Why is "rural people" still synonymous with backwardness?

According to a recent survey conducted by the Economic Survey Center of China Youth Daily, 51.2% of the respondents' impression of "rural people" has changed a lot over the years. However, 40.3% of the respondents believe that the term "rural people" is still ambiguous, and 53.9% of the respondents think that there is still a big gap between "rural people" and "urban people". (China Youth Daily, July 27)

In many cases, whether a person is of rural origin or urban origin, not only has a geographical significance, but is often directly labeled as a progressive or backward value label. People from rural areas, even if they are very successful in the future, always seem to drag a long invisible tail behind them, intentionally or unintentionally doing the action of "habitual cover-up". "rural people" are still struggling with discrimination and thinking they are discriminated against.

Although the survey also shows that 51.2% of the respondents' impression of "rural people" has changed a lot, there is often a limit to this change, that is, they only morally and reasonably believe that they should not discriminate against rural areas. Among them, there may be active compassion and understanding out of moral consciousness, as well as the gradual change of ideas after the increase of exchanges and interaction between urban and rural areas. Just like those college students mentioned in the report, they were shocked from the bottom of their hearts after they came into contact with and learned about the real living conditions of migrant workers.

However, at least from the current situation, the impression of "rural people" in the public view is difficult to improve immediately, and it is no easier for this group to gain respect than to increase farmers' income.

First of all, the peasant group is still large and complex, which is entangled with many complex propositions, which can not be explained simply as a place of residence. All kinds of troubles and problems in real society, such as urbanization, food safety, damage of rights and interests, lack of public services, and so on, can be used as a reference for "rural people". Even if it cannot be said that rural people are the ultimate victims, their weakness in the process is obvious. They are at the bottom, in self-evaluation, self-positioning, often tend to inferiority complex, it is difficult to have the same confidence as other social groups.

Secondly, the value evaluation standard of the current society is too single and fixed, which also makes it impossible for "rural people" to really become an enviable group in the society. The rich and those who control power resources meet this criterion. On the other hand, the "rural people", who used to comfort themselves with diligence, simplicity and kindness, are often worthless in the new context of wealth. On the face of it, a large number of rural people seem to receive all kinds of attention, but in fact, they have neither enough cohesion nor loyal spokesmen. Most of the time, the game chips between them and the power groups are only meagre land and homestead.

Although the government continues to increase investment in rural areas, but on the whole, in transportation, communications, education, health, pension, culture and other investment, rural public financial support is still not enough. This also aggravates the gap between rural areas and modern civilization to a certain extent, and the resulting huge separation is doomed to tear the feelings of the Chinese people for a long time.

As early as 2011, China's urban population accounted for more than half of the total population for the first time, reaching 51.27%. For a country traditionally dominated by agriculture, such "population urbanization" is certainly to be congratulated, but only the change in the proportion of population does not necessarily mean the improvement of the value of "rural people". What is more, it can not fundamentally change the status quo of discrimination against this group. In addition to continuing to increase investment in public services in rural areas, the key is to change the status quo of unfair rights, unequal opportunities and too single value. Only by solving the human problem first can we fundamentally solve the problem of "rural people".