Life of the elderly across China (17)

Villager Liang Anhe(R), 70, teaches his wife Liang Yingmi, 67, to write Chinese characters during a Mandarin training program in Wuying Village, a remote village inhabited by the Miao ethnic group where women over 40 have hardly ever attended any school, on the border between south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and southwest China's Guizhou Province, on Sept. 14, 2020. Since March 2020, local authorities have piloted a Mandarin training program at Wuying Village as part of the local poverty alleviation efforts, employing college students to teach stay-at-home women Mandarin, music, dance and other skills. So far, over 70 Mandarin training courses have taken place in Wuying. The number of students in the training courses has grown from 6 in the first class to nearly 30 now. To balance work and study, poverty-alleviation officials in the village have also set up after-school training centers, planting sorghum and raising fish along with local women. (Xinhua/Li Xin)