Leaving it All Behind

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone - "hippies" in China?

 

 

Searching for Greener Pastures, Finding Familiar Pressures

• Unwilling or uninterested in conforming to mainstream values, some alternatively minded Chinese are taking refuge in the countryside. For all too many, it’s a dream that cannot last.

 

A view of Fairwind Village, May 13, 2020. Courtesy of the author

 

Quote

The southwestern village of Fairwind lies about an hour outside the nearest city. To reach it, a visitor must take the newly built metro to the end of the line, wait for one of the small buses that run every 30 minutes into the nearby hills, then hoof it for the last 2 kilometers.

 

But unlike so many Chinese villages, which have been hollowed out over the past four decades as residents decamp for the cities, Fairwind has seen an influx of urbanites over the past three years.

. . .

Yet if Fairwind offers Pan a kind of shelter and space to realize her most cherished values, it is also far removed from the resources and opportunities found in the city. Without any kind of safety net, any change in the wind — an illness, accident, or unforeseen pregnancy — can easily upend newcomers’ lives.

 

Lin arrived in Fairwind with her husband Mo in 2018. A former environmental organizer, she now works in the village kindergarten while her husband pursues his longtime passion for carpentry. Their income is unstable, ranging from next to nothing to a few thousand yuan per month, but they enjoy the leisure time and the chance to do what they love.

 

 

Edited February 13, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)