This is a beautiful piece, and it expresses something I’ve long thought about: What is the future of rural life?
We know what the past is: Hardship, poverty, depopulation, many of the realities you discuss here. But artists like Liziqi are imaging a new idyllic and romantic future we could actually create.
That rural life could be about artisanship seems a beautiful ideal. It was idealized once before by Tao Yuanming’s Fields and Gardens poetry and his utopian story Peach Blossom Spring, why not revitalize that movement today through modern YouTubers? Though it may not be possible for aging villages without work, it might be possible for young artisans with remote and online work.
In other words, both the reality and the fantasy can coexist. And maybe we need the fantasy to create a new reality.
These seems like part of a larger trend even in Western influencers: tradwife. I have not seen any Li Ziqi’s videos and it seems like they’re slightly different, but they rhyme with this trend as well.
It’s interesting what they represent in different ways as well. Li Ziqi as more of a state-sponsored display of rural life while Ballerina Farms as a class division display of a whitewashing 1890s rural America.
I live in small-town Yunnan province in the city of Yuxi, not a tourist area. My impression is that most of the rural people in this area live a better life than average people in big cities, or in much of the West. Farmers typically live in large 400-500 square meters houses. Usually around 100 sq meters on the bottom floor and 4-5 stories tall. They are all built the same way, as a reinforced concrete cube structure with walls filled in with glass or brick. Often, the bottom floor is used as a small business or workshop. Typically there are 3 generations, maybe 4, in the same large house. As was true in historical China, the “farmers” almost always combine small scale farming with another kind of work, often a small family business. Many are quite prosperous—I see a lot of Mercedes and BMWs parked in villages. The land is not owned fee-simple, but farmers certainly do consider it their land—though some are eager to sell because the local governments now usually over pay for any land acquisitions. Entire villages often lease their land to agricultural corporations that can achieve economies of scale. The land and village life serve as a kind of social safety net for young people who come to hate the difficult city life, so I don’t think it would be a good idea to allow rich city people to buy up rural land to use a vacation homes. Obviously, rural areas are not idyllic, but neither is city life anywhere. I don’t see the kind of modernist angst and despair that we see in so many cities.
It’s a vastly disparate experience across the regions of rural China. In places like Yuxi, wealth often comes from relatives working in cities, flowing back into family homes, small businesses, and village life. Multigenerational households and a mix of farming and commerce provide a kind of resilience. But in poorer regions, where land is less fertile or connections fewer, the village can feel more like a dead end than a refuge. Like much of China, it depends where you look—and what ties remain.
I have been to villages in other provinces, but I know Yunnan best. There are both Han and Yi villages around Yuxi, which all seem equally prosperous. In Yunnan, there are definitely some villages, often minority group villages, that are poor. Often, alcoholism is problem there. I suspect that life is a lot harder in northeast China. I don’t think that many people from here go to work in the East, but a lot do have jobs in Kunming. My wife’s father’s family are (were) farmers. They live in a nearby village, but don’t do much actual farming. Her seventy year old uncle says that they get about 3 % from farming. In the past, they have had a construction company and a bakery. Now, the elder son has a rabbit farm, employing 4 people, that has a profit of about 2 million rmb per year (a lot anywhere, but a fortune in Yuxi with his house already paid for). His younger brother, who went to university and is a fairly senior government official in Kunming makes much less. I think that life is generally better in rural and small-town China than in the tier-1 cities, except for ambitious young people who have a in-demand talent. A young person skilled in AI should go to Zhongguancun or Hangzhou, but average young people are better off in their hometown.
excellent, respectful article. many would shred into her for the misleading media. i appreciate your view of it as a cultural yearning. i have watched a couple of her videos, and knowing the work culture in china (and having maybe two experiences with the video-making process), it could not be more obvious how intensely manufactured they are.
If land policy from on high allowed farmers to sell their land...land being the single asset they possess...the country side would most likely empty out. Current land policy essentially keeps them captive.
Then, there's the one size fits all attempt to turn all these places into tourist destinations. Some of them are successful, most aren't. Even the beautiful Huizhou architectural style villages in Anhui can't fully sustain a tourist economy. Only the truly magnificent, like Lijiang and Dali in Yunnan, or Huangling in Wuyuan County have an actual tourist economy, but it's only a short season and it's tenuous at best.
It's a tough gig, the countryside. Current government policies aren't helping.
