How Traditional Fishing Villages Move towards Sustainable Management: A Case Study of Industrial Transformation and Multi-Party Governance Models

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the key roles and functions of institutions or organizations in the process of the spatial activation and industrial transformation of leisure fishing villages and to summarize this operating model. This study takes Xunpu Village, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province as the research object, which is well-known for its recreational fisheries. It mainly uses case study methods and uses on-site surveys and interviews to understand the formation time, spatial distribution, and business type information of the Zanhuawei shops in Xunpu Village. Zanhuawei, which refers to the traditional hairstyle of Xunpu women, was later applied for national intangible cultural heritage status in China. After the outbreak, the spread of Zanhuawei on the Internet inspired a large number of tourists to visit Xunpu Village to experience Zanhuawei. The study found that (1) Zanhuawei industry replaced traditional fishery and became the leading industry type in Xunpu Village. (2) The operating model led by the government and integrating public and private funds has had a stimulating effect on the revitalization of local commercial and residential space, and a large number of idle spaces have been reactivated. (3) The cooperation model between a large number of investors and local fisherwomen has completely changed the economic model of the village. Zanhuawei industry mobilized all official and media resources to promote spatial activation at various scales, including regions, settlements and commercial spaces.

1. Introduction

The coastal areas in Asia are developing rapidly and at the same time facing the fishing social change. In particular, the livelihoods of fishing villages in southeastern coastal countries and China are unsustainable, especially small-scale fishing villages [1,2,3]. For China, the economic transformation over the past half century has been driven by coastal cities. The research of Li, Sun [4] showed that, in the past 30 years, overall, the landscape in China’s coastal areas has rapidly fragmented, with reduced aggregation, complexity, and irregular edge shapes. Moreover, the fishing village landscapes along China’s coast have disappeared with the rapid economic growth [5,6]. The few remaining fishing villages are also facing a situation where they must transform due to marine pollution, the tightening of international fishery regulations, import competition and rapid urbanization. In order to avoid the social problems of unemployment, poverty and migration of fishermen to cities during the transformation process, and to seek the sustainable development of fishing villages, the process of the transformation of fishing villages has been discussed. Scholars point out that fishery transformation is one of the blue economy projects promoted by China, and its main purpose is to promote China’s modernization [7,8]. Therefore, in line with the development of the country, a modernization transformation policy for fishing villages, fisheries and fishermen is proposed. The economic transformation of coastal areas also continues in terms of land use and governance, and governance mechanisms of various scales have emerged in fishing villages. For example, in Xiamen, there are governance mechanisms ranging from international scale to local scale [9].

However, due to the depletion of marine resources and the push–pull effect of urbanization [10], the spatial dynamics of fishing villages have led to population outflows from coastal fishing villages, resulting in economic stagnation and abandoned buildings, although there have been governance experiences in fishing villages, such as transitioning towards leisure fishing or tourism [6,9,11]. Research on the regeneration of fishing villages focuses on regeneration models [12] and how fishing villages adjust their industrial structure to achieve regeneration [13].

For example, Japan’s Egan town, in order to solve the relatively remote geographical location, a large decrease in population, a decrease in fish catch and fish price shocks and other factors, began to transform to fishing village tourism. The key lies in improving fishery and protecting environment; a stable flow of people; grasp yourself, precise positioning. Additionally, preserve the culture and promote it through movies and TV dramas. However, the main reason for the sustainable development of this case is that traditional ways of life and production, traditional business models and customs will be retained. The transformation of fishing villages must be centered on fishing villages, and villagers must benefit from it [14]. There are numerous cases of the transformation of Korean fishing villages, most of which are through the development of experience tourism villages, such as Munxiang Village in Namhae County, South Gyeongsang Province. The success of transformation is also mainly due to policy support, infrastructure construction, diversified fishing experience projects and brand building [15]. The case of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, also shows similar characteristics, highlighting the importance of collaboration between government agencies, tourism agencies, restaurateurs and locals to achieve the strategy of promoting Kuala Pahang as a preferred destination for fishery products and marine tourism at home and abroad [16]. Recreational fishing in the United States mainly refers to sports and fishing and other activities for the purpose of fitness and entertainment. Recreational fisheries or sport fishing: this development has extended the industrial chain, significantly promoted the development of related industries, such as fishing tackle, bait, accommodation and transportation, and increased employment while enhancing village visibility and fishermen’s income, thus improving the environment and infrastructure of fishing villages [17].

From the examples of Japan and Korea, it is easy to see that the key to the successful transformation of these fishing villages is to retain the essence of fishing and that all the experience is related to fishing. Fishermen’s living habits, fishing methods, customs and activities have not changed because of the arrival of tourists. The case of Kuala Lumpur emphasizes the coordination of various stakeholders. The case of the American fishing village shows the important role of improving and extending the industrial chain for economic development. All in all, the transformation of fishing villages must grasp the connection between fishermen and the sea, whether it is for fishermen who have lived here for generations or for tourists who come to pursue a different cultural experience, the sea is an important reason to bring them together.

In Cristina Island, Spain, in the 20 years after the implementation of tourism industrialization, in 2016, the growth rate of the per capita occupancy of the local room is three times that of the whole of Spain, indicating that the tourism has achieved considerable development during the implementation of tourism industrialization. At the same time, its local industrial tourism, after transforming the original local fish processing and seafood factories, provided 744 jobs for the local people [18]. The rapid development of tourism in Ireland around the 1890s could not have been achieved without the efforts of the government and social enterprises. The government promulgated policies from top to bottom to encourage the development of tourism driven by real estate and promote the popularity of the Irish language. However, the final effect was not obvious enough and even limited the development of language tourism to a certain extent. Social enterprises start from the bottom up with people’s education and music and gradually integrate Irish language, and even culture, into People’s daily lives. Language tourism promoted the development of Irish tourism from 1990 to 2000 [19].

As the center of cultural and creative industries, cities can stimulate spatial regeneration, improve economic development, and strengthen social cohesion [20]. While cultural and creative industries (CCls) are seen as drivers of local economic development, creativity in CCls is locally rooted because the environment provides innovative inputs for the development of creative ideas. The creative climate drives local culture and economy, and the local system of cultural production is made up of a network of interdependent actors, including cultural factories, enterprises and enterprises that provide value-added services. These networks form the structure of cultural production through economic and social connections and provide conditions for the generation and cultivation of creative atmosphere [21].

