Lifting 'the poorest of the poor' out of poverty in Sichuan: Does poverty alleviation mean uprooting people from their homes?

(Photos: Edwin Ong, unless otherwise stated)

Travelling deep into Sichuan's rugged, misty Daliang mountains, one finds a collection of neat, low-rise houses, reminiscent of Singapore's early HDB estates. Each of the 25 six-storey blocks are decorated with neon-orange torch motifs, a symbol of the fire-worshipping Yi people (彝族).

This is the Chengbei Thanksgiving Community (城北感恩社区), located in Yuexi county, in the northern part of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southwest Sichuan province. It is the largest resettlement site in Yuexi under China's poverty alleviation and relocation plan.

Built by the local government at a cost of 420 million RMB (S$84 million), it was completed in September last year. Since then, 1,421 households (6,600 people) living in poverty from 38 farming villages in 17 townships nearby have left their homes in the inhospitable mountains and resettled in the 1,440 new units in the Community.

When I visited this month, I found the surroundings of this asphalt-road-paved "HDB estate" clean and green. But unlike Singapore's HDB flats, there are units on the ground floor and no void decks. As the buildings do not have lifts, the units on the first two storeys have been assigned to the disabled and the aged.

Going into a ground floor unit, the first thing I noticed was the concrete floor in the living and dining areas - the grey evoked a sense of Singapore's early HDB units.

The well-lit 75 sqm unit was spartan but clean, consisting of two rooms and a hall, with amenities including a dining table, sofa, TV, stove, and toilet.

The owner of the unit is a 20-year-old Yi woman, Mahai Wure. She used to live in Jide village in Siganpu township in the mountains 20 kilometres away, and only moved in last October, where she now lives with her mother-in-law, husband, and ten-month-old daughter.

Mahai said that before her move, she had lived all her life in earthen huts. In the mountains, there was a lack of employment opportunities with decent pay. Her elders made do by growing crops such as corn and potatoes, and kept pigs and chickens. She worked in Guangdong and Chengdu previously, but now stays home to look after her baby. Her family gets by with the money her husband makes from working in Chengdu. She also sews Yi embroidery, or works at a local supermarket to help with expenses.

Reflecting on how her life has changed, Mahai said, "The biggest difference is the house. Things are good now, we're doing well. My baby can go to school nearby, and transport is good."

Like other villagers wanting to relocate, she had to pay a one-time security deposit of 10,000 RMB in order to stay in the flat for a lifetime. But she thinks this sum is still manageable and not too huge a financial burden for the residents.

Mahai's neighbour is a 29-year-old Yi man, Ayue Wuqie. He too used to live in the mountains, but in Tapu village in Xinxiang township. He moved last October into his new flat in the Community, a 100 sqm unit with three rooms and a hall where he lives with his wife and three children. All the furniture was provided for and no renovation was required. He only had to buy some appliances such as a TV and refrigerator.

Describing his life in the mountains, Ayue said: "That was tough. It was very inconvenient just to get to the county to buy food. It was over two hours by car, so we didn't go very often."

There was also no outhouse or toilet in the earthen hut they lived in, and the kitchen was part of the living area, with a wood fire in the centre that served for heating and cooking.

On top of that, the village only had a small hydro generator in the past. It was only when the village got access to electricity recently that every household started buying television sets and using electric rice cookers, washing machines and refrigerators.

In recent years, with concrete roads leading into the village and water pipes running in households, the villagers also no longer needed to fetch water from afar. The village was well on its way to having a semblance of modern living in the mountains.

However, as employment and education opportunities were still unsatisfactory, Ayue still decided to relocate. "It was very inconvenient for the children to go to school. You have to walk 45 minutes each way to get to the primary school in the township." he said.

Now, the school is just a short walk away.

In fact, most of the Tapu villagers who moved to the Community did so because of the schools. There are five schools in the vicinity - two kindergartens, a primary school and two secondary schools.

Wang Hong, Chinese Communist Party deputy secretary for the Community, said: "Some families were renting homes nearby. They have also moved in and are happy because they do not need to rent any more."

Employment prospects have improved as well. Ayue used to keep chickens, cows, and sheep in the village, and grew corn, potatoes, and buckwheat. Once, he left home with his eldest brother to work in Inner Mongolia. Now, Ayue and his wife can go to the county and "do some odd jobs to earn money" - each can earn about 100 to 120 RMB a day.

Liangshan prefecture has the largest community of Yi people in China. Much of the region is located deep in the mountains where transportation is inconvenient and development is slow.

In 2013, there were about 880,000 poor people living there and outsiders call them the "poorest of the poor" in China. The prefecture still has seven counties with people living in abject poverty, including Yuexi county.

To alleviate poverty, Liangshan has relocated 70,000 families and 350,000 people, or about 40% of its poor population. Sichuan party secretary Peng Qinghua had commented earlier that the poor from Ahtuler village in Zhaojue county (known as the "Cliff Village") have been relocated from the sheer cliffs to a community at the foot of the mountain.

