multiplier effect of integrating agriculture, culture, tourism, sports, and commerce.
The essence of systematic poverty alleviation lies in governance innovation-driven factor restructuring—transforming county resources into assets and capital under a "government-led, public-participated, market-empowered" framework, providing an endogenous development model for underdeveloped regions.
1. "Super Economy": Economic Restructuring and Industrial Chain Extension
The "Village Super League"—integrating football, ethnic culture, cuisine, tourism, and characteristic products—has fully activated Rongjiang's county economy:
•Tourism growth: In 2023, the event attracted over 7.658 million tourists, generating 8.4 billion yuan in total tourism revenue (a 73.9% year-on-year increase). In 2024, tourist arrivals reached 9.4618 million, with total tourism revenue hitting 10.803 billion yuan (a 28.64% year-on-year increase). Hotel occupancy rates approached 90%, driving explosive growth in accommodation, catering, and transportation services.
•Market entity expansion: Since 2023, over 5,100 new market entities (e.g., homestays, hotels) have been added—ranking first in Qiandongnan Prefecture. Rongjiang successfully introduced five-star and four-star hotels, as well as characteristic homestays.
•Economic growth: In 2024, Rongjiang's GDP reached 1.0496 billion yuan (a 9.5% increase), becoming the third county in Qiandongnan Prefecture with a GDP exceeding 10 billion yuan. The added value of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries reached 2.452 billion yuan, 1.875 billion yuan, and 6.169 billion yuan respectively. Resident deposits and loans rose from second to first among similar counties in the prefecture.
•Industrial upgrading: Characteristic agricultural products (e.g., passion fruit, momordica grosvenori) have gained value through event exhibitions and live-streaming e-commerce, with pre-packaged production lines established. The traditional wood processing industry has transformed by developing the "Village Super League Wood" brand, achieving breakthroughs in product development, and Rongjiang Industrial Park has been upgraded to a provincial economic development zone—extending industrial chains.
•Infrastructure and people's livelihood investment: In 2024, 2.387 billion yuan (76.69% of general public budget expenditure) was invested in people's livelihoods. Key projects included:
￮Water safety renovations in 38 villages and electrical wiring upgrades for 4,495 wooden houses in 131 villages—eliminating fire hazards and supporting new formats such as ICH workshops and homestays.
￮60-plus kilometers of rural highway safety protection projects—creating a national model county for "Four Good Rural Roads" and facilitating agricultural product transportation and tourist flow.
￮Increased high-speed rail and bullet train stops at Rongjiang Station, and dedicated "Village Super League" bus routes and direct passenger buses from Guiyang—improving supporting infrastructure and promoting characteristic tourism routes.
As Secretary Xu Bo noted: "For the Village Super League, joyful football is the foundation, joyful branding is the method, joyful culture is the value, joyful platform is the strategy, and achieving a joyful economy is our goal."
2. "Super Culture": Activating Cultural Resources and Breaking Through with Digital Empowerment
The "Village Super League" has injected ethnic cultural genes into modern development logic, reconstructing cultural communication and exchange paradigms through digital technology—transforming Rongjiang from a mountainous county to a global IP:
•Cultural integration: The event integrates national-level ICH such as the Dong Grand Song and Miao Lusheng Dance, creating a three-dimensional scene of matches, performances, and markets. It has attracted nearly 300 football teams from 31 provincial-level administrative regions, showcasing regional cultural symbols such as Henan Luoyi's "Maidservants Playing Cuju" paintings, Taiwan's song "High Mountain Green," and Tibet's Thangka art—forming a unique "one match, one culture; one team, one story" landscape. ICH workshops (e.g., indigo dyeing, silverwork) have expanded from villages to stadium markets, with products reaching national and international markets via event traffic and live-streaming e-commerce—exemplifying the coordinated development of material and spiritual civilization.
•International cultural exchange: The "Village Super League" has been recognized by CCTV as a "new form of human civilization," signed a cooperation agreement with the English Premier League (EPL) at the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) "Colorful Night," and hosted the 2024 Belt and Road International Friendly Match. At the Boao Forum for Asia, Rongjiang proposed to "tell Chinese stories, deepen international cooperation, and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind through football—the world's most popular sport." The county has established a "Three-Step Strategy for the Village Super League World Cup": launching international exchange matches in 2024, hosting the Belt and Road "Village Super League Friendly Match" (Mini World Cup) in 2026, and organizing the "Village Super League World Cup" in 2028—allowing global friends to perceive a more authentic and three-dimensional China, and leveraging football to promote people-to-people diplomacy.