Although research results have pointed out that coastal zone management methods include local-state [9,22,23] and state capitalism [8,24,25]. Perhaps these governance methods are not limited to the coastal zone, but they can be seen in the governance of the entire China. Even though there is much Chinese literature focusing on China’s coastal zone research [26,27,28,29,30,31], but English language studies on Chinese ocean governance remain relatively small in number [32,33,34,35], and most research just focuses on spatial governance. Only in recent years has research continued to advance the understanding of China’s coastal governance and social interaction. However, how forces of multiple scales form a cooperative governance mechanism still needs to be discussed in depth, and, research on spatial regeneration with fishing village governance as the theme is still exploratory [36,37,38]. This study advocates that fishing villages must be maintained by local residents and must also rely on space as its carrier.

The awareness of the problem in this study is as follows: in China, the public organization of fishing villages is not obvious, but why can Xunpu Village escape the fate of hollow villages and show a phenomenon of economic vitality? Therefore, this study hypothesizes the reasons behind the spatial activation of Xunpu Village, possibly driven by a new management organization. The purpose of this study is to explore the key roles and functions of institutions or organizations in the process of the spatial activation and industrial transformation of leisure fishing villages and to summarize this operating model.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Study Area

Xunpu Village is located at 118°44′ E longitude and 24°51′ N latitude, with an area of about 3.8 square kilometers (Figure 1). As of 2023, there were 1678 households in Xunpu Village, with a population of around 6355 people. Xunpu Village is an ancient fishing village in Donghai Street, Fengze District, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China. The origin of Xunpu Village can be traced back to the Paleolithic Age; during ancient times, maritime trade between China and other countries flourished [39], and Quanzhou Port became an important seaport along the Maritime Silk Road [40]. By the late Song Dynasty and through the Yuan Dynasty, it became the largest seaport in the world. Xunpu Village was located at a prominent point on the shipping route and thus prospered during the period of flourishing trade. However, after the Qing Dynasty, due to the long-term implementation of isolationist policies by the government, such as the closure of the country and maritime restrictions, as well as the impact of wars initiated by Zheng Chenggong at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Quanzhou’s maritime trade economy rapidly declined, and Xunpu Village became an obscure fishing village [41]. With the rapid development of China’s coastal areas, most of the fishing villages along Quanzhou Bay have been rebuilt along with urbanization, but Xunpu Village can retain a complete fishing village space, including Mazu temple, ancestral hall, traditional buildings and streets. Since the 1990s of the 20th century, Quanzhou has actively promoted urbanization under the policy of reform and opening up. By 2006, the urbanization of Fengze District was over [42].

Xunpu Village is located in Quanzhou Bay, but its development is obviously different from other fishing villages. The main reason is that Xunpu Village is located at the tip of the peninsula and surrounded by the sea on three sides with a large area of beach for breeding and ship docking. Therefore, compared with other surrounding villages, Xunpu Village has a richer marine life culture, thus developing the uniqueness of Xunpu woman and being designated as an intangible cultural heritage by China [43]. The cultural connotation of the Xunnpu woman includes Zanhuawei, clothing and unique wedding celebrations, New Year festivals, and sacrificial customs. Xunpu women’s wide clothes and wide pants are the products of convenience for working in intertidal zones, and wearing Zanhuawei on the head is related to the recognition of Xunpu women in the market [44]. The Mazu Temple in Xunpu Village is the belief center of the village and also the spatial node of Mazu belief in the whole southeast coast, and the participation of Xunpu female Zanhuawei in the Mazu incense parade is completely different from other areas. In particular, Zanhuawei’s image makes Xunpu particularly prominent among coastal fishing villages [44,45].

Additionally, the housing rent in Xunpu Village has risen, which phenomenon is different to other fishing villages. The revitalization model of this village is worth discussing.

The Xunpu women represent one of the three major fishing women in Fujian Province, China. The most notable feature of Xunpu women is that they wear “hair-flower girth” headgear and wear fishing women’s clothes. They grow their hair long from childhood, and, when they are eleven or twelve years old, they put their hair back in a bun, tie it with a red rope, and wear a bone pin. “Zanhuawei” uses the flower buds of flowers to wear into a wreath, with the bun as the center; the circle is worn behind the head, and then around the hairpin center, several bright red and peach flowers (later developed into silk flowers, plastic flowers, etc.) are inserted symmetrically, and gold or silver hairpins or combs are inserted [46]. The Zanhua custom of Xunpu women, which originated in the Song Dynasty, was included in the national intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2008. Xunpu Village has thus begun its cultural heritage. Until the end of 2023, Zanhuawei was widely spread on the network after the well-known Chinese film and television female stars appeared on the cover of the magazine in the shape of Xunpu women, attracting a large number of tourists to Xunpu Village to experience Zanhuawei. This has also enabled Xunpu Village to transition from fishing to tourism.

2.2. Study Methods

This study adopts a case study approach [47], considers the sustainable transformation of Xunpu Village as a unique phenomenon and bases the analysis on the collection of data from different sources; then, exploratory case studies are used to reinforce the explanations and descriptions of the cases, and a comprehensive explanation is given from different perspectives on how the governance of the public sector and the participation of the people can work together to realize the sustainability of the fishing village. The main purpose of exploratory case analysis is to explore, that is, to understand what happened. Due to the nature of exploratory case studies, researchers may collect data and make observations before identifying research questions and hypotheses [48,49]. It is important to use the case study method and the exploratory case study method interactively, which can have the depth and breadth of understanding for the study cases at the same time, having the advantage of observing social phenomena and real life at the same time.

