"Our fence stands right by the field at the doorstep. She painted blue skies, white clouds, and flowers, and I wove them stitch by stitch into the fence." In the cheerful laughter of Zhang Fazhi, a villager of Shadun Village, memories spill like sunlight across the old bluestone pavement in front of her century-old brick house. This home, bearing over a hundred years of history, has witnessed her family's journey through hardship and joy, and has become one of the most touching chapters in the "Family Letter Project."

In 2024, guided by the Wuhu Municipal Committee of Social Work and implemented by the Wanzhi District Xinghe Social Work Development Center, Shadun Village officially launched the "Home and Hometown: Co-creating a New Portrait of Shadun Governance" project. This initiative was supported by the 2024 Citywide Grassroots Governance Public Service Project Fund. As a key component of the project, the "Family Letter Project" aims to document the village's transformation through oral family letters narrated by villagers, preserving stories of rural change, passing down family values, and revitalizing cultural confidence at the grassroots level.

These are no ordinary letters—they are living histories and village annals rooted in the land. Each letter is written for "future generations" and left for "the village of tomorrow."

In Zhang Fazhi's family letter, she shares the joy of moving from a muddy cottage into a two-story brick house, the pride of having contributed land to build village roads, and the warmth of gathering around the dining table with her family of 13. "In the past, we relied on our own hands to farm the land. Now, our children are building their lives away from home, while we stay here, guarding not just our family, but also the roots of Shadun."

The village's "barefoot doctor," Xi Zhenggen, also poured his life story into a family letter. From beginning his service in 1971 until his retirement in 2011, he made his daily rounds without fail, rain or shine. For forty years, he guarded the villagers' health with "an acupuncture needle and a handful of medicinal herbs." His simple words—"Medicine relies on study, but even more on dedication"—have deeply moved countless readers. Now retired, he has turned to creating farmers' paintings, and in 2023, he participated as a representative in an exhibition in Macao, continuing to tell rural stories through his brush.

The family letter of villager Xi Juren, meanwhile, reads like poetry rooted deep in the soil. He began farming at age 12, and eventually built his own house in 1992. Later, he voluntarily gave up his land to support the village's "Beautiful Countryside" initiative, contributing to the construction of a public clinic and roads. "Farming requires foresight—prepare in good years for lean ones. Giving up a piece of land for the village is no loss," he said.

Story by story, the people of Shadun have woven a rich tapestry of rural governance. These family letters do more than record individual lives—they connect the dots between village development and the broader currents of history.

"We found that many elders aren't comfortable telling their stories on camera, but with pen and paper, they write, they speak, they remember," said Dong Huiqin, head of the Wanzhi District Xinghe Social Work Development Center. "The heart of the Family Letter Project isn't literary flair—it's authenticity. It's the simplest language and the most genuine emotions that carry the greatest legacy."

The project team delved into the life memories of Shadun villagers through systematic interviews, the collection of historical objects, and the documentation of family stories. Each family letter will be adapted into both digital and physical formats for dissemination, with selected letters from representative figures being compiled into the book "Shadun Memories", which will also serve as a permanent exhibition resource in the village history museum.

As one villager wrote in a family letter: "May you journey far, yet always remember your way home." In letter after letter, Shadun's Family Letter Project gently unfolds the warmth of "home," the memories of "hometown," and the wisdom of "governance," inscribing them into a new chapter of rural governance for the new era.

Source: anhuinews.com