III. Experience Summary
Centered on people-orientedness, innovation, and systematicity, Rongjiang’s "Village Super League" in Guizhou has explored a systematic poverty alleviation path for the integrated development of agriculture, culture, tourism, sports, and commerce in underdeveloped regions by activating the enthusiasm of the people as the main body, reconstructing the value chain of county resources, and deepening the empowerment of new media and digital technologies. It provides the following learnable experiences for similar regions around the world:
First, the in-depth integration of national strategic guidance and grassroots innovative practice is an important prerequisite for activating county-level development momentum.
The sustained progress of China’s poverty alleviation cause is inseparable from the guarantee of national strategies. The success of Rongjiang’s "Village Super League" case is also rooted in the policy dividends of targeted poverty alleviation and rural revitalization strategies. The improvement of infrastructure such as the Guiyang-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway has broken Rongjiang’s geographical isolation, the popularization of 5G technology has laid the foundation for new media communication, and the government’s industrial support policies have effectively reduced the risk of returning to poverty. Against this background, the CPC Rongjiang County Committee and the People’s Government of Rongjiang County took the initiative to break through the bottleneck with a "leapfrog development" mindset. Through the capabilities accumulated in mass mobilization and event operation from the first five attempts at building county-level cultural IPs, they finally achieved a qualitative leap in the sixth practice, transforming national strategic guidelines into the implementation path of the "Village Super League". It can be found that Rongjiang’s poverty alleviation logic includes two-way interaction between national top-level design and grassroots governance innovation: national strategies can provide resource guarantees and legitimacy support for local practices, while local governments’ innovative explorations continuously enrich the connotation of poverty alleviation and blaze a path out of poverty through "learning by doing".
Second, adhering to a people-centered approach and activating the main force of the masses is the core grasp to solve the lack of organizational mechanisms.
The CPC Rongjiang County Committee and the People’s Government of Rongjiang County have a profound grasp of the core logic of "putting the people first", transforming over 80 years of folk football traditions and thousands of years of ethnic cultural heritage into practical momentum for full participation. Through the three-level county-township-village linkage governance mechanism, they launched a series of discussions on the "Three-Step Ideological Guidance", guiding 385,000 Rongjiang residents to transform from onlookers into organizers of the "Village Super League" events, performers of characteristic cultures, and co-builders of county-level brands, thus constructing a co-governance ecosystem where the government sets the stage, the masses take the lead, and the market provides empowerment. Especially in terms of benefit sharing, they innovatively designed a distribution framework where 51% of the revenue is fed back to the village collective economy and 49% is invested in the football ecosystem, converting revenues from event brand authorization and commercial sponsorships into livelihood projects such as village road renovation and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) workshop construction. At the same time, through national cultural and tourism exhibitions and live-streaming e-commerce, they realized the transformation of resources into assets and all residents into "shareholders", achieving economic inclusiveness. This model rooted in the countryside and co-created by all people has effectively solved the dilemma in traditional governance where the government is enthusiastic but the masses are indifferent, and has also made the "Village Super League" brand a spiritual bond that unites the local emotional ties of all Rongjiang people and stimulates their endogenous sense of ownership.
Third, the construction of a new media communication matrix and the conversion of traffic value are the key paths to break geographical restrictions and reshape resource value.
With the concept of "making mobile phones new farming tools, data new agricultural materials, and live streaming new farm work", Rongjiang has trained 35,000 people through the "10,000-Person New Media Rural Revitalization Plan", transforming ICH inheritors, left-behind women and other groups into new farmers in the digital age, cultivating 12,800 new media accounts, and forming a communication ecosystem where everyone can be an anchor and social forces are widely mobilized. In terms of communication strategy, it has built a matrix-based content production system led by core accounts and linked by sub-accounts, making full use of the laws of modern new media communication through unified "Village Super League" topic tags, algorithmic promotion, and cross-regional cooperation. This has achieved 85 billion views through fission communication, quickly realizing the phenomenal exposure of the "Village Super League", and effectively diverting traffic from Rongjiang’s "Village Super League" and characteristic agricultural products to agricultural, cultural, tourism and sports consumption scenarios. In the end, through the "government-guided and public-operated" communication model, Rongjiang achieved full connection with mainstream media and national self-media, effectively seizing the high ground of value communication, upgrading the "Village Super League" from a local sports event to a nationally concerned phenomenal IP, promoting the traffic monetization of Rongjiang’s ICH, characteristic agricultural products and other resources, and building a widely influential brand image of "Guizhou Village Super League".