In the role of participating in the transformation of Xunpu villageXunpu Village, residents and the local government are the main interviewees. Xunpu has not yet developed any NGOs concerned about the environment. Quanzhou Xunpu Commercial Management Co., Ltd. led many photography shops to invest in the village, but the shop did not participate in the development decisions of Xunpu village. The study mainly adopts field observation and interviews to collect data. The study process is as follows: On 9 September 2023 and 4 March 2024, a field investigation was conducted in Xunpu Village. The purpose of the fieldwork was to conduct reconnaissance and issue determination, respectively. On 5th and 6th April 2024, during the Qingming holiday in China, interviews and data collection were conducted in Xunpu Village. We mainly collected the spatial distribution and number of Zanhuawei shops in Xunpu Village, conducted in-depth interviews with tourists, villagers, related practitioners and a taxi driver in Quanzhou City and obtained a lot of information about the development of Xunpu Village and Zanhuawei industry. The survey results are briefly summarized below: There are approximately 246 local Zanhuawei shops [11]. Most of these shops opened for business between 2023 and 2024, with daily customer traffic ranging from 100 to 300 people. The houses are mainly rented from local villagers, although a small portion are opened in villagers’ own houses or relatives’ houses. In-depth interviews were conducted with different groups of people around Xunpu Village, including taxi drivers, the village secretary, inheritors of ICH, and visiting makeup artists, to obtain perspectives on the Zanhuawei trend in Xunpu Village and information on the village’s historical evolution and changes. The literature and county records were analyzed to understand the historical evolution of the settlement in Xunpu Village.

According to Xiecheng’s (a Chinese online travel service company) big data, the overall travel orders in Quanzhou during the New Year holiday increased by 276% year on year. According to third-party estimates, Quanzhou City received 2.0458 million tourists during the New Year’s Day holiday in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 155.8% and an increase of 17.9% over the same period in 2019. The tourism revenue reached CNY (CNY refers to the currency of China in this article) 1.412 billion yuan, an increase of 174.0% and 17.0% year on year [50]. In 2023, the number of domestic tourists in Fengze District reached 10.43 million, an increase of 57.9% year on year. Domestic tourism revenue reached CNY 11.2 billion, up 69.3% year on year. Among them, “Xunpu women. Zanhuawei” became popular in the circle, and XiaoHongshu (It’s called REDnote in the Apple Store).Other platforms were liked more than 5 billion times and praised by UNESCO [51]. As of 6 April 2024, the survey findings indicate that the quantity of shops offering Zanhuawei services in Xunpu Village has amounted to approximately 246. With the support of the government, Xunpu Village has constructed tourist service centers, shared bicycles, electric vehicles and other supporting facilities. Xunpu Village has gradually transformed from fishing to tourism. The traditional fishing industry has been on the decline, and the Zanhuawei-led cultural tourism industry has replaced the fishing industry as a new economic pillar of Xunpu Village. According to the statistical data obtained from field research, the daily turnover of Xunpu Village relying on Zanhua shops alone has CNY 6.23 million yuan in off-season and CNY 19.18 million yuan in peak season (

Table 1. Zanhuawei shop revenue estimation.

Post	Average Price	Quantity of Stores	Low Season Daily Average Number of People	Peak Season Daily Average Number of People	Low Season Daily Turnover/Yuan (CNY)	Peak Season Daily Turnover/Yuan (CNY)
Zanhua	40	246	65	200	639,600	1,968,000
Makeup	150	246	65	200	2,398,500	7,380,000
Photography	200	246	65	200	3,198,000	9,840,000
Sum	390				6,236,100	19,188,000

Calculation basis: As of the statistical data, there were about 246 Zanhuawei shops in Xunpu Village. According to the average price of the market, the number of tourists is between 30 and 100 people per shop per day in the off-season and between 100 and 200 in the peak season. The number of people is averaged for calculation.

).

3. Results

3.1. Changes in Industrial Structure—From Fishing to Tourism

When longshore currents along the southeastern coast of China carry sediment deep into Quanzhou Bay, a large area of tidal flats is formed. The low temperature, low salinity, and nutrient-rich characteristics of ocean currents create favorable conditions for the reproduction of organisms in coastal areas [52]. Xunpu Village is located at the intersection of the river and the sea. The sea water is rich in microorganisms, and many mudflats deposited from the upstream provide a natural oyster farm for Xunpu. For a long time, the division of the labor mode of fishermen is that men go out to sea to catch fish, and women are intertidal farming and selling fish [40,53].

Quanzhou Marine and Fishery Bureau [54] are mainly responsible for marine and fishery-related affairs in Quanzhou and are also responsible for the implementation and implementation of superior policies. However, the period of closed fishing, combined with the management of coastal zones and land expropriation to promote urbanization, has caused a spatial crisis for traditional fishing villages. In Fengze District, where Xunpu Village is located, the number of registered fishing boats dropped from 309 to 276 between 1 August 2022 and 1 May 2024, according to official data from the Quanzhou Ocean and Fisheries Bureau. Because of the artificial coastal zone and the establishment of wetland protection areas, the beach culture around Xunpu Village has gradually decreased. The women of Xunpu are no longer able to sell the easily accessible farmed oysters as before, and the fishing industry in Xunpu is facing a major problem: Many of the new generation of fishermen, after receiving years of education, do not want to go out to sea fishing because sea fishing is particularly hard, the journey is particularly long, they may have to sail from Quanzhou port to Taiwan generation fishing, and, with fishing being very dependent on luck, if there is no rich experience, it is difficult to earn money. Therefore, in order to avoid the problem of labor shortage, Xunpu Village began to recruit provincial labor on fishing boats to go out to sea. These three major problems indicate that the fishing industry of Xunpu Village cannot return to its former core status. Meanwhile, with the economic development of China, the construction of major cities requires labor and talents, and many villagers go to nearby cities to seek job opportunities, so the fishing economy of Xunpu Village continues to decline.

In 2004, the local government conducted a survey on the fishing village culture of Xunpu Village. In 2007, the Quanzhou Municipal People’s Government officially released an article named Introduction to Xunpu Village to publicize Xunpu Village, including Xunpu women and its related culture [55]. This is the first time that Xunpu Village is spearheaded by the government media, which can also be said to be the beginning of the industrial transformation of Xunpu Village. The culture of fisherwomen led by the government has become the theme of the development of the coastal zone, including the designation of intangible cultural heritage, the transformation of the coastal zone, and the holding of competitions or cultural activities, with the aim of promoting the development of tourism in the coastal zone (

Table 2. Quanzhou government department’s assistance plan for Xunpu Village.

