湖南湘西十八洞村，一位年轻姑娘正坐在火塘旁料理柴火，她穿着鲜艳的苗服，袖子和裤子上搭配着粉色和绿色的精致刺绣。在她娴熟的动作下，火光变得越发明亮。
The young woman is dressed in striking local ethnic attire, with matching embroidered pink-green sleeves and pants. She sits next to a traditional huotang open hearth, feeding it generously with firewood to keep the flames burning bright.
“火塘是我们的保暖方式，同时我们还用它来制作腊肉（即中国熏肉）。”她边说边指着正挂在炉火上熏制的咸猪肉，令人垂涎不已。
"This is our way of keeping warm. The huotang can be used to make larou (Chinese bacon) at the same time," she said, pointing to the mouthwatering strips of salted pork hung over the fire for smoking.
十八洞村返乡创业的第一代大学生施林娇（右）在4月23日的现场直播中向观众展示了湘西腊肉制作方法。图片来源：新华社
24岁的施林娇正在向游客介绍当地美食，这只是她拍摄的湘西土家族苗族自治州的一个苗族村落——十八洞村视频中的一幕。十八洞村以该村的18个天然洞穴命名。
Shi Linjiao, 24, is not just introducing a local delicacy to visitors. She is part of a scene in a video being shot at Shibadong, a village of the Miao ethnic group in the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture, Central China's Hunan province. Shibadong is named after the village's 18 natural caves.
去年，她从位于浙江杭州的浙江音乐学院毕业后，去了湖南省县级市浏阳工作。但几个月后，她辞去工作回到家乡十八洞村。
Shi returned to Shibadong after she graduated last year from the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, and had a job at Liuyang, a county-level city in Hunan. She quit the job several months later to go back to her hometown.
该视频是她宣传家乡系列视频中的一部分。施林娇负责出镜，另外2名返乡大学生施志春、施康则分别负责节目策划和视频剪辑。
The video is part of a series used to promote her hometown. Shi herself is tasked with appearing on camera, while other village returnees Shi Zhichun plans the programs and Shi Kang edits the clips.
施志春在长沙中南大学读的英语专业，2017年获得湘西土家族苗族自治州吉首大学研究生学位，毕业后选择离开城市回到家乡十八洞村。
Shi Zhichun, who earned a graduate degree at Jishou University in Jishou, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture after majoring in English as an undergraduate at the Central South University in Changsha, chose to leave the city to return to Shibadong following his studies in 2017.
施康曾经在湖南长沙从事新媒体领域的工作，之后受到施志春的启发和鼓励, 也萌生了回家乡创业的想法。
Shi Kang once worked in the field of new media in Changsha, capital of Hunan, before he was inspired by Shi Zhichun's idea of starting their own business at their hometown last year.
从2017年起三人在各自的院校毕业后从城市回到家乡，一回来后他们便决定携手合作，利用现代传播渠道将家乡向外界推广。
The trio returned from cities after graduating from their respective colleges since 2017. Once back home, they decided to work together, promoting their hometown to the outside world through modern communication channels.
像全国许多其他贫困偏远地区一样，十八洞村位于山水秀美的武陵山区之中，但交通不便、基础设施不全。
Like many other impoverished remote areas in the country, the village is located amid the highlands, in the Wuling Mountains endowed with breathtaking scenery and clean water, but having inadequate transportation and other infrastructure.
村民们过去只能依靠几亩薄田种植粮食糊口，收入甚微。
Villagers used to rely on the little income they could reap from crops, including corn and rice, planted on scattered farmland.
5月14日，湖南省湘西土家族苗族自治州花垣县十八洞村的景色。图片来源：中国日报
90后返乡大学生为村民直播卖货出圈
31岁的施志春说：“我想让我的家乡在世界其他地方广为人知，这样就可以吸引游客，还可以更多地在线销售我们这儿的苗族特产。”
"I want to make my hometown known to the rest of the world, so that tourists can be attracted here and Miao villagers' specialties can be sold online," the 31-year-old said.
