The ‘new farmer’: China’s rural influencers are romanticizing country life on social media
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Digital-savvy farmers and countryside dwellers have used nostalgia and authenticity to win over Chinese social media.
In the quiet backwaters of Yunnan, Dong Meihua—though her followers know her by the public alias Dianxi Xiaoge—has done something remarkable: She’s taken the pastoral simplicity of rural China and made it irresistible to millions. In her hands, a village kitchen becomes a stage, and the rhythms of farm life become a story as compelling as any novel. She is one of many rural influencers returning to their roots.