China’s Villages Changeamid Rush for the Cities

By Tom Phillips

 

1 Maijieping, around 31 miles from the city of Luoyang in thecentral province of Henan, now looks destined to join the constantly growing listof Chinese villages that have slowly faded from the country’s maps.

 

2 A remote mountaintop settlement reached by a 90-minute trekalong rocky paths, the village still boasts a centuries-old well from whichresidents draw their water. At its peak, it was home to just 140 people.

 

3 But Maijieping appears to be entering its twilight years:its younger generations have departed and only four residents remain.

 

4 “In another 10 years we will probably have to head down[the mountain] too,” said Qiao Jinchao, a local farmer who shares one of justtwo occupied homes in the remote village with his wife Tan Minquan. “We won’tbe able to walk so the only thing we will be able to do is to go where ourchildren are.”

 

5 Mr Qiao’s forefathers moved to Maijieping from anothernearby village towards the end of the Qing dynasty, which ruled China from 1644until 1911. During the 1950s, sixties and seventies the village’s populationswelled as one of Chairman Mao’s rural production teams was set up and educated“sent-down youth” began arriving from the cities to learn about the hardshipsof country life.

 

6 But by the mid-1980s Maijieping’s best days were over. AsChina transformed into the “factory of the world” and millions set off for the cities,the exodus began.

 

7 Some residents moved or married into less remote villageswhile others sought work in the nearby cities of Zhengzhou or Luoyang. The Yangfamily disappeared entirely and then the Guos, leaving only the Qiaos.

 

8 From a peak of 140 the human population has since plummetedto just four.

 

9 They are kept company by a dozen chickens, four cows, two namelessdogs and three cats that are charged with catching an unknown number of rats.

 

10 A local primary school, its roof now collapsed, has been convertedinto a barn. Mud brick homes that once housed members of the Qiao family havebeen turned into chicken hutches, cowsheds or tool deposits.

 

11 “He moved down [the mountain] in the nineties,” said MrQiao, pushing through a rickety wooden door into a roofless shack that had oncebeen home to an uncle. A voluptuous orange cow was urinating on what had beenthe sitting-room floor.

 

12 Earlier this year, the Henan-based newspaper Oriental Today published anobituary-esque lament to the village’s imminent passing.

 

13 “Maijieping, a place which generation upon generation has calledhome, is not only disappearing in a cultural sense but also in a physicalsense,” the newspaper wrote. The young “would rather cram into the cities thango back to their broken homes in the mountains.”  Reports about the plight of places such asMaijieping have prompted renewed debate about how best to protect and preserverural traditions and customs in a rapidly changing nation. They have also broughtpromises of government action. In October, senior Communist Party leaders saidthey were “determined” to protect “traditional and historic villages” fromabandonment and demolition.

 

14 Zhao Hui, director of the Ministry of Housing’s ruralconstruction department, admitted “the vast majority of traditional villages[have] disappeared amid China’s urbanization.” Only 12,000 villages of major historicalsignificance were left, he said. But Beijing now planned “financial andtechnical” support and new laws to prevent such communities being vacated ordestroyed.

 

15 Today there is hardly a province in China in which major resettlementsinvolving tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people are not underway,moving subsistence farmers from isolated hamlets like Maijieping into identikithousing estates in more accessible areas.

 

16 In May, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said that by2034 it expected 75 per cent of Chinese to live in cities. Between 2010 and2025, 300 million people — more than twice Russia’s current population — areexpected to move to urban areas.

 

17 Maijieping’s four last residents have already been askedto sign up for China’s urban revolution and construction workers are currently puttingthe finishing touches to a new type of “village” just a few miles away on theroad to the nearby city of Yanshi. A sign outside the incomplete housing estatevaunts a modern life of shopping malls, air-conditioned cars and clothesboutiques that bears no resemblance to the bucolic airs of Maijieping, wherefood is grown not purchased and annual incomes hover around 800 yuan (£81).“Enjoy the good city life: build a new rural community,” reads one propagandaposter. Mr Qiao and his three fellow villagers have so far refused to budgefrom their ancestral homes but their children feel no such loyalty to the land.

 

18 “They are not coming back to live here,” he said.“Transport is bad [and] they don’t want to farm. It’s hard work and the moneyis not good. If you work in the cities you can earn 2,000 yuan (£202) a month.”“It is up to our children to pass on the memories and to tell their childrenthe story of where they came from,” said Pei Huayu, 59, who shares thevillage’s only other occupied house with her severely disabled husband, Qiao Tao.“If they don’t, this place will be forgotten.” But nostalgia takes a back seatto pragmatism when Maijieping’s doomed locals ponder their village’s deathforetold. “What can you do? Everyone is moving down. The living conditions arebetter down there,” said Mr Qiao. “It’s natural. That’s the way it has to be.Besides, it’s getting very lonely up here.”

