Rural revitalization, rural infrastructure, social change, and public services.
A Note from Foodthink 11 November 2021, during the Fengnian Festival in Guangzhou, Foodthink interviewed two musicians from the band Wayna, Banong and Shibashi. This conversation became the first episode of the “Food Talk” podcast. Beyond this, during the early stages of “Food Talk”, Banong generously composed the intro and…
Foodthink says In 1924, Fei Dasheng and the teachers and students of the Jiangsu Provincial Girls’ Sericulture School arrived at Kaixiangong Village in Wujiang County to establish the Silk Improvement Society; nearly 100 years have passed since then. Their goal was to reverse the decline of the silk industry and…
In late June, while travelling to Jiangbutasi Village in eastern Altay, Xinjiang, we frequently encountered Kazakh herders on horseback driving their cattle and sheep to new pastures, with cars often coming to a halt to let the herds pass. This is the peak of the migration season. Herders in the…
Industrial revitalisation is the top priority of rural revitalisation, as well as the starting point for practical work. Without industry, rural areas struggle to attract people, let alone retain talent; the avenues for farmers to increase their income remain narrow, and cultural activities are difficult to initiate. In promoting industrial…
In this episode, the Food Talk host travels to Tongxiang, Zhejiang, accompanying Yu Jiangang—a young man who returned to his roots—to visit the village where he was born, raised, and has now returned. They explore the village’s final acre of Hangbai chrysanthemums and the biodiversity and Jiangnan culture that surround…
In Europe and Japan, there is a long history of children learning through nature and agriculture. Every year, primary school pupils are organised by their schools to visit the fields to learn how to sow, nurture, and produce food—moving from the classroom to the outdoors, and from spring ploughing to…
The theme of today’s Central Document No. 1 is, unsurprisingly, rural revitalisation once again. With rural affairs having been the focus of this document for twenty consecutive years, the media, the public, and the government are all under pressure to innovate and ‘find some highlights’. In recent years, the involvement…
Yu Jiangang left advertising in Beijing to rear silkworms and make silk quilts in his Jiangnan village. Twelve years on, commercial agriculture and capital have pressed closer, and the question of whether a rural identity can survive outside the marketplace remains open.
“One-size-fits-all” farm closures in no-farming zones and straw-burning bans leaving villagers detained: Jin Shuqin, Research Center for Rural Economy, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, argues that “blocking without channeling” strays from rural revitalisation’s thriving industries and livable ecology — green and development are one.
