A sample survey shows that about 99.8 percent Chinese urban children are not willing to be farmers even though they have never personally experienced farming life.
The survey, which took place over two years, was sponsored by the China Juvenile Research Center among 1,888 middle and primary school students living in six large cities including Beijing and Shanghai.
The main question in the survey was: “What callings you do you most want to follow in the future.” Some 13.5 percent children said they were eager to become scientists, ranking first among all the sampled. Only 0.2 percent said they wanted to be farmers, ranking last.
Even those children who come from the countryside said they hoped that they can study and live in large cities, and thus abandon the farmers’ life in the future.
Among the total Chinese population of 1.2 billion, 800 million are farmers. Since 1978, Chinese farmers' life has been developing from a state of bare sufficiency in food and clothing to relatively comfortable conditions. However, compared with people living in larges cities, most Chinese farmers are still engaged in strenuous physical labor with lower income.
The comparatively backward medical and sanitary conditions and cultural life in some poverty-stricken areas sharpen the differences between life in town and in the countryside in China. As a result, more and more farmers are pouring into large cities in the hope of seeking high wages.
China’s 10th Five-Year Plan (2000-05) has stipulated that the country should quicken the tempo of urbanization while further improving the living standard of Chinese farmers.
(www.china.org.cn 09/07/2001)