 

 

农民涌入城市带给中国村庄的变化

汤姆·菲利普斯

 

1 位于中国中原省份河南、距洛阳31英里左右的脉结坪，现在看来注定要加入越来越多从地图上渐渐消失的中国村落的行列。

2 脉结坪坐落在偏远的高高山顶，要在崎岖的山路上艰难步行一个半小时才能到。村里至今还有口为村民提供饮水的数百年古井。村里人丁最兴旺时也不过140号人。

3 脉结坪看来气数已尽：年轻的几代人都走了，村里只剩下4口人。

4 “再过10年我们很可能也只好下山去，”当地农民乔进朝说。这个僻远的村子只有两处房子还有人住，他和媳妇谭敏权住一处。“到时我们走不动了，也只好下山去孩子那儿住。”

5 清朝（1644年—1912年）末年，乔祖上从邻近村子迁至脉结坪。20世纪50年代、60年代、70年代，毛主席倡导的农村生产队成立，城里知青又下放到这里体验农村生活，那时村里人丁兴旺。

6 但到了80年代中期，脉结坪兴旺的日子就到头了。随着中国变成了“世界工厂”、千千万万的人前往城市，人们开始大批出走。

7 村里人有的搬到或嫁到不怎么偏远的村子，有的去郑州、洛阳等附近的城市找工作。杨姓人家全走了，接着是郭姓人家，剩下的只有乔姓人家了。

8 村子里的人口从人丁最旺时的140人骤降至区区4人。

9 与他们做伴的是12只鸡、4头牛、两条连名字都没的狗，还有3只猫，负责逮数目不详的老鼠。

10 村里的小学房顶已塌陷，改作了谷仓。乔姓人家以前住的土坯房变成了鸡舍、牛棚或用作堆放农具。

11 “他是90年代搬下[山]去的，”乔先生说着推开一扇摇摇欲坠的木门，走进一个没顶的小棚，那原本是一位本家叔伯住的。一头肥硕的橘黄色奶牛在原来的厅堂里撒尿。

12 今年初，河南的《东方今报》发表了一篇有关这个村子即将消逝的讣闻般的文章。

13 文章写道：脉结坪，一个祖祖辈辈生活的地方，不仅在文化意义上开始消逝，在物质意义上也将消失。年轻人“宁可挤在城市的夹缝里，也不愿回归破败的山村老家。”有关脉结坪这类村落困境的报道再一次引发了新的争议：在快速变化的中国，应该如何保护、保存乡村的传统和风俗？报道也促使政府做出保证采取行动。10月份，共产党高层领导说他们决心保护传统的历史村落，使其不被废弃、不遭破坏。

14 住房和城乡建设部村镇建设司司长赵晖（音）坦言：“大量传统村落在中国的城镇化进程中[已经]消失。”他说只有12,000个有重大历史意义的古村落保留了下来。目前北京计划提供“财政和技术”支持并制定新的法规以保护这些村落免遭毁弃。

15 如今中国几乎没有一个省份的人口迁移不是动辄上千上万的，将种地勉强为生的农民从脉结坪这样孤立的小村落搬到交通较为方便但千篇一律的住宅区。

16 今年5月，中国国家统计局表示：到2034年，预计会有75%的中国人居住在城镇。2010年到2025年间，预计会有3亿人——是俄罗斯目前人口的两倍多——迁移到城镇。

17 脉结坪村留下的最后4位村民被要求投入到中国的城镇化革命中去；在几英里之外前往偃师市的公路旁，建筑工人正在给新型“乡村”建筑收尾。尚未完工的住宅区外的一个标牌大肆宣扬由购物商场、空调汽车、服装精品店等构成的现代生活。这与脉结坪的田园风情完全不同：在村里，粮食是种的，不是买的；（居民）年收入只有800元（81英镑）左右。一幅宣传标语上写着“享受城镇美好生活：建设新农村社区”。乔先生和其他3个村民至

今拒绝离开祖祖辈辈生活的家园，但他们的孩子对那块土地没有这样的忠诚。

18 “他们不会回来住了，”他说。“交通不方便，他们不愿意种地。农活辛苦，钱又不多。在城里一个月能挣2,000块（202英镑）。”“从前的事得由孩子们传下去，告诉后代他们原先是哪儿的，”59岁的裴花玉说。她和严重残疾的老伴乔套一起住在村里另一处还有人住着的房子里。“他们要是不说，这块地儿就被忘了。”脉结坪在劫难逃的村民考虑到村子预测将要废弃，怀旧之情也只好让位于实用考虑了。“你能咋办？大伙儿都搬下山了。那儿生活条件要好多了，”乔先生说。“这挺自然的。不就这样嘛。再说，这山上越来越冷清了。