You’re absolutely right—nobody in China owns land outright. The village collectively owns all rural land, while urban land is state-owned. Farmers only have usage rights, which they can transfer or lease under certain conditions, but they can’t sell the land itself.
I’m not sure this is necessarily a bad or unintentional move by the government. Land policies effectively keep rural residents in place. If farmers had full ownership and could sell their land, many would take the money and leave, accelerating rural depopulation. Instead, the state restricts sales, ensuring a labour pool remains in the countryside while also preventing mass migration into already overcrowded cities.
Chiming in here, on one hand keeping these holdings so small prevents something China could use - large scale efficient farming. China has always had issues sustaining itself. But I don’t understand the land or efficiencies well enough to know if this would even matter. Chinese land hasn’t been too productive historically.
The subject has been brought up and debated repeatedly in the not distant past as a way to promote some resemblance of equity between rural and urban areas, but since it continually gets tabled (or more like ignored), it will likely remain what it is now.
Liziqi left her home and tried to make it in the city. She came back to look after her grandmother and at first, the videos were all shot by herself. She now can hire someone to take the shots for her because people want to see other ways of being and she's done such a beautiful job of filming.
But I really think this article is misleading, like almost she's trying to craft a fairytale, whereas in reality she has inherited a very large generational wealth, not in money, but in rare sets of tools, land, pathways, skills and ways of being that you won't find everywhere in the countryside, and she's not at all trying to suggest you'll find this wherever you go in rural China.
I feel like the author of this article doesn't know her story enough to talk like this about her as though her current success says something about her intentions to make it seem like she's suggesting countrywide this is what rural living is like, or as though she's unaware of the contrast that exists in many surrounding places. Many of the tools, skills, gardens and resources she has access to have been passed down through long lines of her heritage that she chose to come back to, in part to be there for her grandmother.
She never claims this is how anyone else is living or should live. My understanding of her work is almost more museum-like, capturing what can be captured, of her knowledge, tools, ways of being that have the past woven through them as a way of memorializing these things in detail so they aren't lost to time. To understand that things have been done like this before in her culture, in her family, gives a kind of hope that we don't need to singularly rely on ugly machines and plastic to meet our needs in the future, if we can figure out ways of working together to create generational wealth like what she has inherited.
Thanks for the feedback. However, I think there’s been a bit of a misreading of my article. My critique focuses not on Li Ziqi, the person, nor on the enjoyment you get from her videos. As another reader commented above, I believe I’ve actually steered away from attacking her as an individual, focusing instead on the wider narrative implications.
The point I’m making is that there’s a tendency to treat these videos as a representative picture of rural life in China when, in fact, they are a carefully crafted, state-supported fantasy. I’m not questioning the personal enjoyment of the content; instead, I’m questioning the implications of the narrative that’s being pushed. This is particularly important when you consider the way similar narratives have been used to reduce the complexity of rural and ethnic minority lives to simplistic, tourist-friendly stereotypes.
Regarding the claim that Li Ziqi has inherited a “generational wealth of knowledge” from rural living in China—there’s simply no evidence of that in her videos. Instead, we see a highly stylised, fantastical version of life that doesn’t reflect the actual technical or creative skills of rural workers in China. Most of the work she showcases appears to be presented in small, superficial snapshots, rather than showing any substantial technical effort or the depth of real craftsmanship. If she has inherited such knowledge, it’s not being displayed in the way you suggest.
Without engaging in the arguments I’ve made in this article, your perspective seems to be based on a personal affinity for the content rather than a critique of my analysis, which is fine. However, this does not equate to a reasoned, researched view. I hold no ill will toward Li Ziqi, but I do question how these narratives affect not just people in rural China, but global perceptions of it. So, if you really feel my arguments are misinformed, I’d be interested to hear any solid counterpoints you might have, beyond the fact that you enjoy her videos.
I feel like only someone who has never lived hard in the country could romanticize it was she appears to do. I say “appears”, because everything shown is a curated illusion.
I had never heard of Liziqi. This is an excellent write-up of the disparity that seems to be replicating across the world Nathan. The sanitised, sterile version of reality has infected us all in one way or another, and many are starting to look beyond the polished aesthetics. I, for one, seek a more unfiltered experience of life, come what may.
This is a beautiful piece, and it expresses something I’ve long thought about: What is the future of rural life?
We know what the past is: Hardship, poverty, depopulation, many of the realities you discuss here. But artists like Liziqi are imaging a new idyllic and romantic future we could actually create.
