Material conditions not the only thing that separate urbanites from their rural cousins
Print Edition
The recent Spring Festival saw a surge of interest in the decay of conditions in certain rural parts of China’s countryside, a topic that normally gets little attention from the country’s urbanites.
Chief among the recent crop of works focusing on the plight of villagers and farmers is the article “Village scene in the eyes of a peasant’s daughter-in-law,” by Huang Ge, a professor from Guangdong Province. Huang’s article depicts the social fractures taking place in her husband’s home in rural Hubei Province.
In a blog entitled “Conflict and Struggle,” Hou Jinliang, a reporter whose native village is in Linyi, Shandong Province, describes how difficult it is even for those who have fled from village life on the strength of their academic accomplishments to efface marks of their rustic origins and begin life anew in cities.
Still, the urge to flee the countryside remains as strong as eve. As many villages cease to be nourished by viable principles, the consumerist urban lifestyle has spread quickly, leading to confrontations between the older and the new generations. Hou remarked that this year there are more cars in his village, and disparity was more conspicuous. The favorite topic of discussion among villagers was the price of cars, as well as the amount of money made in cities.
A recent Xinhua commentary (“Why villages make news during the Spring Festival,” Februrary 15, Oriental Morning Post) pointed out that in predominantly rural China, accidental encounters throw into relief the backwardness of village life: shabby buildings, backward traffic, dim lights, poor hygiene, among other issues.
But among the apologists and defenders of rural life, there is still the assumption that while villages may be backward they are headed in the right direction of becoming more urban. There is an implied assumption that urban life is in all ways better, and village life should be tolerated because it aspires to this ideal. This attitude, in the guise of sympathy, provides the justice for the eventual extermination of rural manners and conditions.
Consensus of bigotry
Views of this sort suggest a consensus of bigotry that is even more demeaning and damning than the material divide between urban and rural. They ignore the fact that villages have their own time-honored values.
I remember once taking my son to a village in north Jiangsu Province. Upon arriving, he found it hard to move his feet, for the small lanes were earthen rather than concrete. He was frankly appalled when he learned that garden vegetables were fertilized with manure. It is inconsistent with the sanitation principles he had imbibed in Shanghai.
During his brief stay in the village, he was so bored by the evening darkness that once when he was taken to the country seat for a dinner, the flood of lights so consoled him that he exclaimed that “this is definitely more like Shanghai!”
For him Shanghai is the benchmark against which all other things are judged. It eluded him that a villager who is not blinded by artificial illumination can gaze at the stars and be awed and inspired by a star-studded celestial sphere.
For a village boy it is easy for the observation to sink in that all come from dust, and to dust all return. It comes naturally. By contrasts, many urbanites, having taken urban amenities and consumer goods for granted, are in the danger of being steadily cut off from the life-giving soil.
When discussing the disparity between urban and rural China, we should focus not just on wealth and material conditions. We should also do more soul-searching if we want to find the root cause of rural decay and rejuvenate rural society.
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