Fourth, industrial chain extension and multi-industry integration are important supports for the transformation and upgrading of Rongjiang’s county economy.
Rongjiang has broken through the single dimension of traditional event economy, and promoted the reconstruction of the county’s entire industrial chain with the "Village Super League" IP as the core link. Vertically, it has promoted the upgrading of agricultural products from primary forms in the fields to deep processing, establishing production lines for fruit juice and preserved fruits. Rongjiang’s wood processing industry has also accelerated its transformation and developed the "Village Super League Wood" brand, realizing the effective extension of the industrial chain. Horizontally, through joint brand marketing (such as signing a cooperation agreement with the English Premier League), "Village Super League" IP authorization cooperation (such as the development of cultural and creative products), and "going out and inviting in" investment promotion (such as attracting more than 50 enterprises to settle in the New Media Industrial Park), it has built an industrial cluster integrating football events, ICH experiences, homestay tourism, e-commerce logistics, etc., promoting the improvement of the quality and efficiency of Rongjiang’s economic development momentum.
Fifth, the introduction and cultivation of talents are the core support for the sustainable development of the humanistic economy.
Faced with the problem of talent shortage in underdeveloped mountainous counties, Rongjiang has solved the bottleneck through internal cultivation and external introduction. On the one hand, relying on the "10,000-Person New Media Rural Revitalization Plan", it has cultivated 12,800 new media digital farmers in villages. On the other hand, it has launched the "Talent Gathering Initiative" and innovatively set up honorary titles such as "Honorary Village Chief" and "Village Super League Consultant" to attract entrepreneurs and cultural scholars to participate in brand planning, realizing a virtuous interaction of invigorating industries with talents and gathering talents with industries, and injecting sustainable innovative vitality into county-level development.
In summary, through a detailed analysis and in-depth exploration under the "5W1H+" poverty alleviation analytical framework, the successful practice of the "Village Super League" model in Rongjiang, Guizhou, stands as a vivid microcosm of China’s distinctive path to poverty reduction. It demonstrates how underdeveloped regions can achieve deep integration of agriculture, culture, tourism, sports, and commerce through systematic poverty alleviation innovation, forging an effective poverty reduction solution with Chinese characteristics. Relying on the policy dividends of China’s national targeted poverty alleviation strategy, the CPC Rongjiang County Committee and the People’s Government of Rongjiang County have broken geographical barriers through the Guiyang-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway and laid the foundation for new media capacity with 5G infrastructure. By integrating over 80 years of local folk football tradition and thousands of years of ethnic culture, they have established a three-level county-township-village linkage governance mechanism and set up a cross-departmental "Village Super League Coordination Office". Through an all-inclusive benefit-sharing mechanism, they have fostered an ecosystem of full participation, universal benefit, and joint governance among the 385,000 people of Rongjiang. Supported by a 10,000-person new media communication matrix, the county has promoted the development of the "Village Super League" cultural IP, driving the deep processing of agricultural products, the transformation of the wood industry, and other sectors. This has significantly improved the development level of all industries in Rongjiang County and raised residents’ incomes, achieving "leapfrog development" and effectively boosting the personalized and integrated development of agriculture, culture, tourism, sports, and commerce at the county level. The practice of Rongjiang’s "Village Super League" fully embodies a poverty alleviation logic with Rongjiang characteristics: national strategic guidance, public empowerment, digital technology enablement, and full industrial chain extension. It provides a systematic Chinese solution to global poverty reduction that is learnable, replicable, disseminable, and transferable.
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the CPC Rongjiang County Committee, the People’s Government of Rongjiang County, and the "Village Super League" Coordination Office of Rongjiang County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, for their research support for this study.
