“Scientific farming” in rural Northeast China is shaped largely by agri-supply dealers bundling drones with fertiliser. Maize fell to 1.1 yuan per jin after harvest; farmers spraying twice versus five–six times saw almost no yield difference. More output never brought more income.
In Tacheng, Shangri-La, golden sparrow flowers must be picked before the buds open, and shepherd’s purse can only be dug up with flower scissors to hand—like eating wild mushrooms in the rainy season, eating wild edibles in spring is an instinct etched into Yunnanese genes.
Readers from Beijing, Tokyo, Guangzhou, Chiang Mai and beyond share their everyday lives with the market: hidden-gem stalls, grocery-buying tips, the warmth of exchanges with stallholders—and—squeezed by supermarkets and e-commerce—where the market goes from here.
In 30 mu of foothill fields, hail wipes out apricots and rain washes away autumn crops. Wenzizi and Changjiaoling learn the craft from old farmers, sow more seeds, and over ten years have gathered two books and a way of living alongside the sky.
A bottle of twenty-year-old mother brine brought from Changsha, a handful of sourdough starter passed down through several generations by a friend — in my kitchen in Berlin, these microbes reconnect me with home, friends and the four seasons.
Former JD 7Fresh warehouse picker He Siqi spent 31 days in the warehouse: 9 minutes per order, 30 fen per item, 30,000 steps a day, supervisors shouting at any moment, and even on your period, no escape from the freezer.
The bran sifted out during flour milling is toasted until fragrant, ground fine, and packaged as “wheat germ flour” to be sold back at a premium. Polished rice and refined flour, having undergone excessive extraction and addition, have become ultra-processed food.
Zhen Rui’s 450-mu farm in Miyun, farmed for thirteen years, lost all topsoil to flash floods; resuming cultivation in the short term looks hopeless. He temporarily grafted his operation onto a neighbouring farm, while northern farmers still lack systematic insurance and land-planning support against extreme rainfall.
Fifty years ago, half of every million wild salmon swimming toward the Atlantic completed their return migration; now only 30,000 do, while some 400 million are penned in Norwegian fish pens. The journey from gravel riverbed to deep sea and back upstream is nearing its end.
At the World Nomadic Film Festival in Jiagedaqi, young filmmakers including Aolunna, Jiao Xiaofang and Tong Cheng used angles such as the Camel Culture Festival, the imported meat market and the severing of Mongolian, revealing how the contract-like bond between people, livestock and the grassland is fraying.
