Zhong, 49, who is also a deputy to the 14th National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, and an inheritor of the She ethnic martial arts, said: “Only a thriving village can preserve the She ethnic martial arts.”
Under her leadership, roads were repaired, streetlamps installed, and tourism facilities upgraded. Instead of moving away, many villagers became homestay hosts or martial arts performers. Thanks to rural tourism centered on the She ethnic martial arts, the village’s revenue jumped from 200,000 yuan ($28,000) in 2021 to 500,000 yuan in 2024.
According to the 2022 progress monitoring report of the Outline for Women’s Development in China (2021-30), women accounted for 54.3 percent of neighborhood committee members and 41.3 percent of neighborhood committee directors, as well as 26.1 percent of village committee members and 10.9 percent of village committee directors.
Data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed that in 2022, there were 489,000 village committees, with a total of 2.154 million village committee members. And there were 118,000 neighbourhood committees, comprising 663,000 neighbourhood committee members.