A Chinese reality-TV show about farming doubles as propaganda
Young city dwellers are being told to toughen up
A young man drives a harvester through a rice field. Slow down, a farmer chides him. But he zooms on—then gets stuck in the mud. Welcome to “Become a Farmer”, the hit reality-TV programme on iQIYI, a Netflix-like Chinese service. The show transplants ten preppy actors and musicians from the city to the countryside in Zhejiang province, where they must live together and try their luck at farming.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Planting seeds”
From the July 1st 2023 edition
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