At a Peking University workshop, experts examine whether rural vitalization is also about restoring how communities perceive places.

"What if the most important right in rural development is not the right to build, but the right to perceive?" The question surfaced inside a lecture hall at the university in Beijing in late May, during the workshop.

The discussion quickly moved beyond roads, investment and tourism figures toward questions of memory, belonging and cultural continuity.

That tone was carried throughout the workshop, The Village of Tomorrow: A Global South Perspective on Rural Cultural Construction, which brought together more than 30 scholars, policymakers, designers, and cultural practitioners from China and abroad. Jointly organized by the UNESCO Chair on Creativity and Sustainable Development in Rural Areas, the School of Arts at Peking University, and its Institute for Cultural Industries, the event sparked discussions ranging from heritage preservation and village mapping to cultural memory, tourism pressures and the role of local communities in shaping development.

At the opening of the workshop, Xiang Yong, dean of the Institute for Cultural Industries at Peking University and chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on Creativity and Sustainable Development in Rural Areas, described the workshop as an attempt to move "beyond geographical and cognitive boundaries", emphasizing that rural vitalization should not be treated as a localized policy issue but as a field of comparative learning across the Global South.