Years	Documents	Events	Coding
2004	Deep interview (M_2) [11]	Xunpu women’s custom was unearthed	Culture
2007	Introduction to Xunpu	The official profile of Xunpu Village	Culture
2010	Notice of the State Council on promulgation of the second batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage List and the first batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage Expansion Project List	Xunpu women’s custom has become a national intangible cultural heritage	Culture
2012	Fisherman’s Wharf will be built at Jinjiang Bridge to Pu section of the coastal passage	Proposed construction of Fisherman’s Wharf	Space
2013	Protection and renovation planning of Xunpu Folk Culture Village in Quanzhou City and Introduction to the design scheme of Fisherman’s Wharf in Xunpu section of Jiangbin North Road in Quanzhou City	Xunpu Village cultural protection plan and Fisherman’s Wharf design scheme	Culture and Space
2015	Xunpu Village Oyster shell house group	Promote the traditional houses ofXunpu Village	Culture
2016	Travel agents from 25 countries and regions around the world will come to spring to investigate the cultural tourism resources of the sea silk	Tour operators inspect Xunpu Village and transform the landscape on both sides of Fenghai Road	Culture and Space
2019	The first Xunpu Women’s Zanhuawei Competition was a new experience	The first Xunpu women Zanhuawei competition	Culture
2021	Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song–Yuan China	UNESCO	Culture
2023	On 6 March 2023, Quanzhou Water Resources Bureau carried out an activity to inherit Xunpu traditional folk culture	Government personnel promote Xunpu traditional culture offline activities and Xunpu Scenic Area volunteers maintain order	Culture and Tourism
2024	8.1812 million people, CNY 8.018 billion yuan! First in the province! The city’s Spring Festival cultural tourism economy “got off to a good start” and the city’s “May Day” holiday received 5.5821 million tourists	Status of tourism in Xunpu Village	Tourism

).

“In 2004, the government came to protect our Xunpu Village’s attire. But at that time, our village was almost disappearing; there were only a few elderly people wearing this kind of traditional clothing. So, those who were 60, 70, 80 years old, these elderly people, almost stopped pinning flowers. They organized a waist drum team. For example, if there were any activities, they were called to perform.”.

(M_2)

Since the excavation of Zanhuawei 20 years ago, the government departments of Quanzhou City have issued many large and small policies, some of which directly support the infrastructure of Xunpu Village, and some of which promote the culture of Zanhuawei and Xunpu Village. Such a policy framework has promoted the transformation of Xunpu Village in three aspects: space, culture and tourism: spatially, the government department has built roads, docks, visitor centers and other facilities near Xunpu Village; culturally, cultural heritage such as oyster shell houses and Zanhuawei in Xunpu Village were promoted; in terms of tourism, the government uses official media to help promote the number of tourists in Xunpu Village. These official policies are undoubtedly a powerful help in the transformation of Xunpu Village, and it is these policies that have made Xunpu Village’s long-dormant cultural heritage known to China and the world (Figure 2).

The traditional fishing industry has been in decline, and the cultural tourism industry led by Zanhuawei has replaced fishing as a new economic pillar of Xunpu Village. In 2013, the first Zanhuawei shop was opened in Xunpu Village, mainly providing Zanhuawei services and producing traditional Xunpu women’s clothing. Subsequently, four to five more Zanhuawei shops were opened in the village, initially focusing on traditional Zanhuawei and clothing. This situation persisted until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. From 2019 to 2022, various parts of China were under lockdown, and isolation measures were in place to prevent further spread of the disease. Many Chinese residents were forced to stay at home until the end of 2022 when the Chinese government issued policies to lift the lockdown. Chinese residents were then able to return to work and study normally. In January 2023, the actress Zhao Liying was invited by a cultural tourism company responsible for a scenic spot in Jinjiang City, Quanzhou, to shoot magazine photos at the scenic spot. The purpose was to promote the scenic spot, and the promotional photos included elements of Xunpu women’s Zanhuawei. Since then, Xunpu Village’s Zanhuawei has become popular on social media and various short video platforms. In March 2023, Zanhuawei shops in Xunpu Village increased by one every 3 to 5 days. As of 6 April 2024, there were approximately 270 shops in Xunpu Village offering Zanhuawei services.

3.2. Changes in Capital and Power—From Local to Official

Most of China’s traditional fishing villages are based on blood villages. The same clan or more clans are combined into villages, so the members of the sea are also members of the family, and the family jointly buys fishing boats and shares the interests of the sea fishing. This phenomenon of pooling capital and power by clan still exists in traditional fishing villages. However, the capital and power of the tourism service industry dominated by Zanhuawei are quite different from that of traditional fishing villages.

In early 2023, after China’s new coronavirus was completely lifted, a large number of tourists from various provinces in China went to Xunpu Village, Fengze District, Quanzhou City, to experience the Zanhuawei. However, there were only a few Zanhuawei shops in Xunpu at that time, which was completely insufficient to provide Zanhuawei services to the majority of tourists. Therefore, Zanhuawei shops in Xunpu Village began to expand in the village since the beginning of 2023. Some of them are villagers from the village who rent houses in the village to engage in Zanhuawei, and some are entrepreneurs who come from other places. They have exquisite clothes, excellent makeup skills and excellent photography skills. So many foreign tourists and entrepreneurs swarm into Xunpu Village. How can tourists have a sense of tourism experience, a sense of participation to have a different experience, but also allow entrepreneurs to open shops in the village in an orderly way? The answer is with the help of the government and the village committee.

Government agencies and social media have played a crucial role in the revitalization and transformation of Xunpu Village: Since 2004, Zanhuawei of Xunpu Village has been protected and publicized by the local cultural department. During this period, there have been a lot of publicity and reports about Xunpu Village, increasing the exposure and popularity. Meanwhile, the local government has applied Zanhuawei as a national intangible cultural heritage. Zanhuawei survives to this day. After 2022, government agencies adopted the star effect [56] and the Internet to protect and publicize Zanhuawei. After the Zanhuawei of Xunpu Village became popular on social media, the villagers’ committee of Xunpu Village participated in the establishment of a company—Quanzhou Donghai Xunpu Cultural Travel Co., Ltd. (Fengze District, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China). The company is mainly responsible for tourism development, property management, land leasing and other matters in Xunpu Village, which marks the official involvement in the process of the revitalization and development of the fishing village.

In April 2023, after Xunpu Village exploded on the Internet, the villagers’ committee of Xunpu Village (b) and Quanzhou Donghai City Operation Co., Ltd. (c) jointly established Donghai Xunpu Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd. (a), with the purpose of responding to the development and management of Xunpu Village tourism. In August 2023, another management company appeared in Xunpu Village, Quanzhou Xunpu Commercial Management Co., Ltd. (d), which was jointly established by Quanzhou Fengze Hanze Cultural Service Co., Ltd. (e), and Donghai Xunpu Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd. (a), which was mainly responsible for the development and management of the scenic spot. The holding of company (e) and (f) is a state-owned enterprise and the main shareholder is the local government. The main shareholder of company (g) is the Quanzhou Fengze District Finance Bureau (h). Company (e) represents that the government’s capital in the Xunpu Village management company has reached 51%, so the government can decide the development and management direction of the Xunpu Village scenic spot (Figure 3;

Table 3. Xunpu Village management company and its shareholders information.

