Cooking up a good life

Reviving a hermit's haven

At the end of 2018 Ding noticed Douyin's talent training program for poverty alleviation and he immediately signed up on the short videosharing platform.

After getting professional guidance, Ding thought of applying his new skills to Huanhe.

The village has a proud history.

The first residents settled there to avoid war. There are about 30 households in the village now and most of the residents are above 60.

With a firm idea of what he wanted to achieve, Ding aimed his camera at the well-preserved ancient architecture and local life.

That was when Ding zoomed in on Zhang Jinxiu, a 72-year-old resident.

Zhang lives in a 200-year-old house that sits near a local well. Its doorsteps are stone, and it is surrounded by ancient trees.

"It is just stunning," Ding says, adding that it was the first reason he picked Zhang as his subject.

Zhang and her husband used to be railway workers in Xiangyang, Hubei province. They returned to Huanhe after retirement more than a decade ago.

Over the years, Zhang has established a reputation for her cooking skills in the village.

Ding recorded her picking fresh vegetables from the soil, washing them near the well and stirring them in a big iron pot over a roaring wood fire.

The videos became a hit online. Viewers were drawn to the villagers' close ties with nature shown in the clips.

"I like this way of life, from the house, the well, the vegetable basket, the sun and the firewood stove," says one Douyin user.