Chinese experiences
I wanted to know about the current situation of farming in China. In particular, I was interested in finding out to what degree it is industrialized. After all, there must be a reason for all the labour drifting towards the big factories and producing cheap goods for our markets at minimum wages.
The answer came as a surprise for me. Our China traveller told us that the rice fields of China are still – like in the old days – worked with the water buffalo with intense physical input. The industrialization of farming is still a concept of the future.
As a consequence, I assume that soon even more cheap labour will be drifting towards Chinese factories. Somehow or other, I cannot say I like this prospect, and I hope the time-space-gap will soon increase again (for instance through an increase of transportation and energy costs).
However, while leading her water buffalos through the rice fields, the Chinese farmer of today uses her mobile phone. Because in China, it is quite cheap to use the mobile phone and buy the necessary equipment.
She just cannot “twitter”. After all, that would make her knowledgeable about what goes on in the world. Which is something nobody wants.
“Water buffalo and mobile“: the Chinese version of our Bavarian “Leather Pants and Laptop“?
RMD
(Translated by EG)
P.S.
The China experiences have been related to me personally, so for me they are second-hand. We started our series with News from China (Neues aus China).
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