A joke: A few years ago, there was a boy from a nearby village who got into Beihua University [in Jilin], on a military scholarship. To celebrate, his family screened four movies over two evenings and hung out a big red banner from the entrance of their home. It was the talk of the town.

“What kind of university is Beihua University?” one villager asked another.

“Who knows, maybe short for Beijing Qinghua University? What an achievement!”

“Tut tut, I hear that this university not only wants your money but also gives out money.”

I heard all these things from my father when I came back.

In the past, I believed in enlightenment theory, that education was the key to transforming life in the countryside. I thought every child in the village should be aware, achieve self-awareness and have a clear understanding of the world around them. Then everything would work out. But now it is more about salvation than enlightenment. The wrecked villages of China need a saviour.

The truth is that very few university graduates would now be willing to return to help develop their home villages. Yes, you could say this is neglecting your roots, acting in bad faith. You could of course accuse me of these things. But you have to understand the difficulties. This trip back, I heard people say that university students are now being appointed to grassroots village official posts. It’s a sound policy, but only a half-measure, going through the motions for show. How can one or two people with book learning sort out the problems of a whole village, where the waters run so deep?

A fellow student was very keen to return to the county town after graduating, to become a local businessman. Our county town is now much like Shenzhen at the beginning of the 1980s. If you operate a wholesale company for a year you can make 100,000 to 200,000 yuan, although rent in the county town is around 1,500 yuan per square meter. But his parents would not allow this on any account, considering it a loss of face.

Four years ago, when I left my family and home to become a graduate student in Shanghai, I saw a myth welling up behind me, like a great mushroom cloud. It is often said that the tides of history drive the individual forward, and that is what it felt like. There is no way I can go back and puncture that myth, however difficult life away from the village may be. I think at least for those who come later, it’s good to retain some hope. If I went back, no doubt I would be seen as a tragic case by everybody. I would inevitably be treated as an example of what not to do. I would be held up as proof of the uselessness of study.

Was my departure a heroic conclusion or a tragic beginning? In The Emperor’s New Clothes, the child that speaks the truth is not always appreciated. Of course, you can accuse me of weakness. During this stay, I awoke suddenly one night, full of foreboding that, if I weren’t careful, I could end up like Wei Liansu or Lu Weifu.

It’s not that I don’t want to go back home, it’s that I went too far away, and have no way back now. As soon as I turned away, I realized that I had no way back. This is what I want people to understand.

Life in the countryside

Many people have mentioned the problem of gambling in rural areas, and there is indeed a lot of it in our area, especially during the New Year. When migrant workers have earned their money and come home, they get together to gamble. They gamble recklessly, and some people can lose a year’s pay. Gambling of all kinds occurs, and even women and the elderly get involved. The games include dice, mahjong, dominoes, and various card games.

Another aspect of gambling is the official corruption it engenders. For our local police, gambling arrests have become a new form of revenue-raising. No matter how small the stakes - one or two yuan, even 50 cents - they still haul people in. One winter’s day, my own mother was detained for playing dice. No matter whether you are a player or a spectator, you are still taken in, and afterwards your family is told to cough up such and such a sum for your release. This is frankly illegal, but it has been like this for many years. Of course, if you have connections, and call for help, then there is no problem. They will not dare to pick you up.

And now a few words on counterfeit goods. Once when I came back for the mid-autumn festival, I bought a bottle of Coca-Cola at a village shop and was surprised to find that it was a fake. A student who came back with me said that even toothpaste and washing powder in the village shops are fake. According to my father, when people in the village prepare for the New Year celebrations, the alcohol and cigarettes they buy are always counterfeit. The villagers have all grown lazy, and have even given up making their own steamed buns. Why is this? Because the shops now have everything you need, from steamed buns to everyday goods, meat, fruit and vegetables, bottled drinking water, and gas and telephone bill payment services. When I came back this time, I heard a neighbouring village even has a supermarket. Yes, a self-service supermarket, a mini-Carrefour - a sure sign that modernization has reached the villages.

Human life is a dime a dozen in the countryside. Two examples: In a hamlet at the back of us lived an old man who had studied privately, had fine calligraphy, told fortunes in the local market, and had some understanding of the works of Confucius and Mencius. Although he was over 80 years old, he remained active. A few years ago, he was knocked down by a motorbike while crossing the road and later died. In the end, the family reached a private arrangement with the driver, and 10,000 yuan in compensation was paid. I asked my father, how could it be so little? He replied, “he was over 80, how much longer would he have had left?” The value of human life is measured, it seems, by the number of years remaining.

In another case, in a hamlet not far away from my home, a woman of over 60 last year went to the village clinic for an injection. She had died before they withdrew the needle. This was clearly a medical accident, and it resulted in another private settlement, with payment of 45,000 yuan in compensation.

Now, how would these two matters have been handled if they occurred in the city?

Life in the country still seems to follow the currents of nature. Caught between the post-modern and the mediaeval, village life flows like a river without direction or restraint, and nobody knows where it will eventually run its course. Of course, these things matter little to the villagers themselves.

Thank you patient reader. I will say nothing more here about the many other issues affecting the countryside, such as public order and the care of children left behind by migrant workers. Indeed, I think I already said too much. Initially, I thought what I have written here is no more than common knowledge. But people often forget their common knowledge, or reinterpret it. So, here I hope I have, so to speak, repackaged the banalities of country life, for Chinese people everywhere.

There is no doubt that rural problems are firmly on the agenda now, the object of both scholarly and governmental attention. This is good news, but this attention is also an objective recognition that problems do exist on the land, and they are urgent.

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