Recovering rural memories

China's young students go to the countryside to improve lives as part of the sanxiaxiang program.

A grandmother was staring at a recovered photograph of her and her late husband for a long time as if in a trance after Zhang Wenhan helped her improve the quality of the aged photo using artificial intelligence (AI) technology. This is the scene that Zhang, a 19-year-old college student from Southwest China's Chongqing, cannot forget during his social practice in a local village this summer.

"The real death is that no one in the world remembers you," Zhang said, citing a famous quote from Pixar Animation Studios' Coco. "I could tell from the granny's eyes that it prolonged her memory of those good old days. And I believe the offspring of the figure in that photo could relate that there was once a family member who had lived and left traces."

This summer vacation, a group of students from the College of Artificial Intelligence at Southwest University took part in a public welfare activity to spread understanding of science and technology in rural areas and to offer their support to China's rural vitalization. And Zhang, majoring in intelligent science and technology at the college, was one of the group members involved in the effort.

Rural vitalization is a key national strategy first proposed at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2017. The strategy's timetable, set in 2018, requires that by 2035, decisive progress will be achieved in establishing basic modernization in agriculture and rural areas, which currently lag far behind the developed cities in China. By 2050, it is hoped that the overall strategy will be achieved.

Through the students' efforts, some 40 damaged photos of the villagers' were recovered through AI technology, and more than 20 rural kids from two villages received inspiring science tutoring, according to Sun Yibo, a 26-year-old counselor at the university.

From June 29 to July 1, a total of 25 students from the students' union of the university, including 21 undergraduates and four postgraduates, participated in the event in Wanbao and Daoguan villages, Zhisheng township of Chongqing's Rongchang district.

Nowadays, many high-tech concepts are too elitist and cannot bring real benefits to the rural population, Sun noted.

As a farmer's son and a member of Generation Z (those born between 1995 and 2009), Sun brainstormed on how to best plan the event with Zhang Weiwei, deputy secretary of the college, at the end of the spring semester.

"We hope to guide the students in their service toward society as they use their knowledge to contribute to the country's rural vitalization and technological development through social practices and voluntary activities, including the ongoing nationwide sanxiaxiang activity," said Zhang.

Sanxiaxiang is an activity to bring cultural, scientific and technological as well as hygiene knowledge to the countryside through various social activities. The Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) called on all college students to participate in the activity in the early 1980s. And in 1997, it was officially launched nationwide.

"Doing something for rural areas has been a long-held dream of mine," said Zhang Wenhan, adding that he spent his childhood in a village in the city's Changshou district with his elder brother and his grandparents — happy, but impoverished. "So I tried the best I could," he said.

For the three-day activity in Zhisheng township, Zhang served as a core technical staff member responsible for restoring the villagers' photos along with another schoolmate who did the photo scanning.

"Each photo the villagers brought to us had a story to tell," said Zhang, adding that almost all of the photos — family photos, wedding photos or memorial photos when, for example, one joined the army or got their first job — were memorable but damaged after years of improper storage.

He also said that the overall time of photo restoration depended on the villagers' requirement and the photos' state of disrepair.

To restore the photos affected by oxidation, faded colors, or slight ink or oil stains, an AI model targeting facial images proved sufficient. However, for severely damaged photos with missing pieces, a more time-consuming manual processing approach using image processing software was necessary.

For instance, when it came to details such as recovering a figure's hair or outline, Zhang had to use multiple sets of filters and layers to obfuscate the photo's creases and link up its missing parts.

"Every time when I saw the folks' eyes shining after seeing the recovered photos, the biggest sense of fulfillment struck me "said Zhang.

Liu Li, 20, a student organizer of the event, said that the photo recovery process required the volunteers to collect old photos from household to household in the two villages. After scanning the photos, they had to send the original photos back to the villagers.

"We had a great time with the local villagers," said Liu, adding that some volunteers had added a few of the villagers' social media accounts. And online photo recovery for the community continues.

The university activity attracted a lot of the local residents. On the last day of the event, which also happened to be the 102nd anniversary of the founding of the CPC, the team added a free photo shooting session for both young and old in the villages.

In addition to photo recovery, the volunteers carried out field investigations and public welfare science lessons for the local kids.

"The activity has enriched my work experience and changed my perspective on life," said Liu, who is a volunteering enthusiast. In recent years, she has also served as a volunteer online teacher.

She noted that she fell in love with the tranquility and slow pace of life in the countryside through her experience and would likely choose to work in rural areas in the future.

According to a white paper entitled Youth of China in the New Era released by the State Council Office in April last year, a growing number of young people have taken part in charity and public welfare activities in recent years, providing community service, protecting the environment, conducting cultural programs and offering elderly care and assistance to people with disabilities. While playing an important role in influential social organizations, young people have also set up self-management and self-service bodies.

As of April 2022, there were more than 7,600 county-level organizations of volunteers or artistic and sports organizations for young people, operating under the guidance of the CYLC. With these as the driver, more than 150,000 youth organizations covering all counties in China have been set up ever since.

"I feel very grateful to be living in such a prosperous era," Zhang Wenhan said. "I'm planning to make use of these opportunities to create a future in rural areas after I finish my postgraduate study."