Number	Name	Property	Function	Coding
1	Quanzhou Donghai Xunpu cultural travel Co., LTD. (Fengze District, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China)	Collective enterprise	Scenic spot development management	a
2	Xunpu Village Committee (Fengze District, Quanzhou City, Donghai street Xunpu community residents committee)	Community management organ	Community management	b
3	Quanzhou Donghai City Operation Co., Ltd. (Quanzhou Fengze district Donghai street office)	Collective enterprise	Property management	c
4	Quanzhou Xunpu Commercial Management Co., LTD. (Fengze District, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China)	State-owned	Enterprise management	d
5	Quanzhou Fengze Hanze Cultural Service Co., Ltd. (Fengze District, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China)	State-owned	Promotion/Planning	e
6	Quanzhou Fengze Haisi Cultural Tourism Development Co., Ltd. (Quanzhou City, Fengze District, China)	State-owned	Tourism development/Heritage protection	f
7	Quanzhou Fengze State-owned Investment Group Co. LTD. (Fengze District, Quanzhou City, China)	State-owned	State-owned capital investment	g
8	Quanzhou Fengze District Finance Bureau (Fengze District, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China)	Government agencies	Financial management	h
9	Quanzhou City People’s Government Donghai Sub-district Office (Fengze District, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China)	Community management	Organ community management	i

).

Therefore, some large-scale photography studios will be invited by the government to settle in Xunpu Village, and the government will also solve the rental problem for these high-quality businesses. Some traditional houses and even ancestral halls will be negotiated with the villagers by the government or village committee in order to leave the characteristic houses to high-quality businesses. During the investigation, we also found that Xunpu Village is building infrastructure such as a tourist station and tourist service center. These large construction projects are all approved and funded by the government. Therefore, official power plays a decisive role in the development of Xunpu Village’s Zanhuawei industry.

3.3. Shift of Economic Center—From Sea to Land

Xunpu Village intertidal zone is used to raise oysters [57]. The beach is an important working space for Xunpu women. However, in order to promote the urbanization process, the Quanzhou municipal government has carried out a lot of landscape planning and municipal construction in the coastal areas around Xunpu Village. On the west side of Xunpu Village, the original riverside beach has been transformed by the government and has become the current Fisherman’s Wharf [57,58]. In 2012, the government issued the Marine Environmental Protection Plan of Quanzhou City [43,59], and most of the beaches of Quanzhou Bay were planted with mangroves to restore ecology and protect the marine environment. As a result, many women in Xunpu Village can no longer engage in beach farming to supplement family expenses. The large-scale landscape planning, while contributing to the beautification of the city’s image and attracting a large number of tourists, has harmed the interests of the fishermen of Xunpu Village. According to the literature data show that in 2010, more than 100 ships engaged in deep-sea fishing, more than 300 ships engaged in offshore fishing [60]. According to the data released by the Quanzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics in 2017, there were 78 large vessels and 245 small vessels [57] in Xunpu Village in 2017. As of March 2024, according to the results of the interview, there are less than 200 fishing boats left in Xunpu Village. Male fishermen in Xunpu Village are fishing less and less each year. Oyster beds raised on tidal flats must also be abandoned. The sight of picking up fish and oysters to be sold in Quanzhou or Jinjiang has also disappeared. Although the main street of Xunpu Village is still accompanied by Xunpu women selling seafood on poles and sitting on the street prying oyster-catchers, the fishing village has lost the space to work, and the economic center of living on the sea has been transferred to the settlement with the flower service industry.

Xunpu Village mainly has four roads: Hebin Road, Haibin Road, Fenghai Road and Xunpu Road (Figure 4). These four roads host 80% of the shops in Xunpu Village, indicating that most of the commercial activities related to Xunpu Village are concentrated on these four roads. In addition, the formation of the Zanhuawei industry in Xunpu Village did not begin in 2023; before that year, several shops were already engaged in Zanhuawei services. Including the shops of the two interviewees, M_2 and F_2, a total of four shops had been involved in Zanhuawei before 2023, and the spatial layout of these four shops is also near Xunpu Road (Figure 4).

Commercial space in Xunpu Village has been reactivated. Xunpu Road remains the main space for commercial activities in Xunpu Village to this day. Along this road, there are various shops such as scooter repair shops, breakfast shops, seafood restaurants and clothing stores, catering to the daily needs of Xunpu Village residents. Occasionally, elderly women from Xunpu Village also sell oysters on this road. Therefore, out of the four Zanhuawei shops that were operating before 2023, three were located near Xunpu Road.

The shop of the interviewee M_2 was situated in their own house, and they were unable to change its location due to objective circumstances. Most of the Zanhuawei shops that appeared in Xunpu Village after 2023 are distributed along Xunpu Road and Fenghai Road, as these two roads are the main routes for tourists visiting the village. Setting up shops on these two roads increases the chances of attracting tourists. Before 2023, these two roads were mainly lined with houses rented by locals or used for commercial activities by homeowners. Before 2023, the rent was not as high as it is today, but, nowadays, it is very difficult to rent a house on these two roads. Firstly, the monthly rent has increased by thousands of yuan (CNY) compared to before, and, secondly, the houses on both sides of the roads are in high demand, with people not willing to easily rent them out. This phenomenon also exists in the residential areas of other villagers in the village. Many people want to rent houses in Xunpu Village to engage in the Zanhuawei industry, but it is difficult to find houses.

“Nowadays, Zanhuawei is the main business. Shop rentals used to cost a few hundred or a few thousand yuan, but now, with the popularity of Zanhuawei, the rent has increased by several thousand yuan, which definitely boosts the local economy.”.

(F_2)

House rentals have brought substantial economic benefits to some villagers in Xunpu Village, surpassing what traditional fishing activities could achieve. Many Xunpu women have become much more leisurely after renting out their houses, and their lifestyles have changed.