That rural life could be about artisanship seems a beautiful ideal. It was idealized once before by Tao Yuanming’s Fields and Gardens poetry and his utopian story Peach Blossom Spring, why not revitalize that movement today through modern YouTubers? Though it may not be possible for aging villages without work, it might be possible for young artisans with remote and online work.
In other words, both the reality and the fantasy can coexist. And maybe we need the fantasy to create a new reality.
These seems like part of a larger trend even in Western influencers: tradwife. I have not seen any Li Ziqi’s videos and it seems like they’re slightly different, but they rhyme with this trend as well.
It’s interesting what they represent in different ways as well. Li Ziqi as more of a state-sponsored display of rural life while Ballerina Farms as a class division display of a whitewashing 1890s rural America.
Maybe something similar could be said of trad / homestead influencers like Nara… there’s a sense of yearning
I live in small-town Yunnan province in the city of Yuxi, not a tourist area. My impression is that most of the rural people in this area live a better life than average people in big cities, or in much of the West. Farmers typically live in large 400-500 square meters houses. Usually around 100 sq meters on the bottom floor and 4-5 stories tall. They are all built the same way, as a reinforced concrete cube structure with walls filled in with glass or brick. Often, the bottom floor is used as a small business or workshop. Typically there are 3 generations, maybe 4, in the same large house. As was true in historical China, the “farmers” almost always combine small scale farming with another kind of work, often a small family business. Many are quite prosperous—I see a lot of Mercedes and BMWs parked in villages. The land is not owned fee-simple, but farmers certainly do consider it their land—though some are eager to sell because the local governments now usually over pay for any land acquisitions. Entire villages often lease their land to agricultural corporations that can achieve economies of scale. The land and village life serve as a kind of social safety net for young people who come to hate the difficult city life, so I don’t think it would be a good idea to allow rich city people to buy up rural land to use a vacation homes. Obviously, rural areas are not idyllic, but neither is city life anywhere. I don’t see the kind of modernist angst and despair that we see in so many cities.
It’s a vastly disparate experience across the regions of rural China. In places like Yuxi, wealth often comes from relatives working in cities, flowing back into family homes, small businesses, and village life. Multigenerational households and a mix of farming and commerce provide a kind of resilience. But in poorer regions, where land is less fertile or connections fewer, the village can feel more like a dead end than a refuge. Like much of China, it depends where you look—and what ties remain.
I have been to villages in other provinces, but I know Yunnan best. There are both Han and Yi villages around Yuxi, which all seem equally prosperous. In Yunnan, there are definitely some villages, often minority group villages, that are poor. Often, alcoholism is problem there. I suspect that life is a lot harder in northeast China. I don’t think that many people from here go to work in the East, but a lot do have jobs in Kunming. My wife’s father’s family are (were) farmers. They live in a nearby village, but don’t do much actual farming. Her seventy year old uncle says that they get about 3 % from farming. In the past, they have had a construction company and a bakery. Now, the elder son has a rabbit farm, employing 4 people, that has a profit of about 2 million rmb per year (a lot anywhere, but a fortune in Yuxi with his house already paid for). His younger brother, who went to university and is a fairly senior government official in Kunming makes much less. I think that life is generally better in rural and small-town China than in the tier-1 cities, except for ambitious young people who have a in-demand talent. A young person skilled in AI should go to Zhongguancun or Hangzhou, but average young people are better off in their hometown.
Et in Arcadia ego.
As it ever was.
excellent, respectful article. many would shred into her for the misleading media. i appreciate your view of it as a cultural yearning. i have watched a couple of her videos, and knowing the work culture in china (and having maybe two experiences with the video-making process), it could not be more obvious how intensely manufactured they are.
If land policy from on high allowed farmers to sell their land...land being the single asset they possess...the country side would most likely empty out. Current land policy essentially keeps them captive.
Then, there's the one size fits all attempt to turn all these places into tourist destinations. Some of them are successful, most aren't. Even the beautiful Huizhou architectural style villages in Anhui can't fully sustain a tourist economy. Only the truly magnificent, like Lijiang and Dali in Yunnan, or Huangling in Wuyuan County have an actual tourist economy, but it's only a short season and it's tenuous at best.
It's a tough gig, the countryside. Current government policies aren't helping.
