In recent days, a group of teachers and students from South China University of Technology could be seen weaving through the lanes of Laisu Village in Heshan City's Gonghe Town, Jiangmen. They paused frequently to photograph the weathered facades of diaolou watchtowers, bend down to record the intricate details of blue-brick houses, and chat with elderly residents fanning themselves by the roadside, gathering stories of overseas Chinese heritage hidden within old homes and collective memory.

Laisu Village, established during the Northern Song Dynasty over 950 years ago, was recognized in 2023 as one of Jiangmen's "Red Beautiful Overseas Chinese Villages." By August 2025, with the assistance of the first phase of the South China University of Technology School of Foreign Languages Laisu Task Force, the village had completed the initial version of its "Laisu AR Navigation System" and established a digital museum of antiquities, laying the digital groundwork for a "language plus technology" approach to rural revitalization. Recently, task force advisor Wu Xili returned with the second cohort of students to upgrade the AR navigation features, explore oral history materials such as family precepts and village chronicles, build a digital genealogy platform, and conduct industrial research.

Genealogical records serve as the vital link for overseas Chinese communities, the very "ticket" that allows scattered descendants to trace their ancestral roots. The Zhong clan's genealogy in Laisu Village, compiled and expanded over hundreds of years across roughly twenty generations, is voluminous and intricate in its family branches. Wu Xili shared that during an earlier scouting visit and discussions with the village committee, she identified an urgent need for digitizing these records. She brought back an original copy of the genealogy as a working document and organized the second task force phase to incorporate genealogy compilation and digitization into regular semester activities. The team has already transferred over 300 pages of paper records into computers, creating individualized "digital IDs" for each person listed in the family tree. Wu noted, "We have now built a preliminary website for the Zhong clan genealogy. With proper authorization, descendants can add new lineage information online, and overseas members can remotely trace their ancestral origins, achieving 'cloud-based root-seeking.'"

Building on earlier digital achievements and more than ten navigation points, the task force has deeply upgraded the AR system. Villagers and tourists need only scan light tags at the village entrance to see family precept animations, realistic renderings of bullet casings found in the watchtowers, and oral history video clips on their phone screens. One villager who used the system remarked, "Previously, when tourists asked about the stories behind these buildings, I couldn't explain clearly. Now with AR navigation, everything is crystal clear." Additionally, the team compiled a comprehensive operational guide to the AR system for the village committee and conducted in-depth interviews with key community figures.

The task force members transformed the memories scattered in villagers' minds into a series of short oral history videos titled "Memories of Laisu." All video materials were archived using standardized naming conventions, backed up to the cloud, and handed over to the village committee for safekeeping, turning them into publicly managed community archives and digital assets. During their stay, villagers pulled out precious family documents and old photographs from storage, led the students to ancient wells and ancestral halls, and recounted legends of their forebears and festive customs, expressing hopes for the village's future. The team visited numerous residents and elders, systematically documenting the overseas Chinese history, intangible cultural heritage, and red revolutionary stories of Laisu, while also recording the community's aspirations for industrial growth. Besides these efforts, the group held in-depth discussions with the village committee on integrating agriculture, culture, and tourism.

"We designed five scented cards whose backs can be assembled to spell out 'Laisu' in pinyin," said a design team member, presenting the drafts in the village committee's workshop. "Our goal is to weave Laisu's culture into tangible keepsakes that people can see and take away, so they remember this place." Zhang Huaitian, the student leading the design work, explained that to find the "right" colors for Laisu, the team walked every alley, repeatedly sampling and comparing shades, ultimately drawing blue-gray and rice-white from local residences as the palette for the entire souvenir collection. Drawing inspiration from elements like the village's youth lion dance troupe, they have developed family precept bookmarks and other cultural products, with plans to expand promotion during the peak tourism season.