When Xing Changxi, a farmer from Gaotian village in Liuyang, Hunan province, passed away in August, his family followed his final wishes and donated his body to a Changsha-based university's medical school, where he became a "silent mentor".

For the next three years, his body will remain in the school to help student doctors learn about anatomy and better understand the sanctity of life.

Xing, 69, was the first resident in his village to register as a human organ donor.

By September last year, a total of 164 residents had signed up with the organ and body donation registry in a village that has an official population of around 7,200 people.

Such a high donation ratio is rare in rural areas where traditional ideas about death and the human body are deeply ingrained. Xing's change of heart began in December 2018, when he read a newspaper article about organ donations.

It described how one donor's organs had saved three lives, and how another donated body had become a "silent mentor" in a medical school.

Xing contacted the local Red Cross branch and signed the body and organ donation pledge.

Luo Haigang, Party chief of Gaotian and president of the Red Cross branch, recalled that Xing's decision caused a ruckus among the villagers.

Luo said they asked questions such as: "He's still healthy, why would he want to donate his body?" and "Having parts removed, doesn't that mean he won't be whole in death?"

Xing didn't explain himself. He simply left a straightforward line in his will: "I wish to donate my body to help shift customs away from old practices and establish new ones."

Amid the controversy, a transformation began to take root in Gaotian.

China established a voluntary organ donation system in 2010, and made voluntary donation the only legitimate source of transplantable organs in 2015.

To date, the nation has carried out 58,000 posthumous organ donations, 63,000 body donations and more than 110,000 corneal donations, the China Organ Donation Administrative Center said in April.

As a result, the lives of around 170,000 patients with organ failure have been saved, and more than 100,000 individuals have regained their eyesight, it added.

The number of registered organ donors in China has exceeded 7.05 million, according to the latest data released by the center.