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Chen Suhou: From vice governor to farmer
By Jessie Tao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2005-12-29 14:58
The first thing he did after returning to his hometown was help build Songhai
Village into a civilized ecological village, getting rid of the village's dirty,
tumultuous, and messy appearance. In the past, there was no toilet in the
village, and pigs were pastured, leaving pig waste everywhere. Compounded with
poverty, the village became the last choice for unmarried girls. In fact, as
time went by, the village turned into a "bachelors' village."
Although Chen wanted to help, it never has been easy to build a village into
a civilized ecological one, just as it is difficult to get the farmers of any
locality to change their ideology. With no other choice, Chen had to talk to the
villagers, household by household.
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| A corner of a local
farmer's courtyard. [Xinhua] | As told by Chen,
local villagers used to use a nearby mountain as a public toilet, and no one
thought a washing room in the back of his or her own home necessary. But
encouraged by Chen, every family got its own toilet, except for the household of
a man named Chen Fengzhang. However, problems emerged when his son got married,
as all the guests, including the bride, had to use the neighbor's toilet. Then,
persuaded by Chen Suhou, the villager finally changed his idea, and built two
toilets.
Another headache for Chen was the scattered rubbish seen everywhere in the
village. To settle the problem, Chen thought of the rubbish wagons in the city.
He went to the downtown, requiring local environment-protection authorities to
send rubbish-collecting wagons to the countryside, which would be paid by the
village. Therefore, with an annual fee of 15 yuan (US$1.81), the villagers had
their own rubbish-collection wagons and now they only have to place their
rubbish in front of their door every evening.
As a former government official, Chen Suhou knows too well the importance of
road construction, and he has largely attributed his hometown's poverty and
lagging behind to inconvenient transportation. Realizing this, Chen began to
embark on his third job -- to help the village build roads and bridges. Chen
used every means to get the money for such construction -- grants from the
government, sponsorship by business owners, and contribution by local villagers.
In retrospect, Chen said, "I claimed to do something for the farmers, but in
fact I am largely a facilitator." Nowadays, thanks to Chen, Songhai Village can
be reached from all directions, with one 5-meter-wide ring road leading to every
household and another to the fields.
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