You’re absolutely right—nobody in China owns land outright. The village collectively owns all rural land, while urban land is state-owned. Farmers only have usage rights, which they can transfer or lease under certain conditions, but they can’t sell the land itself.
I’m not sure this is necessarily a bad or unintentional move by the government. Land policies effectively keep rural residents in place. If farmers had full ownership and could sell their land, many would take the money and leave, accelerating rural depopulation. Instead, the state restricts sales, ensuring a labour pool remains in the countryside while also preventing mass migration into already overcrowded cities.
Chiming in here, on one hand keeping these holdings so small prevents something China could use - large scale efficient farming. China has always had issues sustaining itself. But I don’t understand the land or efficiencies well enough to know if this would even matter. Chinese land hasn’t been too productive historically.
The subject has been brought up and debated repeatedly in the not distant past as a way to promote some resemblance of equity between rural and urban areas, but since it continually gets tabled (or more like ignored), it will likely remain what it is now.
Thanks for this. As someone who has enjoyed the "fairytale-like aesthetic" of Liziqi, its good to be reminded of the realities.
Liziqi left her home and tried to make it in the city. She came back to look after her grandmother and at first, the videos were all shot by herself. She now can hire someone to take the shots for her because people want to see other ways of being and she's done such a beautiful job of filming.
But I really think this article is misleading, like almost she's trying to craft a fairytale, whereas in reality she has inherited a very large generational wealth, not in money, but in rare sets of tools, land, pathways, skills and ways of being that you won't find everywhere in the countryside, and she's not at all trying to suggest you'll find this wherever you go in rural China.
I feel like the author of this article doesn't know her story enough to talk like this about her as though her current success says something about her intentions to make it seem like she's suggesting countrywide this is what rural living is like, or as though she's unaware of the contrast that exists in many surrounding places. Many of the tools, skills, gardens and resources she has access to have been passed down through long lines of her heritage that she chose to come back to, in part to be there for her grandmother.
She never claims this is how anyone else is living or should live. My understanding of her work is almost more museum-like, capturing what can be captured, of her knowledge, tools, ways of being that have the past woven through them as a way of memorializing these things in detail so they aren't lost to time. To understand that things have been done like this before in her culture, in her family, gives a kind of hope that we don't need to singularly rely on ugly machines and plastic to meet our needs in the future, if we can figure out ways of working together to create generational wealth like what she has inherited.
Thanks for the feedback. However, I think there’s been a bit of a misreading of my article. My critique focuses not on Li Ziqi, the person, nor on the enjoyment you get from her videos. As another reader commented above, I believe I’ve actually steered away from attacking her as an individual, focusing instead on the wider narrative implications.
The point I’m making is that there’s a tendency to treat these videos as a representative picture of rural life in China when, in fact, they are a carefully crafted, state-supported fantasy. I’m not questioning the personal enjoyment of the content; instead, I’m questioning the implications of the narrative that’s being pushed. This is particularly important when you consider the way similar narratives have been used to reduce the complexity of rural and ethnic minority lives to simplistic, tourist-friendly stereotypes.
Regarding the claim that Li Ziqi has inherited a “generational wealth of knowledge” from rural living in China—there’s simply no evidence of that in her videos. Instead, we see a highly stylised, fantastical version of life that doesn’t reflect the actual technical or creative skills of rural workers in China. Most of the work she showcases appears to be presented in small, superficial snapshots, rather than showing any substantial technical effort or the depth of real craftsmanship. If she has inherited such knowledge, it’s not being displayed in the way you suggest.
Without engaging in the arguments I’ve made in this article, your perspective seems to be based on a personal affinity for the content rather than a critique of my analysis, which is fine. However, this does not equate to a reasoned, researched view. I hold no ill will toward Li Ziqi, but I do question how these narratives affect not just people in rural China, but global perceptions of it. So, if you really feel my arguments are misinformed, I’d be interested to hear any solid counterpoints you might have, beyond the fact that you enjoy her videos.
I feel like only someone who has never lived hard in the country could romanticize it was she appears to do. I say “appears”, because everything shown is a curated illusion.
I had never heard of Liziqi. This is an excellent write-up of the disparity that seems to be replicating across the world Nathan. The sanitised, sterile version of reality has infected us all in one way or another, and many are starting to look beyond the polished aesthetics. I, for one, seek a more unfiltered experience of life, come what may.
Thank you! I’m right with you!
Yearning for a simple life while we race in the other direction. China is building some interesting AI tech with companies like DeepSeek.