Zhou was among the educated urban youths who were mobilized to go to the countryside during Cultural Revolution. During that time, she and her friends had voluntarily organized evening schools for the peasants. In 1977, after resumption of university education, she successfully entered Southwest Normal University and had remained in the university as political counsellor for the Chemistry Department after graduation. In 1995, while looking for a partner to sponsor university programs, she visited Minsheng Company and came to know the story of Lu Zuofu, an early entrepreneur in Beipei of Chongqing, a social reformer, an educator and a forerunner in rural construction. Zhou was deeply moved by the story and had organized a national academic conference on “Lu Zuofu and Modernization in China”.
From 2005 onward, given the State policy that gave top priority on the three-dimensional agro issue, she went further into the research of rural regions, and revealed the urgent demand of education there. Her 2006 report was presented in many academic conferences. Since then she had organized university volunteers to go to the countryside to support rural communities and schools. Further, with two years’ dedicated effort, she had organized the 2011 national academic conference on cultural diversity in rural construction, then in 2012 established the Chinese Rural Construction Academy in Southwest University as well as organizing the International Second South-South Forum on Sustainability. Her vision and her passionate pursuit in the rural construction movement had enriched her own life.
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