他在“抖音”上发布了短视频并进行了直播，这让他很快就找到了宣传十八洞村旅游景点和当地特产的方法。
He soon figured out an effective way to promote Shibadong's attractions and specialties, by posting short videos and livestreaming on major social networking platform Douyin.
三人小组的视频很快收获了越来越多的粉丝，他们开始购买村民自制的土特产腊肉。
It did not take long for the increasing number of fans of the trio's videos to start buying the larou products made by households in the village.
施志春说，他们目前已经卖出了数百公斤的腊肉，而村民每卖出一公斤腊肉就可以赚到60元人民币。
Shi said they have been selling hundreds of kilograms of the meat, with the villagers earning about 60 yuan ($8.5) for every kilogram of larou they sell.
除此之外，他们也在尝试通过数字化平台销售胡椒、米酒、猕猴桃等其他土特产。目前，他们的抖音账户粉丝人数已达9万多。
Other local agricultural products, including peppers, rice wine and kiwis, are also being sold through the digital platforms. Their account on Douyin has attracted more than 90,000 fans, Shi said.
老村支书拿起绣花针绣出脱贫新出路
返乡创业的大学生们并不是唯一拥抱十八洞村光明未来的人。
The village returnees are not the only ones to embrace a bright future for Shibadong.
石顺莲坐在工作台上手指翻飞，缝制一幅火车头主题的黑白精美苗绣作品。
Sitting on a workbench, Shi Shunlian deftly threads a needle through a spread of fabric－she is stitching an elaborate scene of a high-speed train, in white and black.
她今年66岁，曾任十八洞村的村支书。2014年退休后，她重拾旧时爱好——苗绣。作为苗族传统手艺，石顺莲希望它可以帮助村里有需要的妇女们增加额外的收入。
Shi, 66, is a former Party chief at Shibadong. After retiring in 2014, she picked up miaoxiu (traditional ethnic embroidery) hoping the skill can help the needy villagers earn some additional income.
石顺莲在5月21日忙于刺绣 图片来源：中国日报石顺莲回忆说，2013年考察十八洞村时，当时939名村民中有57％生活在国家贫困线以下，人均可支配收入仅1668元。
She recalled that President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, visited the village in 2013. At the time, 57 percent of the 939 villagers were living below the national poverty line of 2,300 yuan ($328), with their per capita disposable income at 1,668 yuan.
她说：“当他问我们村民一年能挣多少钱时，我心里很难受。”石顺莲自1997年以来一直担任村支书的职位，但由于落后的自然条件，仍然难以改变十八洞村的贫穷面貌。
"I felt sorry when he asked how much our villagers could earn in a year," Shi said, adding that she had been at the post since 1997 but the village still remained poor due to the tough natural conditions.
石顺莲想通过组织家庭主妇制作苗绣然后以手工艺品出售，继续帮助该村摆脱贫困。
Shi Shunlian wanted to continue helping the village to fight poverty after her retirement, by organizing housewives to make miaoxiu and selling them as arts and crafts.
苗绣色彩鲜艳明快、线条多样，是被列为国家级非物质文化遗产名录首批传统项目之一。
Miaoxiu, which features rich and splendid colors and various figures and lines, is among the first traditions of its kind listed as a national intangible cultural heritage.
她说：“通过这种方式，我们可以保留苗族的文化遗产，并用它来改善我们的生活。”她还说道，这项传统正面临失去传承的风险。
"In this way, we can preserve Miao people's cultural inheritance and use it to help improve our lives," she said, adding that the traditional activity is in danger of fading out of their community.
石顺莲记得苗族女孩很小的时候就开始跟着妈妈和奶奶学苗绣。
She remembered how Miao girls traditionally learned to embroider from their mothers and grandmothers at a very early age.