China aims to build a moderately affluent society and alleviate poverty by the end of this year, but the coronavirus has impacted Sichuan's efforts. According to Peng, people had to put off going back to work for a whole month after the Spring Festival, which had affected their income. Progress to build residential, transport, and production facilities, slowed down during the initial outbreak, only to pick up in April. But Sichuan's overall poverty alleviation efforts are still on schedule.

In the early days, dilapidated attap houses and slums dotted Singapore. After the Housing and Development Board (HDB) built affordable rental flats in the 1960s, people started moving into them and enjoying the convenience of clean water and power-lined electricity. But they also had to bear household and utility expenses. Fast forward to Sichuan today, do villagers find their bills an extra burden?

Ayue does not think so. His additional expense now is water, but a tonne of water only cost four RMB. "Other than that, we have no other big expenses," he said.

In the past, compact rows of housing units in HDB flats in Singapore were jokingly called "pigeon holes". Having moved from their large, open spaces in the village to these similarly smaller spaces, Ayue's family seems to have adapted well. He said, "Everything in the flat is built for convenience, which is completely different from our home in the mountains. It is comfortable."

Wang explained that this was because the previous living space of the residents in the mountains was actually not very big at all. "In the past, spaces might be bigger but they were not properly demarcated. The living room could be huge, but they ate and also slept in it."

While the villagers in the Community moved here willingly, Wang admitted that some other villagers were reluctant to move to the county as they were afraid of employment issues. "But those people are all regretting it now," Wang said.

Over the past year, the residential area has also reported a relatively low crime rate. Residents have not yet had to deal with offences such as high-rise littering, and there have been little clashes over differences in living habits. "They are all Yi people and share the same customs and culture. Speaking the same language helps close the gap as well," Wang explained.　　

In fact, Ayue thinks that it makes interactions and mutual help easier. "Living close to one another is good," he said. "It's easier to visit one another and share information, as we are all within walking distance."

An indispensable part of Singapore's HDB flats are the communal spaces that promote "kampung spirit" (a colloquial term used in Singapore for good neighbourliness and community spirit).

While there are no void decks in the Community, there is a large communal square beside the residential area which includes a basketball court, fitness facilities, as well as a space for the Yi people to practise their ethnic dances. During the Torch Festival (火把节) or when a major event is held, a fire would also be lighted. Mahai said the Yi people have continued to dance in the Community, and have kept their customs and festivities alive to this day. As many as eight Dati dance groups dance at the square every afternoon.

In addition, a variety of activities such as football matches for the children, basketball matches, singing competitions, and general knowledge classes are organised to encourage interaction and forge bonds. During this year's Dragon Boat Festival, there were also lessons to teach the Yi people - who do not celebrate the festival - how to make rice dumplings.

When I visited the Community, their monthly intangible cultural heritage and agricultural products exhibition happened to be on. Dozens of Yi women dressed in their traditional costumes sat in the communal square, chatting and busying their hands with embroidery.　　

While the group mostly comprised middle- to old-aged women, a few young women were among them. Carefully made up, He Jianxiu looked particularly eye-catching in the crowd as she skilfully embroidered typical Yi decorations on a sock.

The 27-year-old from Waji village in Xinxiangxiang told Lianhe Zaobao that she learnt how to put on makeup in 2016 when she left her hometown to work in Guangzhou. Married with two young children, her family of four moved into the community last September. She started learning embroidery at the square and has even turned it into a livelihood. "I don't go out anymore. I can earn money at home now," she said.

Qu Jia, originally from the high mountains of Baiguoxiang and a mother of two young daughters, told us that there are more work opportunities now that they are in a county. "Previously when we farmed, it was only enough to feed us. There was nothing extra that we could sell. Now, my husband can work outside and I can do embroidery... Earning money is easier." she said.

The Community has four poverty alleviation factories that provide approximately 1,000 jobs for residents. Poor households in the community are expected to achieve a per capita income of over 5,000 RMB by the end of this year. All residents would be lifted out of poverty as well.

Yuexi County party secretary Yuan Hong said that the county uses the asset income allocation model to increase the income of poor households. It distributes poverty alleviation funds from local governments and Guangdong through the equity method, giving each poor household 5,000 RMB worth of shares.

The county government would also invest its integrated funds into six industrial bases including apple crops and poultry farming, which would then be centrally managed by state-owned agricultural companies and large management technology enterprises. According to Yuan, for the first three years before these industries start making a profit, the county government would distribute a guaranteed dividend to residents, meaning that each poor person would receive a fixed dividend of 250 RMB per annum. From the fourth year onwards, dividends would be distributed according to profits earned by the industrial bases. By then, it is expected that each person would receive a dividend of 1,200 RMB per annum. Poor households could also work at these industrial bases and earn between 70 RMB and 100 RMB per day.　

The photos below depict how other counties in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture are developing.

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