Where can I find nostalgia when my hometown and countryside are becoming more and more dilapidated?
(By Ma Yuecheng)
Recently, I wrote several articles about "removing villages and merging towns", which reflected the problems of many inconveniences in production and life caused by forcing farmers to go upstairs in some areas, and received extensive response and support from netizens. Interested friends can go upstairs and read, especially the messages and comments of everyone, which are very wonderful. Some people also provided the real situation of the local area, making the article more authentic, complete System.
However, some readers have pointed out that "removing villages and merging towns" is a stage of historical development. At present, many rural areas are dilapidated. Most young people have bought houses in cities, and most of the rural residents are old people. In another ten or twenty years, the countryside will sing the empty city plan, which is almost a ghost village. Who dares to live in the village?
Some people also say that it is unrealistic to carry out modernization in rural areas because of the inconvenience of life and difficult conditions. In fact, it is unscientific to simply say whether it is good or bad for farmers to go upstairs. It is useless to talk about big principles. Just listen to farmers' opinions. In fact, farmers pay the most attention to material benefits. People in Beijing are looking forward to demolition, because each demolition gives several buildings, and there are millions of decoration costs. In addition, it can also be turned into old-age benefits for urban residents, so that life and old-age care are free. And the houses given are also in the new urban area under unified planning, which is also a large living area. Unlike some areas where several buildings are built near the village, there is no living convenience.
In contrast, in some areas, the method of "removing villages and merging towns" is adopted. After the courtyard of farmers is demolished, they can hardly get much compensation, and even have to pay their own money to buy new buildings. The income of farmers is limited originally, and many families will become poor after such trouble. This is the main reason why many farmers are unwilling to go upstairs. They also worry that after going upstairs, the cost of living will increase and the income will decrease, making life even worse.
Of course, this is also related to the economic development conditions in various regions. Therefore, if the local government can not make farmers' welfare improve significantly from the "removal of villages and towns", let alone the reduction of welfare, it means that the conditions for "removal of villages and towns" are not yet ripe. Do not blame farmers for their lack of cooperation or their opinions. It is not too late to start again when you have developed into a city like Beijing and can compensate farmers enough. This is a great cause that changes history. The more prepared you are, the more likely you are to win. If we hurry to let farmers enter the building and live in the community, there will be no shops in front of the village or behind the village, and there is still a distance from the city, otherwise it will become a half cooked meal.
During the Spring Festival, a relative told me that they had a good life in the countryside. After graduating from college, his son worked in the provincial capital and had bought a new building. He was going to get married this year. He and his old father are busy working on agricultural machinery in the countryside, and their income is quite good. He mentioned that because there were too many farm machines and tools, his yard could not be put down. He wanted to buy the yard next door. The people next door had not lived in the house for many years. The house was in disrepair for a long time. Maybe the house would collapse at some time. The owner of the family has several buildings in the county, so he has no chance to return to his hometown.
I asked him how much the yard was worth, and he said, 10000 yuan is enough. I said that 10000 yuan for a homestead is not expensive. He said that the matter was not discussed! I said, how much does he want? I thought they thought the money was too little. He said no, they are not money matters, they regard this place as their root, and this homesickness cannot be abandoned. They let us use them freely without paying us. My relative said that it was inappropriate not to give money, and that it would be useless. So the two agreed to send a 200 yuan red envelope every year through WeChat.
I went back to ask this relative. I think so. You are just a son who has also worked in the provincial capital and bought a building. Why not pack up your clothes and go to the city with your old father to provide for the elderly? Why should we develop production so vigorously in rural areas? He said that for no reason, farmers must work. No matter where their son works, the old house is the home. This is the ancestral business of several generations. I can only make him better and better. The old father is seventy years old and still working from dawn to dusk. How can I slack off?