“我们将蝴蝶和花朵等各种形状缝制在织物上，并用它们来制作不同的物品，包括衣服、枕套、手袋和墙壁挂饰，”她指着正在绣的火车图案说道。
"We stitch various shapes like butterflies and flowers onto fabric and use them to make different items, including clothes, pillowcases, handbags and wall hangings," Shi Shunlian said, as she pointed to the train pattern on the Miao embroidery she was working on.
她正在工作台上精心缝制的苗绣作品，是中车株洲电力机车有限公司即将送给外国客户的赠礼。
The piece of miaoxiu work she is stitching carefully at her workbench will be given as a present to the foreign customers of CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive, a major manufacturer of rail transit equipment in Hunan.
作为民族工艺品的最大买家，该公司自2018年以来每年从石顺莲的合作社订购价值10万元的苗绣作品。
As the biggest buyer of the ethnic craft since 2018, the company has been placing orders for Miao embroidery works worth 100,000 yuan each year from the cooperative that Shi set up in May 2014.
在她的领导下，过去六年来有190多名家庭主妇加入了苗绣合作社，制作手工苗绣。在订单多的时候，绣娘们每月能获得两三千元的收入。
Under her lead, more than 190 housewives have joined the cooperative for producing handmade Miao embroidery works in the past six years. Each of them can earn about 3,000 yuan during busy months.
由于越来越多的人对苗绣感兴趣，合作社也获得了更多的订单。但石顺莲还是有一些担心。
The cooperative's Miao embroidery products have received more orders as a result of the growing interest. But Shi still worries about their work.
她说：“订单量不饱和，而且暂时没有能设计图案的人才，这是现在的两个主要问题。”
"There aren't enough orders to keep us busy through the whole year and there is a dearth of talent to provide designs for the embroidery. These are the two major problems," she said.
石顺莲也提到了她的计划：“我们将会改良产品，并将大力推广它们，多做一些钱包、书签、帽子等苗绣小产品；同时，我们希望找到图案设计师。”
"We will improve our products, adding items like purses, bookmarks and hats; we will go out to promote them and we are hoping to find designers," Shi said of her plans.
2013年11月，在当时的贫困村——十八洞村提出了“精准扶贫”的重要理念。村民们利用当地传统工艺来改善生活，这恰恰是“精准扶贫”理念的生动实践。
The villagers' efforts to tap local culture for improving lives is in line with "targeted poverty alleviation", a concept first put forward when Xi visited the then poverty-stricken village on an inspection tour in November 2013.
“现在的生活比我酿的蜂蜜还要甜！”
33岁的龙先兰发现十八洞村植物繁茂、蜜源丰富，正是养蜂佳地。
33-year-old Long Xianlan discovered that the village's lush greenery offered the perfect conditions for raising bees.
从2015年开始，龙先兰逐渐踏上自己的养蜂事业之路，并从最初起家时的四箱蜜蜂逐渐发展到现在的三百多箱。他的收入也随之大幅增长，从2015年的几千元到去年的收入已超过40万元。
Starting from 2015, Long gradually grew his beekeeping enterprise. His initial four boxes of bees have grown to more than 300 crates, helping him rake in an annual income of 400,000 yuan last year from just a few thousand yuan before 2015.
发展优势产业，使得十八洞村的村民在自家门口就能找到工作并过上舒适的生活。
With the development of suitable industries and businesses, villagers in Shibadong can get jobs and make a decent living right at their doorstep.
龙先兰说：“他从养蜂业中获得的机会，使他从一个毫无生活目标的穷苦孤儿变成了一个负责任的丈夫，收获了一个幸福的家庭，充分享受着家的温暖和舒适。”
Long Xianlan said the opportunities he tapped from beekeeping have turned him from a despondent, aimless pauper into a responsible husband providing for a happy family that fully enjoys the warmth and comforts of home.
他说，“我现在的生活比我酿的蜂蜜还要甜！”
"My life now is sweeter than the honey I make," he said.
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