Fed up with the city, the Chinese go back to the country

Despite a high-paying job at a Shanghai multinational, Hu Siqin gave up everything to grow vegetables. Like her, many young Chinese are fleeing the stress of big cities to settle in the countryside.

This thirty-year-old decided to give up a career that allowed her to pay for restaurants and to go out at night. But he felt that, amid the skyscrapers of a metropolis of 25 million people, something was missing.

In need of “roots”, tired of the rush of the world of work, Hu Siqin decided to leave to enjoy the simple joys of a rural lifestyle.

“Like others, I had reached the point where material comforts could no longer motivate me. Deep down, we were no longer satisfied with our lives, ”he declared.

“We ask ourselves: what is the goal of our life? Why do we get up in the morning? ”He recalls.

Until the 1980s, China It was a largely rural country, but the trend was quickly reversed with economic development.

Growth has led to further urbanization and lifted several hundred million people out of extreme poverty thanks to a modern consumption-driven economy.

But once a certain degree of well-being has been reached, attitudes are beginning to change.

“Empty inside”

Many young people are tired of a lifestyle that forces them to work long hours, as the cost of living increases and under pressure from parents to “succeed”, marry and have children.

A tiredness that sometimes materializes in the metaphor of “the board”: lying at home instead of pursuing social success.

Hu Siqin, a former director of marketing and purchasing at L’Oréal and Decathlon, says she looked “happy on the outside, but empty on the inside.”

He now plants sweet potatoes, beans and other organic vegetables on Chongming, a large mainly agricultural island in the Yangtze estuary.

The plots are rented together with friends who share the same ideals.

Hu Siqin, a very energetic woman, can hardly contain her satisfaction when she digs up sweet potatoes and tests sorghum plants.

He is part of what the government calls the “new farmers”: generally young people, with studies and who bring new ideas to agriculture, as well as their mastery of social networks or online sales.

They are about 20 million, according to official figures.

The government is pleased that young people with technological and business skills are entering the agricultural sector.

But for Liang Funa, 34, the priority is having a calmer life. This former advertising executive came to Chongming a few years ago after working too hard.

Concerned parents

“Our generation is under enormous pressure. And the people who stay in the city don’t really have a way out, ”he says.

“People around them are constantly talking about buying a house, a car or getting married. As if these were the only indicators of success and there were no other possible paths ”, he assures.

When he arrived on the island, he had to quickly learn the basics of cultivation. But she got help from her new neighbors and learned from online tutorials.

To supplement your income, you work online for a charity.

Funa says that she now enjoys her life stress-free now and has realized that she ultimately needs very few consumer goods.

He only eats the organic vegetables he grows, feels healthier and says he has reduced his visits to the doctor.

But for these young people, the biggest challenge is usually convincing their parents.

Siqin’s parents regularly denounce her lifestyle choice as a “backward step.”

But she remains convinced of her choice. He is currently negotiating a long-term lease to have his own farm in Zhejiang (east) province.

He hopes to be able to plant his first crops in spring.

“I left my comfort zone to go to an unknown place, not knowing what I was going to find. Today I can say that I know much more about life, ”he says.