“In the past, besides helping others dig oysters, Xunpu aunties used to sing and dance in the square in the afternoons. Now, they are busy making money. When they help others with Zanhuawei, they get a share of the earnings.”.

(F_2)

Therefore, on the one hand, the Zanhuawei industry has opened hundreds of Zanhuawei shops, bringing substantial direct income to local villagers through house rentals. On the other hand, the daily consumption of a large number of outsiders such as photographers and makeup artists has also driven the prosperity of other traditional businesses in Xunpu Village.

The traditional space has been revitalized by external tourists and shops. The Mazu Temple in Xunpu Village is located near Xunpu Road. Mazu is an important identity in the coastal areas of southeastern China [61]. Unlike in other parts of China, where such temples typically experience low foot traffic except during specific festivals, the situation is quite different in Xunpu Village. Local Zanhuawei shops have turned the Mazu Temple into a photography base, leveraging the unique local architectural features of the temple to enhance the aesthetic appeal of their photographs. As a result, a large number of Zanhuawei-experience participants are often found at the Mazu Temple, accompanied by several photographers and their assistants. Under the influence of the Zanhuawei trend, the spatial nature of traditional worship spaces has changed compared to the past. Additionally, some Zanhuawei shops rent traditional houses from villagers to use as their own shops or photography bases, greatly altering the traditional buildings’ usage. These formerly residential spaces, after careful arrangement, have become backgrounds in tourist photos and elements in photographers’ creations, leading to the narrow roadsides near traditional houses in Xunpu Village being crowded with tourists and photographers.

“So many shops, hundreds of them, and you still can’t find one? Keep looking slowly. The whole village told you. Since Zhao Liying came, hundreds of shops have sprung up overnight, the kind that serves you.”.

(M_1)

“Well, that’s how it is. About every three days, a new shop opens. Because during the epidemic, it gradually became popular, and now, a new shop opens every three to five days.”.

(M_2)

In 2024, with the support of the government, Xunpu Village constructed a tourist service center. Supporting facilities such as shared bicycles and electric scooters have also gradually improved. Xunpu Village is slowly transforming into a tourist village.

Zanhuawei undoubtedly played a crucial role in the revival of Xunpu Village. At a time when the fishing village was on the verge of decline, Xunpu women’s customs played a critical role. Since 2004, Xunpu Village and local government agencies have been tirelessly working towards the recognition of Xunpu women’s customs as ICH. Finally, in 2023, Xunpu women’s Zanhuawei and other folk activities bore fruit for Xunpu Village. The revival of Zanhuawei has propelled the local housing rental economy, as well as the development of industries such as homestays and catering.

“Now, with Zanhuawei as the main focus, you can rent out storefronts. Previously, the rent for our storefronts was only a few hundred or a thousand or two, but now, with the popularity, the rent has increased by several thousand because of Zanhuawei. So, it definitely drives the local economy.”.

(F_1)

Around the coastal zone of Quanzhou Bay or Jinjiang Estuary, relevant management plans have set the beaches into protected areas, started planting mangroves, begun ecological restoration, and restricted access [62]. In the past, the beaches were used by the villagers of Xunpu Village for breeding and catching oysters. However, now, some of these waterfront areas and beaches have been built into ferry docks, and some have become protected areas for artificial forestation. The villagers can no longer engage in beach breeding as before, and the beaches cannot bring considerable economic benefits to the villagers. Nowadays, the beaches are mostly used as the background for tourists to take photos.

4. Discussion

4.1. The Operating Model of Zanhuawei Shops

Firstly, the spaces used by Zanhuawei shops are owned by local villagers. Therefore, outsiders typically gain access to these spaces through leasing. Xunpu Village’s Zanhuawei shops mainly offer three types of services: Zanhuawei, photography and clothing. Zanhuawei services are typically performed by either outside makeup artists or local residents of Xunpu. Clothing can be roughly divided into two categories: traditional Xunpu women’s clothing and ready-made Hanfu (refers specifically to the clothing of the Han Dynasty). Traditional clothing is usually obtained from the studio of the interviewee, M_2. Ready-made Hanfu is purchased online. Photography services require complex technical skills, and there are fewer local residents in Xunpu Village who possess these skills. Therefore, photography services are generally provided by part-time photographers from outside or full-time photographers within the shops. Based on these three types of services, the operation modes of Zanhuawei shops in Xunpu Village can be roughly categorized into three types (as Figure 5, Figure 6 and Figure 7): franchise, independent entrepreneurship by outsiders and collaboration between local villagers and outsiders.

“Basically, they are all from out of town, from various places, and basically, they are used to it, used to doing travel photography.”.

(F_2)

“Was the Zanhuawei relatively plain at the beginning? Or was it always like this? No, it wasn’t like this before, it’s chaotic now.”.

(M_2)

“It’s almost like that. They might say they’ll take a look around, ask around on the street, or collaborate with businesses. Businesses will give you referrals, but if the referral is worth 200 yuan, they take 25%. So, you’ll get 150 yuan in hand, which is normal and reasonable.”.

(M_3)

“So, are your clothes for sale? Yes, they are for sale. Where do you sell them? Usually in the village, it’s better. People from the village come to buy from you. Outsiders, there are fewer of them.”.

(M_2)

The relationships among the participants of the local cultural system constitute a complex network, and these relationships provide a multifaceted contribution to the promotion of local economic and social development. Cultural factories, as centers of cultural production, provide and create employment opportunities and attract talents; small and medium-sized enterprises are very important for product development and market promotion. Government and local institutions provide policy guidance, financial assistance and infrastructure to promote industrial development; consumers will follow the updates and improvements of cultural products through consumer behavior and feedback. Their relationship is both cooperative and competitive, and the strength and quality of those relationships affect the whole.

4.2. Fishing Villages Reinvigorate Efforts by the Media and Officials

In 2024, the Quanzhou City government used official media to promote Xunpu Village again. At the beginning of the year, there were still many tourists visiting Xunpu Village. According to the statistics of the Quanzhou City government departments, during the New Year’s Day holiday in 2024, Xunpu Village received a total of 140,000 tourists [50]. On February 19, 361,000 people visited Xunpu Village [63], and, during the International Labor Day holiday on May 1st, Xunpu Village received a total of 290,000 tourists [64].

In the past 20 years, Xunpu Village has changed from a small fishing village to a popular tourist spot on the Quanzhou Maritime Silk Road step by step, not only because of the efforts of the Xunpu Village people but also because of the government’s attention to the intangible cultural heritage of Xunpu female custom.

