Easing rural decline takes an artist's touch

The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, an outdoor art festival that spans 200 villages in remote mountainous areas in Japan's Niigata prefecture, has attracted more than half a million visitors, many of whom are designers, city planners and even Chinese government officials, according to Sun Qian, who is in charge of emulating the project in China.

Established in 2000, the art triennial was labeled "the art festival of Earth". It invites celebrated artists from all over the world to create artwork in rural areas, including empty houses, closed schools and rice paddies. It succeeded in sparking a revival of those rural communities that are mainly comprised of elderly people and children.

Apart from ordinary Chinese tourists, more than 50 government institutions from different cities and towns in China have visited the festival, hoping to learn how to revitalize rural areas with art, says Sun.