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Reconstructing
the Chinese Farmer
The Gao family lives in Anlong Village in
Sichuan Province. Their home is filled
with potted plants, orchards, drying produce,
and the experiments they conduct
to make their home greener and more sustainable.
They have developed a manmade wetland water
filtration system, make their own compost, and use
rice husks instead of soap to clean dishes. They support
themselves by selling organic vegetables directly
to consumers in cities. Unlike peasants elsewhere in
China, they have eliminated the need to migrate to
cities and work in coastal factories. Their lifestyle is
part of Anlong Village’s collective effort to create a
new way of living in the Chinese countryside.
However, China’s unequivocal embrace of urbanization
in the mid-1980s has not only caused disproportionate
investment and reform in urban areas and
economic disparity between the city and the countryside,
but has also perpetuated a negative image
of the village or peasant as backward and unmodern
and of the countryside as needing urbanization.
Pervasive national discourse creates extreme
prejudice against the rural population. The cos-
By David Borenstein
mopolitan, trendy urbanite is often considered of
high “suzhi” or quality, while the old-fashioned
farmer is almost always considered low “suzhi.”
The pervasiveness of this stereotype was apparent
in a traditional rural township in Sichuan province,
where peasants said they were too embarrassed to
be interviewed because of their low “suzhi.”
Policymakers, academics, and officials have promoted
temporary rural migration to the cities to
bring capital into the countryside and to “civilize”
villagers. The theory, as explained by the party
secretary of the township in Sichuan province, is
that the farmers can learn from urbanites and then
return to the countryside and improve their community’s
“suzhi.”
Unbalanced development and a decline in farming
revenues have created a countryside where peasants
usually have no choice but to migrate. Reinforcing this
trend is a national culture that equates the urban with
the civilized. As a result, most rural Chinese believe
that migration is a necessary way of life—both for the
economic opportunities it offers and the chance to
improve their “suzhi.”
SIPA NEWS 23