Can’t go back in the countryside, can’t stay in the city
The picture is from Li Zizheng’s video
Dynamic sound and quick hands brought a large number of video influencers, one of which is mainly rural life, which is extremely popular. They show the rural customs, idyllic landscapes, and specialty foods, and their typical representatives are accounts such as Li Ziyu of Douyin, Momo of the Village, and Velvet Zombie. Behind their explosion and earning money, in fact, it reflects the embarrassing status of the new urban crowd in the process of urbanization: the city that cannot escape, and the hometown that cannot be returned. “Although I can’t reach the village, I yearn for it.”
Chinese blood and geography culture
Cai Chengzhi, born in the 1980s, is from a mountain village in Hunan, 30 kilometers from the county seat. In his memory, his hometown is various small workshops such as clear rivers, golden rice fields, oil bombs and cotton. Since he was 18 years old, he went to college in Changsha, went to work in Shenzhen, started a business, and has rarely returned home.
His factory is in Baoan, Shenzhen, and the child was born in Shenzhen. Customers come from all over the world. He likes movies, bookstores, subways and other urban lifestyles. However, in his circle of friends, there are many reposted short videos, all related to his hometown: it is snowing in his hometown, spring is coming, and the trees on the mountain are green again. But he also knew that he couldn’t go back.
There are many urban crowds like Xiao Cai. There are two main factors that have profoundly influenced Chinese culture and psychology: the blood and geography.
Bloodline is focused on people, mainly direct and kin relatives. To solve the problem of birth, what is your surname? Who is the ancestor? With whom is a bloodline? This is a very critical issue in the agricultural era. It is the core element to distinguish one’s own people. Whether they are related or not can even determine whether a person can survive in one place. For example, the two white deer in “White Deer Plain” are the big households on White Deer Plain. The patriarch can only be generated in these two. They have absolute right to speak. Other small family names must follow their rules to survive in the local Come on.
Geography is a geographical relationship. It extends to groups who have lived, worked or studied together in some specific areas or occasions, such as fellows, alumni, and comrades-in-arms. These relationships can be seen at the beginning of the migration period. , Quickly gather people with common background, quickly integrate into the new environment and stabilize. So the fellowship, the alumni association, became the first of many peopleThe most effective way to socialize icebreaking in new environments such as new cities.
In 1978, China’s urban population was 170 million, and urbanization was 17.9%. By 2011, China had taken a crucial step, with the urban population surpassing the rural population for the first time, with an urbanization rate of 51%. It is estimated that by 2030, the overall urban population will exceed 1 billion people. The proportion of urbanization exceeds 60-70%.
In other words, most of the current urban groups are rooted in rural areas. Whether blood or geographical, it is closely related to the countryside. Nowadays, a large number of people born in 1970, 1980, and 1990 are at the backbone of society. They have completed the process of moving from rural to urban areas through reading, work, business, and relocation.
Even with these people, their identities and circumstances have changed. On the surface, they have completely got rid of rural and hometown from their household registration, work, and accent. But psychologically, whether you admit it or deny it, you can’t erase your blood relationship, the influence of geo-related factors on your deep bone marrow. Chen Xiaoqing was referring to people’s childhood. “People’s tastes are basically the habits of childhood, which will accompany people’s life and it is extremely difficult to be completely changed.” Many subsequent habits are memories of childhood. Douyin is married to the American “broken mouth Xu Meida”, with more than 10 million fans, married to Americans and having children, but the favorite food is still a snail powder that many people hate.
In the first-tier big cities, the most obvious manifestation is Shenzhen. This city was officially established only after the reform and opening up. The permanent population is 12-13 million, and the floating population exceeds 20 million. Empty city. White-collar workers such as Jack and Pony who work at various large companies such as Tencent DJI and have high incomes, are well-dressed, drinking tea and hand-ground coffee, will return to Hunan, Sichuan, Henan, and other places to support them at this time. Place, become dog eggs, ponies, etc., complete the annual migration and return ceremony.
Of course, with the death of loved ones in your hometown and changes in sheds, the frequency of going back is getting lower and lower. Many people have completed the process of transformation of urban people in terms of legal social status. However, the psychological iteration needs at least 2-3 generations to complete. Now in the city after the birth of 00, after 10, they basically completely cut off the geographical relationship.