From 2004 to today, government agencies in the Quanzhou area have inadvertently explored the area from the very beginning. Now, it has become a hot spot on social networks [64], and they have made many efforts, including assisting in the application of intangible cultural heritage, deligating government staff to assist in the publicity [65], organizing the Xunpu female Zanhuawei competition [66] and transforming the urban landscape around Xunpu Village. All these require a lot of manpower, material and financial resources to organize and operate, and it is with the support of such official forces that Xunpu Village can be transformed from its original village [66,67], to be demolished, and become a folk culture village.

In this process, the media is an important means used by the government. As an important channel, the media directly promotes the revival of Xunpu Village. Of course, the star effect is also involved, but the star effect is only one of the reasons. In the process of the transformation of Xunpu Village, the government needs to communicate with all parties through the introduction of high-quality stores in Xunpu Village, the issue of rent, the renovation of facilities in the village and the construction of visitor centers. In terms of cultural inheritance and continuation, the government has introduced the Xunpu female custom into the field of education as an important cultural knowledge. Many kindergartens and primary schools have set up courses related to Zanhuawei to avoid the occurrence of cultural discontinuity. In terms of capital, several existing companies in Xunpu Village, which are responsible for the maintenance and management of village facilities, can still see the power of the government and the state after digging deeply into the investors behind them. Secondly, the Internet and media technology, including media platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou and Xiaohongshu [51], as well as Quanzhou local official media such as Quanzhou Evening News [64,66], all play a huge role in the process of promoting the traditional folk culture of Xunpu Village.

4.3. Zanhuawei Economy Spillover Promotes Spatial Revitalization

The research points out that the development of tourism has had a significant driving effect on the economic growth of Chinese cities in the past 30 years, and the influence is two-way and can play a regional role [68,69]. In this case, Xunpu Village uses Zanhuawei (intangible cultural heritage) to promote the development of its tourism economy, but the culture of its fishing village has not been relatively deepened. In contrast, in Ireland, tourism economy improves the cultural depth of the Irish language [19]. The island of Cristina has not directly proposed a plan to emphasize cultural tourism or protect marine culture, but the local tourism industry is closely integrated with marine culture. The tourist route is mixed with a lot of content that allows visitors to feel the unique maritime culture of the local fishermen: various processing plants can be transformed for visitors to visit traces of maritime culture (monuments of traditional fishing boats, traditional festivals, traditional manufacturing techniques, etc.). Although the population growth rate and employment rate of Cristina Island are still not optimistic, its cultural attributes are well retained [18]. On the contrary, although Xunpu Village in this case actively promoted Zanhuawei folk culture with the help of the government and obtained certain economic benefits through promotion, the result was contrary to the expected effect. A large number of alienation phenomena entered the public’s vision, and the original Zanhuawei connotation was completely swallowed up. The Zanhuaewi service industry of Xunpu Village is driven by the publicity effect of another Wulin village scenic spot in Quanzhou Bay, which belongs to the spillover effect of the adjacent space, that is, the tourism development of one region affects the tourism of another region through the spatial spillover effect. The rapid spread of Zanhuawei industries from village to village also reflects the similarity of cultural characteristics at the regional scale.

The spatial revitalization of Xunpu Village essentially relies on the activation process of Zanhuawei economy. During the commercialization process of Xunpu Women’s Zanhuawei, the original village space has undergone significant changes. The establishment of a large number of Zanhuawei shops, tourist photography shops and photo studios has led to changes in the use rights of many spaces. The area around Xunpu Village has already undergone urban planning, but, due to the effect of using intangible cultural heritage combined with marketing models to form knowledge modernization, Xunpu Village may retain its settlement.

The Zanhuawei industry promotes the economic growth of fishing villages, directly leading to the overall preservation of settlements, the construction of public facilities, the maintenance of public space, etc., which belongs to the spatial effect of the settlement scale. It also attracts funds to invest in small-scale space transformation, such as the rental and decoration of shops along the street, which makes the fishing village space, been silent due to the population outflow, gain new life. The growth of tourism significantly promotes the activation and development of fishing village space, which leads to the spatial spillover effect of various scales.

4.4. Potential Risks to Zanhuawei Economy

Although the Zanhuawei industry has brought a lot of benefits to the development of Xunpu Village, the focus is reflected in the Zanhuawei economy to create another pillar industry—tourism—at the same time, a lot of space in Xunpu Village has been reactivated. However, in this process, it is inevitable to provoke conflicts between other factors.

The Zanhuawei economy has brought about a cultural crisis. As the key to industrial transformation, Zanhuawei’s cultural connotation is bound to suffer the risk of homogenization and commercialization in the export process. The Zanhuawei industry in Xunpu Village has made Zanhuawei with unique regional characteristics lose part of its authenticity. Most tourists do not care about the unique significance of Zanhuawei but just want to keep up with the trend of the Internet for a superficial experience. At the same time, the Zanhuawei style made by Zanhuawei stores and traditional Zanhuawei have great differences in shape, color and other aspects, and even some stores will combine traditional Zanhuawei with some popular colors and decorations to derive a unique style of decoration. In addition, these stores will publish Zanhuawei shapes created by their stores on the Internet every day that are completely inconsistent with traditional cultural content, which will interfere with tourists’ cognition after browsing. It can be seen that Zanhuawei has been seriously commercialized and homogenized in the process of dissemination, and the authenticity of traditional culture has been largely lost.

The Zanhuawei industry may not be able to attract a large number of tourists to pay for it in the second half of 2024 to 2025. Using star power to attract tourists is not a long-term strategy. According to the search results of the term “Zanhuawei” through the XiaoHongshu App from 13 June to 13 July 2024, a large number of Zanhuawei shops in Xunpu Village posted pictures, videos and other content through the App to attract tourists, but this content did not receive many comments and attention from netizens. These overwhelming Internet marketing efforts obviously did not play a big role; few Internet users will now take the initiative to publish to Xunpu Village experience Zanhuawei posts compared to Zanhuawei’s initial hot period, which is very depressing. In the interview, M_3 also said that he felt that the number of people in Xunpu Village who came to experience Zanhuawei was far less than during the initial period of Internet popularity and that there were many photo studios and travel shops in other provinces that were also doing Zanhuawei services. This will also cause tourists who want to experience Xunpu Village to change their original travel plans, which indicates that this cultural economy may be gradually declining.

