Profile: Long Shouju, of the Dong ethnic group, and a CPC member, enrolled in the Agricultural Economic Management programme of the "One College Student Per Village" project at Huangshan Open University in fall of 2019.
She is a member of the general branch committee and the village committee of Wushi Village, Wushi Town Huangshan District, Anhui Province, as well as chair of Huangshan Huiqian Planting and Breeding Cooperative. Long has been named “National Individual Model for Ethnic Unity and Progress”, "March 8th Red-banner Pace-setter”(outstanding female role model), "Most Beautiful Female Poverty Fighter” in Anhui Province, and a delegate to the 20th CPC National Congress.
Long Shouju recalls her poverty upon moving to Wushi Village in 2001. She worked away from home to make ends meet, and then returned to start a frozen-food business, followed by a tea-processing factory. Though being constantly questioned by others, she never gave up working hard and moving forward, and by 2017 had helped her family out of poverty and transformed herself into a poverty-alleviation leader. It was the first time she had proved her efforts and abilities.
Nonetheless, Long still felt that she urgently needed to study agricultural economic management, and in the fall of 2019 enrolled at Huangshan Open University. She proved outstanding, and became a leader of the class committee, responsible for creating a positive atmosphere for the class despite her busy schedule of work and studying. She often shared her learning materials with classmates, and enhanced their enthusiasm for schoolwork. She also paid special attention to those required to take make-up examinations, reminding them to register for the courses at the beginning of the new term. Through her efforts, everyone in the class achieved an above-average performance, and became a professional contributing to rural revitalisation at home after graduation.
Studying at the open university allowed her to master agricultural technology, entrepreneurship, and marketing. With the help of Party committees and governments at various levels, she displayed her talents in planting, breeding, processing, leisure and sightseeing agriculture, and rural social undertakings in Wushi Village. She led local ethnic groups to establish the first professional planting and breeding cooperative in Huangshan District. So far, 25 villagers have joined the cooperative, more than 70 percent from ethnic minorities, and annual sales have reached one million yuan. In 2020, Long was named an "Outstanding Student" of Huangshan Open University, and she won the OUC "Field of Hope" scholarship in 2021. Once again she had proved herself.
Long says that she is grateful to the Huangshan District Organisation Department and her alma mater for their help and training. Thanks to the "One College Student Per Village” project implemented in Huangshan, she was able to obtain her qualification. However, receiving a degree is just a starting point, leaving much to be explored. Long plans to develop characteristic rural industries, and scale up cooperatives in terms of industrial-chain extension based on the rural-revitalisation strategy and regional situations. She is also keen on using information technology to display products, using livestreaming and short videos to promote rural regions and their common prosperity.
On the morning of October 16 2022, Long walked into the Great Hall of the People on behalf of grassroots ethnic-group Party members to listen to General Secretary Xi Jinping deliver his report, feeling great honour and responsibility. She says she is determined to advance rural revitalision in an all-round way under the strong leadership of the CPC and General Secretary Xi Jinping at the core of the CPC Central Committee.
By OUC News Network