Street view of Nanshan Central District, Shenzhen in the Spring Festival 2019
Chinese people have always been particular about Ye Luogui,Soul returns home. In the “Report by the Cliff”, which records the changes in rural China, Yan Haijun’s uncle Yan Lin joined the army in 1949, fought, changed jobs, and set up multiple properties in the city, but in the end, he returned to his barren hometown to take care of himself. And told the children to be buried in their hometown after death.
But for the Chinese who have already entered the city, under the premise that urbanization is intensifying, sheds are turbulent, homes are being demolished, and education and medical resources are concentrated in core cities, many people can only yearn for their hometown and rural spirit. The hometown in the strict traditional sense is beyond recognition, and they cannot return. As for rural life, “I can’t reach it, but I yearn for it.” And thinking of those beautiful country videos such as Li Ziyi, Murakami Mo, and so on, has become one of their best sustenances.
The city can’t stay, and the hometown can’t go back.
Murako Momo’s comments are envious of all kinds
China is an agricultural country for thousands of years, and the Chinese people’s local complex is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. But urbanization is an irreversible process in the world. Canadian scholar Doug Sanders mentioned in “Settlement in the City” that no matter whether it is Asia, Europe, Africa, the migration of rural people to cities has been happening. It has always been so. Including Japan and the United States, which are already very urbanized.
But in the process of urbanization in Europe and the United States, an interesting phenomenon has appeared, which is counter-urbanization.
In the 1970s, after urbanization in Europe and the United States reached a certain stage, urban diseases such as population increase, traffic congestion, and environmental pollution became more and more serious. Urban populations began to loathe the noisy and crowded life in cities and yearn for quiet rural life. So the rich first moved to the suburbs or rural areas. Then comes the middle income class. The direction of population migration has reversed, and the population of large cities has decreased.
In response to this phenomenon, American geographer Brian J. L. Bailey has proposed the concept of counter-urbanization.
In China, urbanization has not yet been completed, but urban people are already facing problems such as urban traffic congestion, environmental pollution, indifferent sentiments, and tasteless food, and they yearn for blue sky and white clouds, poetry and distance, slow pace and dignity.
In 2018, there was a media account that planned to escape from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The topic was hot, and the psychology of urban people was evident.
But, Escape the city where you live, think about itYes, but if implemented, most will end in tragedy. “Escaping Beijing to Yunnan: A destiny to fail.” “Those young people who fled north, north, south, and in the north of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and fled back again.” The core resources are concentrated in first- and second-tier cities, and small places lack education and medical resources. , The lack of work support, complex interpersonal relationships and other practical issues, let these white-collar workers who seek poetry and distance, no matter how they yearn for the countryside. I can only stay or return to the city obediently.
This is the case for white-collar workers who have education and relatively stable income. For the vast majority of migrant workers entering the city, the undergraduate penetration rate in China is now about 4%. For most migrant workers, they may not have a degree. There are no contacts, and they are more engaged in grassroots work. They need to go through more bumps.
The hukou is an invisible wall. In the first-tier cities, not to mention Beijing, which has the highest entry threshold, even in Shenzhen, where entry is most convenient, in fact, for ordinary people, some thresholds are not low. Shenzhen uses points for household registration, education, social security, housing, public welfare and so on. When they are added up to the standard, they can be registered. However, many people at the bottom, because of their education and income, are far below the standard for entering the household, which directly affects the development of their next generation. Their offspring are fixed at the same grassroots level as them.
Li Xiaofang (a pseudonym), a Hunanese who has been in the catering industry, has been in Shenzhen for more than 10 years and has operated a Hunan restaurant. Now he has opened two restaurants and hired 5 full-time workers, 2 temporary workers, and one year. Revenue flowed over 3 million. However, because the couple do not have a Shenzhen household registration, children who are studying in kindergartens may not be able to enter public primary and junior high schools.
Shenzhen is a city with particularly tight primary and secondary education resources. Only 50% of the city’s junior high school graduates can enter public high schools. If Xiaofang’s child does not have a deep household, the entrance exam score for senior high school is 20-40 points more than the local household registration candidate. In this case, many foreign students who grew up in Shenzhen chose to give up and go to vocational and technical schools instead of high schools. But this also means that they may be much less competitive in this big city with a high degree of education.
Xiao Fang has no education, no house to buy, and no social security, so in this case, the points do not meet the entry standard, so he paid 50,000 yuan, went to test a professional qualification certificate of a pastry chef, and then used This qualification certificate is used to promote points, this qualification certificate does not help in actual work. It cost them more than 15% of their annual profit.