“To be honest, this thing is limited in popularity, and it will definitely get worse and worse in the future, because the people who travel now may also be a lot worse than last year, and now the price is very low, there was no such price last year.”.

(M_3)

“That will definitely have an impact, because not everyone is making a living from Zanhuawei, they also have their own jobs, and young people who work outside are not affect-ed by the congested roads by tourists because they rarely live in the village. But there are still some old people in the village who are still farming on the tidal flats, and some villagers have gone out to do seafood business, and now the whole road is blocked, and they can’t get to where they want to go quickly, so they must be affected. Because if you get the dividends brought by Zanhuawei, you can still accept it, if you don’t get any dividends, you must feel that tourist congestion is very annoying.”.

(F_1)

After this transformation, the tourism industry of Xunpu Village has developed rapidly, with a large number of tourists pouring into Xunpu Village, and the catering, accommodation and surrounding hotel industries have also made profits. However, the influx of such a large group of tourists into Xunpu Village also brings great pressure to the environment of Xunpu Village. There are not too many garbage cans on both sides of the roads in the village, which leads to most of the garbage of tourists being thrown on the streets, which greatly affects the street hygiene condition of Xunpu Village. The food and beverage industry is facing the same problem, and the excessive number of tourists crowding Xunpu’s restaurants adds to the excess food waste. On the other hand, although the coastal zone of Xunpu Village has reduced the burden of beach breeding, the beach, hosting the core of marine culture, has become the background for tourists to take photos, so the beach will also be threatened by garbage.

The government plays a crucial role in the transformation process of Xunpu. Assuming that the government’s policies do not support the transformation of Xunpu Village at the beginning, the transformation of Xunpu Village will certainly be slower, because the economic development of Xunpu Village itself is relatively backward, and a large number of infrastructures must be built to ensure the development of tourism. Xunpu Village’s financial situation is difficult to build a complete infrastructure. Assuming that the government no longer provides policy support to Xunpu Village, the industrial transformation of Xunpu Village will indeed be affected to some extent. On the one hand, the service price of the Zanhuawei industry in Xunpu Village is quite different, and the market balance is easily broken. At present, the government departments should change the large-scale publicity of the Xunpu Zenhuawei circumference so as to focus on improving the facilities in the tourist area. As the current tourist popularity of Xunpu Village has not been as good as the original, the government’s assistance to Xunpu Village should focus on improving the service quality to ensure that every tourist has a better travel experience.

Government departments should pay attention to ensuring the villagers’ right to know when organizing their work, so as to ensure the public’s support for the work of government departments and community cohesion. The formation of the Zanhuawei industry requires a lot of space to house props, clothing, cosmetics, shooting equipment, etc., so the space problem is the key to the success of Zanhuawei stores. However, in this process, the government did not do a good job in the coordination and organization of the space, and some villagers handed the space to the government department without knowing it: In the name of expropriating houses as government studios, government departments expropriated ancestral halls of villagers’ families at low rents and then rented them to chain tourism shops at high rents. Moreover, the tourism shops did not hire local Xunpu women to wear flowers for tourists, which once again weakened the sustainability of the transformation of fishing villages.

Finally, the organizational structure of Xunpu Village is the result of being dominated by official power. The final financing of the enterprise is Quanzhou City People’s Government Donghai Sub-district Office and Quanzhou Fengze District Finance Bureau. However, in this process, local residents are mainly responsible for creating the background of marine cultural life, and some villagers also provide Zanhuawei services. Enterprises are mainly responsible for the maintenance and management of the scenic spot in this organizational structure, while invests are mainly engaged in commercial activities such as attracting tourists to the Zanhuawei fishing village, providing tourists with services, such as taking photos and making up, and seeking economic benefits from it. In this structure, through the marine cultural atmosphere of the scenic spot, the maintenance of facilities and publicity and tourist attraction strategies, Zanhuawei and makeup photo services form a complete chain, and tourists can enjoy the unique charm brought by marine culture to Xunpu Village. At present, this organizational structure has indeed formed a unique operation mode in Xunpu Village, but we have no way to predict the result, so it is still unknown whether this mode can be applied to municipal development at the macro level.

4.5. The Limit of the Study

Xunpu Village is a fishing village with a traditional marine culture, and its transformation is led by Zanhuawei, one of the local intangible cultural heritages. Compared with traditional tourism, Zanhuawei in Xunpu Village forms a tourism industry focusing on taking photos and applying makeup, which has particularity and representativeness. This study has two characteristics. First, although the case study method is only carried out with a single case, the relative size of the samples will not transform multiple cases into macro studies no matter how many samples there are. This study is unique and unreproducible, and it cannot find similar cases for quantitative and comparative investigation for the time being, so it is more in line with the conditions of qualitative research [48]. Secondly, the research object is not a person or a group of individuals but an action system. The action organization jointly constructed by the government and villagers in this case just meets this condition [49], so the case study method is more suitable for this study. However, this study relies on qualitative data from interviews and observations, with limited use of quantitative data to support the findings, which is due to the limited quantitative data related to the local research, and no official data can be quoted (including the number of stores, the number of tourists, the turnover, etc.). Therefore, this study conducted a field survey on the number of stores and estimated the number of tourists and the turnover during the interview process, which is the valid data available at the present stage. The conclusion of this study is conservative and open, and it is expected to obtain more data in the next research phase to improve the reliability and objectivity of the study.

5. Conclusions

This study uses a case study method to analyze and study the new model of Xunpu Village revitalization. Through in-depth interviews with different professionals in the local community, we found that (1) the spatial renewal of Xunpu Village includes structural changes in industry, capital, power and space. (2) From the fishery to the tourism service industry, the media and local government jointly promote the economy and development of fishing villages. (3) Coastal landscape projects cause fishermen to lose their working space and their economic dependence on the ocean. (4) The real-estate industry in fishing villages is booming, which has driven investment in house decoration, catering, B&Bs, etc., and also attracted a large number of young people to the fishing villages. Therefore, there is indeed such an organization in Xunpu Village to promote the transformation of the fishing village, but the members and operation mode of the organization are still worthy of further study and discussion in the next stage. It is undeniable that this organization has indeed formed a new industrial model in Xunpu Village while alleviating the problem of hollowing out the fishing village.