Why do young people leave the countryside?

"leaving the countryside" has become the consensus and direction of almost everyone's efforts. Parents tell their children the most is "study hard, otherwise they can only be farmers." teachers teach students that "they can't go to college, and they can only be farmers." the examples that society has set for people are examples of how to successfully leave the countryside.

When it comes to Chinese farmers, the first thing we think of is the farmers' concepts of "keeping the soil" and "keeping the routine". Farmers will not easily leave their beloved land and their twilight homes. Because "away from home" and "separated" have a very tragic meaning. However, I do not know since when, people's ideas have suddenly changed. "leaving home", "wandering everywhere" and "living without fixed abode" have not only been accepted by people, but have become fashionable behavior. A fellow-villager told me: "Today's rural girls are willing to find a young man who goes out to work, and no one wants to find a farmer who stays in the countryside." In our survey, whether in the northeast or southwest, one of the most common words is "unless the fool stays in the countryside." It may be driven by this psychology that the "tide of migrant workers" in China has been formed.

Every year before and after the Spring Festival, whether you are on the road or on TV, you must have seen a vast team of migrant workers. The procession was large and complex, men and women, young and old, dressed in rags or bright clothes, pushing and pulling huge luggage, flooding the stations, and the crowded situation shocked everyone who had witnessed it. According to the data of 1% population sample survey in 2005, there are nearly 150 million rural migrant workers in our country. Today, it is generally believed that more than 200 million migrant workers have gone out, and by 2015, at least 200 million people will have to move out of China's rural areas.

So, what on earth prompted these people who have been living on the land to bid farewell to their native land and embark on the road of living and sleeping in the open and their future uncertain? And what causes them to leave the land on which they have lived for generations and pour into the cities of reinforced concrete buildings, enduring loneliness and loneliness, hard living conditions, and super-intense labor? they also endure the discrimination of some people who entered the cities earlier than they did, and even endure lower incomes than in the countryside. Living a completely different life from what you used to be?

"relying on heaven for a living" is the comment of almost all the interviewees on the income situation of their hometown. Yes, for the hundreds of millions of rural people living in the vast land of China, what can determine the harvest of their crops more than the weather? Favorable weather is the year that countless people look forward to. For farmers, the harvest in autumn is not only the grain fruit, but also the happiness after a year of hard work, but also saves a better future life. However, when you sow in spring, you may not necessarily have an autumn harvest. Farmers can decide what seeds to plant in their fields, but they cannot decide whether they will harvest the fruit of the seeds in autumn. Because, at any time, nature will use its cruelty to instantly vanish the farmers' hard work. Without harvest, there is no income, without income, there is no hope.

As a result, many people choose to leave the land, leave those indefinite wishes, and pursue a way of life under another sky that they think can be decided as long as they work hard.

Among the people who come out, men are generally engaged in manual work at construction sites; women may be assembly line workers, or they can also work as nannies and cleaners; among the people who come out of the crowd, there are also young people who drop out of school and work after junior high school. there are also old people who are in their twenties. I once interviewed an 83-year-old man who had not come home yet. He was a doorman in a restaurant with a salary of 20 yuan a day, but with food and accommodation, he was still attractive to this old man. In his words, "one person has enough to eat, the whole family is not hungry." I don't even have a cook when I get home. Why not?

For the vast majority of migrant workers, living at the bottom of the city, it can only be described as hardship, but rural life, in addition to hardship, but also add "poverty". Many people have to go out of the countryside because they are poor. Nowadays, most of these people do not want to go back to the countryside, and even begin to hate the living environment in the countryside, and many rural families or even the whole family move. Especially for the younger generation, home in the countryside has only become a concept. Every year, only during the Spring Festival, they will go back for a few days, and then quickly return to the city.

There are many reasons for leaving rural areas and agriculture. Apart from low income and hard agricultural labor, I am afraid there are also deep-seated reasons. Because we found that although some big growers and farmers have a lot of income, their children are still keen on working life. In the eyes of some young people, the days in the countryside are so boring that they think there is nothing more monotonous than working at sunrise and resting at sunset. In fact, the life of farmers can only be regarded as survival, not to mention life at all, let alone a quality life. The longer you stay in the city, the more you yearn for city life. Because cities can not only provide relatively stable and higher income than rural areas, but also have a better living and educational environment. It feels like a vibration wave, spreading in circles to more people.

Therefore, "leaving the countryside" has become the consensus and direction of almost everyone's efforts. What parents tell their children most is "study hard, otherwise they can only be farmers." teacher education for students is also "can not be admitted to college, futile, can only be a farmer." One example after another that society has set for people are examples of how to successfully leave the countryside.

A girl who ran away from home to study farming at home told me that due to the failure of the college entrance examination, parents, teachers, relatives, neighbors and classmates all put pressure on her, so that she had no room to live in the village.

In such an environment, "leaving the countryside" has become people's strongest desire. There are various ways to leave: going to school is the most respectable; working is also glamorous; marrying to the city is the most enviable; and joining the only-child family in the town is also an effective way.

Through the faces of excitement, loss, or vicissitudes of life, can we interpret the helplessness of leaving home, or the longing for the future? The merciless reality asks us: why has "farming" become a professional or threatening word that punishes people? Why do the descendants of farmers regard leaving the countryside as their goal?