Wang Yong: Being a “General Practitioner” in Beautiful Countryside

Prof. Wang Yong, from the College of Communication and Art Design, who has just completed the design proposals for five characteristic villages in Sichuan Province, including Yuandi village, Biyuan Village, Shagang Village and Beishan Village, continues to rush about in many villages in Pingyang County, Zhejiang Province. This summer vacation, instead of stopping in his steps, he was busy carrying out an on-site reconnaissance, field surveying and mapping, getting to know about the needs of villagers and so on. In the past ten years, he has visited more than 200 villages all over China. On average, he goes to the countryside every two weeks, without having holidays to rest. On the road to rural revitalization, he leads the team to be pioneers in groping forward bravely to create a distinctive and beautiful countryside with wisdom and feelings.
Wang Yong leads the team to connect the project with economic and social development closely, and has begun to explore the development path of rural revitalization in the post-poverty alleviation era. The project titled “Integration of Industry, Culture and Scenery to Activate the Endogenous Power of Poverty Alleviation in Rural Industries” led by Wang Yong was approved as a national team project of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security to serve grass-roots units. Wang Yong was invited to undertake the planning and design of the integration of industries and villages, a major leading industrial project called “Yiming Ecological Health Valley”. He will strive to discover the cultural resources abundant in villages and explore a new mode of the synergetic development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries in the future, so as to create a model for the integrated reform of beautiful countryside in a new era.
Urban design needs “specialists”, and the division of some fields such as architecture, transportation and landscaping should be clear. Although the scale of projects in the countryside is not as large as those in the city, they are small but complicated, simple but professional. “We have to be ‘general practitioners’ on rural issues. With openness, creativity and scientific ideas, knowledge from interdisciplinary subjects, we have to formulate creative design schemes that can meet the living needs of the villagers and are suitable for the national and local conditions, and continue to be devoted to the rural planning and revitalization,” said Wang Yong
“We used to live in a harsh environment with dilapidated houses, but thanks to the high-level teachers from USST, now our village has taken on a new look. We are all very grateful to them!” Dong Xijie, Party Branch Secretary of Jintian Village Committee, Tengjiao Town, Pingyang County, Zhejiang Province, commented. Wang Yong and his team members have heard a lot about such high praises. Starting from August 3, 17 members of the team will go to Yueshi Village of Baoshan District, Maoqiao Village of Jiading District, Hemu Village of Qingpu District, Jianghai Village of Fengxian District and other places in Shanghai to start reconnaissance research on rural projects. They will continue to endeavor to take on more creative design schemes about beautiful countryside construction recognized by local villagers.