"If I send you a book, I won't send you poetry, I will give you a book about plants, about crops, about the difference between rice and weeds, and about the spring when weeds are scared." Yu Xiuhua wrote in the poem "I Love You". Recently, netizens wrote this poem in the short video comment area of Douyin's "beginner farmer" Xiaokang teaches everyone how to distinguish rice and barnyard weeds, a kind of linkage between poetry and reality makes young people in front of the mobile phone screen have a more intuitive yearning or memory for farming, fields, and rural areas.
Carrying flat burdens, tying grain bags, grazing cattle...... In addition to distinguishing rice and barnyard weeds, Xiaokang also made a series of short videos of agricultural knowledge, which are deeply loved by netizens. In the past week, the number of followers on his Douyin account has surged, and now it has exceeded 250,000. Some netizens said that "young people have begun to learn to farm online", and some people asked in the comment area from time to time, "What will you learn in the next class?" "While sharing the daily life of farming, on the other side of the Internet, Xiaokang seems to have found a group of close friends who love rural life as much as themselves." Maybe everyone wants to go back to basics like me, and live a life where the sun rises and the sun sets. As for whether the short video will be updated for a long time, Xiaokang is not completely sure, but for farming, he said that he will definitely do it for a long time, which is something he likes.
Xiaokang works in the vegetable garden
The short video shares farming knowledge, and the "post-95" guy is "on fire"
Xiaokang, born in 1997 in Huangxiao Village, Yitang Town, Yunmeng County, Xiaogan City, Hubei Province. On Douyin, his nickname is "Beginner Farmer", and the videos he posts are roughly divided into three categories: life, food, and farming. The highest number of views is the agriculture chapter, with 110 million times; The lifestyle and food chapters were viewed more than 1 million times and 6 million times, respectively.
In March this year, Xiaokang sent the first video of the farming chapter, in which he wrote: "The wild geese are returning to the north, the weather is getting warmer day by day, and the day of planting vegetables is getting closer and closer, and I began to prepare the branches to build a shelf." Until recently, the farming chapter has been updated with 25 episodes, recording the bits and pieces of Xiaokang in the farmland, during which he has shared "pepper transplanting technology", "tomato pruning and top dressing", "hoeing peanut grass techniques", "methods of picking flat burdens", "techniques of tying grain bags", "necessary skills of cattle herding" and other agricultural knowledge. In the past week, Xiaokang's video has ushered in a surge in traffic and a surge of fans. Xiaokang told the New Yellow River reporter that a week ago, the number of followers of his account was stable at more than 20,000, and now it has exceeded 250,000.
Xiaokang teaches everyone how to distinguish rice from barnyard video screenshot
"Pressing, leveling, dragging, side angle hooking, planing, hand pulling, double-side transformation groove." In a short video with a duration of 26 seconds, Xiaokang showed the "hoeing peanut grass technique". This video has more than 650,000 likes, which is the highest of all his works. "The Technique of Tying Grain Bags" and "Necessary Skills for Cattle Herding" and many other videos of the same style have appeared on the hot list of the Douyin platform.
Screenshot of the video of "hoeing peanut grass technique" released by Xiaokang
"It's on fire"! More and more netizens poured into the comment area. Someone left a message saying that he also did these farm jobs when he was a child, "This is my strength, I started at the age of 6"; Some people discussed the experience and skills of crop cultivation with Xiaokang; Some people are surprised that crops are grown so much...... There are also many netizens joking that "young people are starting to learn to farm online", "this course is too full, I just learned to pick dung, I am learning to tie grain bags, and now the class of herding cattle is lined up again", "There are no ancients in this track"...... For everyone's love and heated discussions, Xiaokang was very surprised and happy. "A child in my village asked me who would watch the [video] of farming? I didn't expect so many young people to watch it, and the comments were so wonderful. He said.
I have been working for many years, and I love the pastoral life in my hometown
Before returning to his hometown this year to focus on the farmland, Xiaokang had worked in many cities, working as a small worker at a construction site, an apprentice in a hairdresser, a vegetable market to help relatives sell vegetables and soy products, an employer to work as a housekeeper at home, and a security guard in an office building......
Because he went out to work, he was not able to return to his hometown to spend the Mid-Autumn Festival with his family for several years, even if the Spring Festival was in a hurry, which was a pity for him who liked his hometown life. Well-off parents work outside all the year round, and his sister is married, and now he and his 95-year-old grandmother are the only ones living in the family. "Grandma likes farming, and I have to ask her a lot of things I don't understand." In Xiaokang's view, grandma has rich experience in farming, but she doesn't understand him for making short videos. "She doesn't necessarily accept new things, and her ears are a little bit back, so I didn't explain too much."
Xiaokang and grandma eat
There are still many people in the village who "don't understand" the well-off. "They say it's all 'hell' when it comes to making videos. Young people are always asking questions about farming at home and not going out to work. Xiaokang said that even so, if he encountered any problems, everyone was still enthusiastic to help him.
In addition, he bluntly said that he likes this state of life in his hometown very much, carrying water and hoeing grass...... Before the sun comes out, sweat and drench. "I can hear the insects and birds, and I can enjoy the process by watching the vegetables I grow grow up."
At present, Xiaokang has planted more than ten kinds of vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and beans in the vegetable garden. Farm work and housework enrich his life, occasionally surf the Internet, help the elderly in the village to fix the things on their mobile phones, this is his simple life in the countryside.
Tomatoes grown in the well-off
It's not the first time it's "fire", and the short video focuses on pragmatism
Speaking of "fire", Xiaokang is still relatively calm, because this is not his first time. In 2020, he posted a short video of plant science popularization on Douyin, which also attracted a wave of traffic, and his fans rose to 36,000. "I only know those plants, but I don't fully know their medicinal effects, many people find them through private messages, treatment is a matter of human life, I can't help too much, let alone deceive everyone." In addition, some booksellers approached him, hoping to hang links in the window to sell books, but Xiaokang refused because he felt it was inappropriate, and then turned off Douyin and left his hometown to work, and the number of fans dropped from 36,000 to more than 20,000.
The homepage of Xiaokang's Douyin account
During the period of plant science popularization, his nickname was "four-leaf clover", which was later changed to "who says an inch of grass". At the moment when he is committed to sharing agricultural knowledge, Xiaokang Si changed his nickname to "beginner farmer", "I like farming, but I still have a lot of knowledge to ask for and learn, so I am still a beginner." Not only the people around him, but also the communication and interaction with netizens has also become a way for him to learn.
"What will you learn in the next class?" Netizens left a message in the comment area and asked. Xiaokang plans to share the method of drying soybean sauce next, but for how to operate the short video in the long run, Xiaokang has not yet thought about it, he said that even if he no longer publishes works, he will continue to learn farming, which is not only his love, but also a necessity for life (common sense).
"It's pragmatic, there's no skill, I shoot whatever I do, and I don't have a draft." With a sincerity, Xiaokang and his farming video were loved by everyone, and while he was happy, he also expressed his feelings, "I think that no matter what you do, you should have an understanding of farming, for your own health, and for the purpose of learning from things." For example, you should have a bottom line in your mind about what vegetables look like, when to plant them, and what they taste. Perhaps, in order to protect his income, Xiaokang will go out to work in the future, but now he wants to do something more meaningful in this back-to-basics day.
(The pictures in the article are provided by the interviewee) (New Yellow River reporter: Li Qiaomei)