The city ca n’t stay. The hometown ca n’t go back to its hometown. It ’s either demolished, the shed changed, the old house is gone, it ’s gone upstairs, or it ’s deserted.
On the one hand, they think they are from Shenzhen, but on the other hand, when people ask them, they always emphasize their ancestry. I am from Sichuan, Jiangxi, Hunan, Sichuan and other places.
John Cheever’s “The Chronicle of Walshock” records the loneliness of the individual in the process of urbanization in the United States.The village came to the city and was particularly lonely. I wanted to meet new people but failed repeatedly. Compared to the sense of distance of urban civilization, the group cultivated by rural civilization lacks a sense of security and social ability.
It is no exaggeration to say that the rural video in Douyin Kuai’s hands has given these urban people psychological comfort, in fact, they will not return. Because going back means unemployment and poverty, staying in the city may still have a chance.
Is the countryside really so beautiful?
In many people ’s impressions, the countryside is as shown in the video of Li Ziyu. The rural scenery, good years, and tea and poetry, but the real countryside is far from people ’s fantasy. He also said in an interview: “The real countryside is not as good-looking (in the video).”
Why do many people who come from the countryside miss the hometown that used to have medical care, education, and infrastructure? This is actually related to the mechanism of the human brain.
In 2017, neuroscientist Davis at the Scripps Research Institute in the United States discovered the mechanism of active forgetting. A mechanism for active forgetting was identified, called “essential forgetting”. Forgotten cells inside the brain can break down memories. The brain keeps the parts they think are important, and erases the parts of the memory that are not necessary.
This selective forgetting mechanism is very obvious after most people enter the city. It is precisely because of the longing and miss for the hometown that it will continuously strengthen the good parts of the hometown, and automatically choose to forget the poor, backward and hardship parts. We will deliberately forget those suffering parts of the life experience, rural poverty, ignorance, lack of health, medical and educational resources. For a hen or an acre of land, we will fight red ears and even die; After most people entered the city, with the intensification of urbanization, they gradually forgotten. What we remember is the grassy warbler flying, small bridges and flowing water, original ecological ingredients, and the simplicity of staying at home.
Understand the comments about college students being robbed of shrimp
In 2019, there was very hot news. Hunan university students went home to start shrimp farming. As a result, they were robbed by people in the village and were on the verge of bankruptcy. This incident caused a lot of people with rural life experience to tell those ridiculous and even terrible things in their rural life. Similar news is actually not in the minority. Fresh ripe watermelons have been trampled.
Murako Momo’s comments are envious of all kinds
China is an agricultural country for thousands of years, and the Chinese people’s local complex is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. But urbanization is an irreversible process in the world. Canadian scholar Doug Sanders mentioned in “Settlement in the City” that no matter whether it is Asia, Europe, Africa, the migration of rural people to cities has been happening. It has always been so. Including Japan and the United States, which are already very urbanized.
But in the process of urbanization in Europe and the United States, an interesting phenomenon has appeared, which is counter-urbanization.
In the 1970s, after urbanization in Europe and the United States reached a certain stage, urban diseases such as population increase, traffic congestion, and environmental pollution became more and more serious. Urban populations began to loathe the noisy and crowded life in cities and yearn for quiet rural life. So the rich first moved to the suburbs or rural areas. Then comes the middle income class. The direction of population migration has reversed, and the population of large cities has decreased.
In response to this phenomenon, American geographer Brian J. L. Bailey has proposed the concept of counter-urbanization.
In China, urbanization has not yet been completed, but urban people are already facing problems such as urban traffic congestion, environmental pollution, indifferent sentiments, and tasteless food, and they yearn for blue sky and white clouds, poetry and distance, slow pace and dignity.
In 2018, there was a media account that planned to escape from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The topic was hot, and the psychology of urban people was evident.
But, Escape the city where you live, think about itYes, but if implemented, most will end in tragedy. “Escaping Beijing to Yunnan: A destiny to fail.” “Those young people who fled north, north, south, and in the north of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and fled back again.” The core resources are concentrated in first- and second-tier cities, and small places lack education and medical resources. , The lack of work support, complex interpersonal relationships and other practical issues, let these white-collar workers who seek poetry and distance, no matter how they yearn for the countryside. I can only stay or return to the city obediently.
