I. A Gen Z’s Memories of Agricultural Machinery As far back as I can remember, my family has farmed, mainly growing wheat and rice. During holidays, I would follow the rear of a harvester with my friends, picking up stray rice ears. Harvesters were rare back then; a village might…

I am a girl who grew up wandering around the wet markets. In my day-to-day life, I am just an office worker in a cubicle, but come Chinese New Year, I transform into the “deputy” of a wet market grocery shop. What exactly is a wet market? For ordinary people…

At around seven in the morning, 65-year-old Aunt Zhen arrives at her sugarcane field. She props her heavily scratched phone against a stalk, connects to a neighbour’s Wi-Fi, and opens Douyin. She recites the steps under her breath: “Tap the plus sign, swipe left, start live stream.” The camera points…

In 1972, British scientist John Yudkin published a book titled *Pure, White and Deadly*. The protagonist of that book was sugar: pure, white sugar. The protagonist of this short piece is also sugar: sweet sugar. In this context, “sugar” refers to table sugar, confectionery, and added sugars in food. On…

As long as people are alive, they cannot do without the basics of daily life—the simple necessities of fire, rice, oil, and salt. Whether in China or abroad, the terms ‘rice’, ‘flour’, and ‘oil’ are ancient, with at least a thousand years of history. Once humanity entered the agricultural era,…

In the three months following the disaster, everyone from anxious customers to government officials at every level has asked Zhen Rui the same question: “What happens next?” In the early hours of 28 July 2025, extreme torrential rain battered the mountains of northern Beijing, as flash floods swept up silt…

Late September in the Greater Khingan Mountains brought a slight chill. Perhaps due to global warming, the white birch forests of Jagdaqi had not yet turned yellow. Until a few decades ago, these forests served as the hunting grounds for the Oroqen people. Gathered within the forest was a group…

I. One Action Outweighs a Thousand Theories There are always chance encounters that plant the seeds of change. For instance, in the winter of 2007, I took Gao Tian, a volunteer photographer, to the Northeast to shoot a photobook for disabled artists. After settling Gao Tian into Zhao Li’s gallery…

The dream of a lazy foodie is to create a self-sufficient lazy garden—a sustainable food forest where the harvest is as bountiful as possible and the labour as minimal. Years ago, while studying permaculture in Taiwan, I first encountered the concept of “food forests”. I had heard the term before,…

Foodthink’s Take This summer, extreme heatwaves have frequently hit Sichuan. Climate change is making the Southwest region hotter and drier. Those living in the countryside understand the implications all too well: when the weather becomes too oppressive, farmers are not only forced to shift their working hours and daily routines,…