Twelve Years Home, Seeking a Private Plot for Life Between Mulberry and Chrysanthemum | Food Talk Vol.18

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In this episode, the Food Talk hosts travel to Tongxiang in Zhejiang, following young returnee Yu Jiangang back to the village where he was born, grew up, and eventually came home. They visit the village’s last acre of Hangzhou white chrysanthemums and the biodiversity and Jiangnan culture behind them, witness his family’s silkworm rearing, silk reeling and quilt-making in full swing, and catch a glimpse of freshly pickled mustard tubers…

A farm boy from Jiangnan, Yu Jiangang got into university, joined a well-known foreign company and worked in advertising — everything seemingly leading to worldly “success”. So why did he choose to return to the countryside with his wife and turn to ecological agriculture?

Yu Jiangang is something of an “oddity” among young returnees. He believes that the farm work of rearing silkworms, reeling silk, and picking and drying chrysanthemums is all about “showing who I am”. He also notes that, in the eyes of this new wave of young returnees, the value of the countryside has been drowned out by “louder voices”. So how does he see himself differently from other young returnees? What values does he truly stand for?

Recently, land-contract disputes and road-widening schemes have brought unexpected difficulties to Yu Jiangang’s family farm. What does he have planned for the future, and can he find a new path toward the rural life he envisions? As farming culture increasingly becomes subject matter for artists, what fresh experiments is Yu Jiangang dreaming up?

Having previously reached readers only through the written word, Yu Jiangang now speaks on the podcast about his observations and reflections since returning to the village.

This Episode’s Guests

Yu Jiangang

Born and raised in Zhenghebang, a silk village in Jiangnan, Yu Jiangang graduated from university in 2008 and went on to work in brand consultancy in Beijing. Driven by his concern for the challenges facing agriculture, rural areas and farmers, he resigned in 2011 to become an intern at Little Donkey Farm; he then volunteered in rural development in Zhuang ethnic minority villages along the Guangxi–Vietnam border. After returning home, he and his wife Mei Yuhui founded Meiheyu, producing finely handcrafted silk quilts and passing on the craft, hoping to revive the intangible cultural heritage of farming and sericulture and create new traditions. He is also one of the hosts of the podcast Tuanli Jiegou, under the name “Fish Tank”.

 

 

This Episode’s Hosts

Tianle

Founder and editor of Foodthink, convener of the Beijing Organic Farmers Market. As a “Fudimo” — a demon from Shanghai lurking in the Imperial Capital — his deepest homesickness is watching the neighbourhood he grew up in and the little restaurants he frequented as a teenager get turned into influencer hotspots, so every trip home fills him with sorrow.

 

 

 

Wang Hao

Editor at Foodthink. Stepping into Yu Jiangang’s kitchen felt like coming home to his grandmother’s.

 

 

 

 

Take one character each from Yu Jiangang and his wife Mei Yuhui’s names, and you get the brand “Meiheyu”.
A traditional farm system rich in biodiversity, from far to near: mulberry groves, maize, paddy rice, cotton, and Hangzhou white chrysanthemums.
Intercropping pickled mustard tuber among the low mulberry trees has a history of more than 90 years in Jiaxing, giving rise to the renowned Xieqiao pickled mustard tuber production area.
When the silkworms are on the verge of spinning cocoons, locals set them on stacks made of bamboo strips, straw and other materials — a practice colloquially called “going up the mountain”.

Meiheyu insists on crafting silk quilts using traditional hand techniques: planting mulberries, raising silkworms, drying silk, carding silk floss, and quilting. The young couple behind Meiheyu learns as they go.
Beyond silkworm rearing, Meiheyu is also committed to growing Hangzhou white chrysanthemums — Tongxiang’s city flower — ecologically. With little economic value left, large-scale contractors have taken over the land and most villagers have given up growing them. This is the village’s last acre of Hangzhou white chrysanthemums.
Last year Yu Jiangang even tried livestreaming his silkworm-rearing process. For him, farm work itself may well be what returning home is all about.
You are welcome to listen to Tuanli Jiegou, a podcast Yu Jiangang is part of, which publishes new episodes on a fixed schedule with each solar term.

Timeline

00:51 Lots of people still live in the countryside — what’s rural life like when the village hasn’t been hollowed out?

02:04 Where does the rural obsession with “going to the city” come from: even moving into an apartment block just a kilometre from home counts as “going to the city”

05:27 Field recording: elderly residents at the temple, each voice chanting the Buddha’s name

06:04 The pressure of an “acquaintance society” on young returnees back home — from childhood on, they are told to “go to the city and make it”.

08:11 From working in advertising in Beijing and Shanghai to raising silkworms and reeling silk back home — how did Yu Jiangang end up swimming against the current?

13:31 A year of commuting on old green trains, five days in the city and two in the countryside, steadying himself by writing in a diary

15:07 The sudden idea of “making silk quilts the traditional way” gives Yu Jiangang’s return a new anchor

18:38 Field recording: let’s go and “have a look” at Meiheyu’s mulberry trees

25:03 Integrating local farming with culture: from silk quilts to Hangzhou white chrysanthemums and pickled mustard tubers

26:25 A unique choice among young returnees: “I do all this just to show who I am.”

35:47 Can a small family farm sustain itself? Why does Yu Jiangang prefer calling himself a “farmer who does odd jobs” over a “half-farming half-X”?

38:10 Preserving farming traditions, applying for World Heritage Site status — is it just a pop-up, museum-visit experience for modern people?

45:30 As the “returning home” trend takes off and “the countryside” grows more complex, is there hype behind it that doesn’t live up to its name?

50:31 “The countryside is my private plot”: let the city belong to the city, and the countryside to the countryside.

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Podcast Creative Team

Coordination: Xiaojing

Production: Xiao Putao

Cover art: Wan Lin

Music: Banong

Editing: Wang Hao

Contact email: xiaojing@foodthink.cn

Published by Foodthink