Why Rural China Matters
皮之不存，毛将焉附
"If the skin is gone, where will the hair attach?"
Chinese proverb attributed to Zuo Zhuan (左传)
Amid the fascination with China's towering skylines, high-speed railways, and international posturing, its vast rural regions are often relegated to the margins of discourse. Yet, over half a billion people reside in these rural areas, their lives shaped by policies on agriculture, rural revitalisation, and environmental sustainability. These areas are where the most profound transformations of modern China unfold, offering insights into the socio-economic fabric of a nation in flux.
To overlook rural China is to ignore the realities of half its population. It is to be ignorant of how the Chinese government navigates its most urgent challenges: balancing tradition and modernisation, addressing demographic shifts, and mitigating the ecological crises that disproportionately affect rural communities. Rural China is where the country's development ambitions meet its most profound contradictions—a critical space for understanding the pressures and possibilities that define contemporary China.
My journey into Chinese Studies began far from the megacities. Living in rural Hebei province after the 2008 Beijing Olympics, I first witnessed a China often invisible in the televised ceremonies of the time—a place where people knew more about catching chickens than catching taxis. This experience shaped my understanding of the country and led me to pursue studies at the University of Edinburgh and Nankai University, delving into the alternative and subterranean realities of life in China that all too often escape attention.
Reporting on rural China matters because it is the foundation upon which the rest of the country rises. Its agricultural systems feed the nation; its landscapes bear the weight of development; its people carry the traditions that anchor China's cultural identity. And yet, it is too often reduced to a footnote, eclipsed by the glamour of global cities and geopolitics.
To report on rural China is to bring balance to the narrative. It is to insist that the lives and landscapes shaping the country's future deserve visibility and rigorous, sustained inquiry. This platform is committed to that mission—foregrounding the challenges, innovations, and lived realities of China's rural heartlands. Because to truly understand China, one must look beyond the skylines to where its stories begin.