Page 27 - C.A.L.L. #38 - Summer 2014
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and Shanghai or other big cities who come to the farm. “I want to live here
went there to work and they are lost forever, I do not want to buy my own
and struggling. house,” she said. “My ex-boyfriend
“Here on the farm, everyone is so
different. People who have a little
money left over spend it to buy
machinery for the farm, for the
common good. And we all eat
together in the canteen.”
One of the most senior members,
29-year-old Li Zhe, graduated in
spacecraft design from Beijing’s
university of Aeronautics and
Astrophysics before arriving at
the farm. Students, mostly from urban backgrounds, help shovel and
prepare land for farming at the Zhengdao Farm
“Most of my former classmates
are now working in research institutes thinks life is all about making the right
connections and working towards goals. I
designing satellites or missiles. But I did also used to be like everyone else,
not want to live in a city full of blindly following trends and copying what
skyscrapers and I am more interested in others did. But after coming here I
exploring the relationships between changed completely. Now I think the
people,” he said.
purpose of life is to find freedom in
Rather than politics, the students have your mind and heart. When I went back
heated debates on the relationship to university after my first trip, my
between man and nature, or the classmates wanted to drag me back to
alienation of modern society. my old life of playing computer games at
night and sleeping in the day but I
Indeed the farm seems more of a hippy resisted.”
commune than a Maoist work project.
Instead, Miss Ren may find love on the
“Hmm. It is pretty much like that,” said farm. “Yes, some of the boys and girls
Mr Han. “I do not know what else you here do fall in love,” she admits coyly.
could compare it do. A kibbutz perhaps? “Two have even got married. Now they
I am not sure if there are any other sleep in their own little room.”
places like this in China.”
Meanwhile the local farmers who work
“This is not very political,” he added. the adjacent land seem bemused by the
“This is about culture.” arrival of the students. “They do not
grow as much as us,” laughed one.
One of the younger members, 21-year-
old Ren Xue, said she had abandoned her “But it is good for students to see
boyfriend at Shenyang university to different walks of life.”
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