This is the case for white-collar workers who have education and relatively stable income. For the vast majority of migrant workers entering the city, the undergraduate penetration rate in China is now about 4%. For most migrant workers, they may not have a degree. There are no contacts, and they are more engaged in grassroots work. They need to go through more bumps.
The hukou is an invisible wall. In the first-tier cities, not to mention Beijing, which has the highest entry threshold, even in Shenzhen, where entry is most convenient, in fact, for ordinary people, some thresholds are not low. Shenzhen uses points for household registration, education, social security, housing, public welfare and so on. When they are added up to the standard, they can be registered. However, many people at the bottom, because of their education and income, are far below the standard for entering the household, which directly affects the development of their next generation. Their offspring are fixed at the same grassroots level as them.
Li Xiaofang (a pseudonym), a Hunanese who has been in the catering industry, has been in Shenzhen for more than 10 years and has operated a Hunan restaurant. Now he has opened two restaurants and hired 5 full-time workers, 2 temporary workers, and one year. Revenue flowed over 3 million. However, because the couple do not have a Shenzhen household registration, children who are studying in kindergartens may not be able to enter public primary and junior high schools.
Shenzhen is a city with particularly tight primary and secondary education resources. Only 50% of the city’s junior high school graduates can enter public high schools. If Xiaofang’s child does not have a deep household, the entrance exam score for senior high school is 20-40 points more than the local household registration candidate. In this case, many foreign students who grew up in Shenzhen chose to give up and go to vocational and technical schools instead of high schools. But this also means that they may be much less competitive in this big city with a high degree of education.
Xiao Fang has no education, no house to buy, and no social security, so in this case, the points do not meet the entry standard, so he paid 50,000 yuan, went to test a professional qualification certificate of a pastry chef, and then used This qualification certificate is used to promote points, this qualification certificate does not help in actual work. It cost them more than 15% of their annual profit.
The city ca n’t stay. The hometown ca n’t go back to its hometown. It ’s either demolished, the shed changed, the old house is gone, it ’s gone upstairs, or it ’s deserted.
On the one hand, they think they are from Shenzhen, but on the other hand, when people ask them, they always emphasize their ancestry. I am from Sichuan, Jiangxi, Hunan, Sichuan and other places.
John Cheever’s “The Chronicle of Walshock” records the loneliness of the individual in the process of urbanization in the United States.The village came to the city and was particularly lonely. I wanted to meet new people but failed repeatedly. Compared to the sense of distance of urban civilization, the group cultivated by rural civilization lacks a sense of security and social ability.
It is no exaggeration to say that the rural video in Douyin Kuai’s hands has given these urban people psychological comfort, in fact, they will not return. Because going back means unemployment and poverty, staying in the city may still have a chance.
Is the countryside really so beautiful?
In many people ’s impressions, the countryside is as shown in the video of Li Ziyu. The rural scenery, good years, and tea and poetry, but the real countryside is far from people ’s fantasy. He also said in an interview: “The real countryside is not as good-looking (in the video).”
Why do many people who come from the countryside miss the hometown that used to have medical care, education, and infrastructure? This is actually related to the mechanism of the human brain.
In 2017, neuroscientist Davis at the Scripps Research Institute in the United States discovered the mechanism of active forgetting. A mechanism for active forgetting was identified, called “essential forgetting”. Forgotten cells inside the brain can break down memories. The brain keeps the parts they think are important, and erases the parts of the memory that are not necessary.
This selective forgetting mechanism is very obvious after most people enter the city. It is precisely because of the longing and miss for the hometown that it will continuously strengthen the good parts of the hometown, and automatically choose to forget the poor, backward and hardship parts. We will deliberately forget those suffering parts of the life experience, rural poverty, ignorance, lack of health, medical and educational resources. For a hen or an acre of land, we will fight red ears and even die; After most people entered the city, with the intensification of urbanization, they gradually forgotten. What we remember is the grassy warbler flying, small bridges and flowing water, original ecological ingredients, and the simplicity of staying at home.
Understand the comments about college students being robbed of shrimp
In 2019, there was very hot news. Hunan university students went home to start shrimp farming. As a result, they were robbed by people in the village and were on the verge of bankruptcy. This incident caused a lot of people with rural life experience to tell those ridiculous and even terrible things in their rural life. Similar news is actually not in the minority. Fresh ripe watermelons have been trampled.