Some friends said that they packed up before the New Year and returned to their hometown for the Spring Festival. I asked him, who else is there in his hometown? He said there were no more people. However, the old house is still there. I will take my son back to my hometown for the Spring Festival. He said that in fact, he has lived in his hometown for more than ten years and has been in the city for more than 30 years. However, in his heart, his hometown is always his old house. No matter how good the houses in the city are, they are all from other places and have never found a sense of belonging. There is always a feeling in my mind that I am just a passer-by. When I retire, I will return to my hometown to spend my old age in peace. To be honest, things have changed in my hometown, and many young people don't know each other anymore. Maybe, when it's time to retire, I can't go back to the countryside. But, he said, until I could walk. I must return to my hometown every year for the Spring Festival.
Some young friends don't think so. They say that the people living in the countryside are old people now, and the population will be smaller and smaller. If young men don't have houses in the county town, it will be difficult to find a partner. This situation has been confirmed by several readers in the comments of the previous article. Therefore, even if the current rural areas do not engage in "removing villages and merging towns", they will survive and die in the near future.
This situation is also true. In fact, I think the county seat may be the main direction to attract farmers into the city in the future. Relatively speaking, there are hundreds of thousands of people in a county, and a part of the rural population gathering in the county seat is also conducive to the optimization and adjustment of the social structure of the whole county seat.
However, it is obviously biased to think that the rural areas will die of decline. Nostalgia is an inborn human emotion. Today's young people may not understand it. When they get old, they will naturally need a home emotional sustenance. Just like many young students studying abroad, when they go abroad, they feel better about their motherland. When I was in Beijing, I met a farmer in the suburbs who was over 50 years old. He told me that when he was young, he didn't know what drama was. Now when he is old, he likes listening to Hebei Bangzi. In fact, I don't understand, but I think it tastes good. Every year in their village, they invite opera troupes to sing opera. Is it true that time makes people old and nostalgia comes naturally?
The problem we are facing today also exists in Japan and in Taiwan region of China. Due to the historical development process, this situation occurred in Japan and Taiwan region of China 20 to 30 years ago, and it has not been completely solved today. However, they did not take the attitude of giving up and letting go, let alone letting themselves die. Instead, we are striving to build rural communities, develop rural advantageous industries, build elderly health parks, and develop characteristic tourism according to the characteristics of each region. Let the countryside become a vast world for young people to start businesses, obtain employment and develop.
When I visited a rural area in Taiwan, I once went to a village with nostalgia as the theme. Many of the facilities here are the reappearance of scenes decades ago. First, let the older people have a memory. Second, let the children have an understanding of the past, and know that Taiwan has had a different era in the past. In Taiwan, every village has different characteristics. Some of them are engaged in flying tourism based on the local topography, and some are engaged in rural culture based on the local animal and plant resources. In short, they feel that the countryside has unlimited development space and are calling more tourists back to their hometown.
The situation in Japan is even more special. Japan's main population is concentrated in several metropolises, which should be a country with highly developed urbanization. Similar to the current situation in China, Japan has always had a crisis of rural population entering cities. However, Japan has never given up its efforts to save rural areas. Last year, Japan also issued a notice to foreign countries welcoming qualified foreigners to settle in rural areas of Japan, which not only solves the formalities for long-term residence in Japan, but also provides free rural housing. Due to the strict property tax and inheritance tax in Japan, many rural houses became ownerless because the old people died and no heir could be found. However, Japan did not throw away the old houses, but took proper measures to protect them, even at the expense of introducing people from abroad to supplement the rural areas. This practice of Japan deserves our consideration and study.
China has been vigorously promoting the construction of beautiful villages in recent years. What is a beautiful village? It is certainly not a push, nor should it be a big demolition and construction. Of course, it cannot be a simple recovery. In my opinion, the best way is to keep the features of the countryside. We can't build a half baked project in which the city is not the city and the countryside is not the countryside. Another point is to modernize rural life, keep up with the pace of urban development, and let rural residents enjoy modern life as well as urban residents.
At present, people are willing to concentrate in cities, mainly because there are relatively large differences in employment and living conditions between urban and rural areas. The future countryside should be more livable, convenient and dynamic. [This article was released by the "Ma Yuecheng" account 20190213]
