During the Spring Festival, all families look forward to reunion. Menstruation, a doctoral student of China Rural Governance Research Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, did not "dare" to go back to his hometown, but "hid" in Fujian for the New Year. I didn’t understand until I asked again and again, "I have to send at least 10 thousand yuan as a gift when I go home during the Spring Festival. If I don’t come back, I’m afraid of giving away my feelings."
In the central rural areas, this kind of "village story" is not unusual. This Spring Festival, the teachers and students of the He Xuefeng team of China Rural Governance Research Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology have focused on a phenomenon: the pressure of farmers to give back their feelings is increasing. Many farmers hope that government guidance and rural autonomy will help them get out of the quagmire of stale human feelings and create healthy rural human feelings.
The importance of human feelings has become a problem
Sometimes three or four gifts are given a day during the Spring Festival.
"We have conducted research in rural areas all over the country many times, and we have heard farmers say more than once that the eight central regulations are good. Can rural areas also have such regulations to guide human exchanges? This aspect reflects the farmers’ high recognition of the eight regulations, and at the same time expresses the urgent mood to change the status quo of human feelings. " Around the Spring Festival, Gui Hua, an associate researcher at the center, Liu Chengliang, Lei Wanghong, Ph.D. students, etc. went home and investigated, and obtained a lot of data and cases.
Songrenqing is concentrated around the Spring Festival. There are more than 300,000 people in a poverty-stricken county in mountainous areas, and nearly 60,000 poor people set up files and set up cards in 2015. For more than a month before and after the Spring Festival, some village groups were treated almost every day. According to local customs, everyone in the same village group will go to congratulate each other. Many farmers rush to the farm every three to five times to send people a favor, sometimes three or four copies a day.
There are more names to treat guests, and the rules for catering are getting out of order. In a county in central Hubei, an old man over 60 years old celebrated his seventieth birthday four years in advance to help his son collect money to buy a car. The most incredible thing is that funerals are held in some places now. Burying the elderly is no longer the main task, but catering and collecting people’s feelings has become the highlight.
Wedding banquets are also changing. In the past, only the first marriage was held, but now many remarried couples still feast their guests, and some villagers think it is suspected of abusing money. Uncle Cheng has a son and a daughter. The son got married twice, and the daughter got married twice, and they all had banquets. Some villagers gritted their teeth and said, "I went to his house for a wedding banquet four times. If he gets divorced and marries again, he will never go!" "
The standard of gift money is increasing year by year. In some places, the current "market" is that every time a general farmer sends out 200 yuan, especially poor ones send out 100 yuan, aunts and uncles and other close relatives, ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 yuan. The human bills of several farmers show that there was only 50 yuan around 2010, but now 100 yuan can’t deliver it. The gift of close relatives has risen even more fiercely, generally starting at 1,000 yuan.
In addition, there has been a bad atmosphere in recent years. Some farmers believe that the size of the banquet reflects the size of the "circle of friends" and the popularity, and tries every means to expand the scope of human feelings in order to save face. Last year, a contractor hosted a banquet and invited guests everywhere, and received a total of more than 600,000 yuan in gifts. Others received more than 900,000 yuan at a time, but these human feelings stories quickly became "beautiful talks" with "face".
There is no winner in changing tastes and feelings.
If you bite the bullet and do it, you will lose more if you don’t.
The burden of human feelings is getting heavier and heavier, and some farmers feel that they are being "hollowed out".
Generally speaking, an ordinary farmer’s "circle of friends" has about 200 households, and it is more common for each household to hold a banquet every five or six years. According to this rhythm, on average, each household has to send more than 30 gifts each year, with a human expenditure of 10,000 to 20,000 yuan, and the family’s economic situation is good at more than 20,000 yuan. About 30% of farmers’ household income is used for human consumption, and some families account for half.
In a county in central Hubei, the annual human expenditure of poor households and low-income households reaches more than 5,000 yuan. Roughly speaking, many farmers’ household human expenditure exceeds the per capita annual income of the poverty line standard. Some farmers said: there are very few absolute poverty in the village, and most of them are relatively poor. Relative poverty is largely due to the heavy burden of human feelings. Some farmers said: "It’s hard to cope with human feelings, and there is no money to increase the income of projects!"
Catering costs money, and there is no "winner" in the long run. Do wine to receive gifts, then return gifts, and then do wine … … In a poor county in Hubei province, it costs more than 300 yuan to run a table of banquets plus alcohol and tobacco. Generally, there are 200 households giving gifts, the cost of banquet is about 20 thousand yuan, and the gift is about 50 thousand yuan, which can earn more than 30 thousand yuan. Farmers all know that the money earned is always "repaid", and the banquet will eventually lose money, but it will lose more if it is not held. In the end, it falls into a strange circle: everyone struggles to do it, and if they don’t do it, they will lose more. If they don’t want to, they will have to do it anyway.
A farmer used to hold a banquet, and his friend gave him a gift. Later, this friend also hosted a banquet. The farmer felt too much to eat, didn’t go to drink, and didn’t reciprocate. As a result, the other party went to the door directly and asked for the money sent in the past, which was very unpleasant.
In a county in central Hubei province, money should be added when returning the favor to show "more kindness". As long as you touch relatives and friends, you will receive 500 yuan this time and 1000 yuan next time, and then it will become 1,500 yuan next time, playing "human feelings+"like snowballing. There are many people who send 10,000 to 20,000 yuan at a time between relatives. Comparing with each other, a rising tide lifts all boats, increasing the burden of human feelings.
Refreshing rural style, looking forward to building together
Government guidance, rural autonomy and villagers’ consciousness
Human feelings are so heavy, can’t we "catch up"?
"In rural areas, human feelings are more important than eating. If you are hungry, you can bear it. If you don’t maintain your human relationship, you will be looked down upon and you will not be able to be a person in the village in the future. "
In June, 2016, a news suddenly spread among the people in Lei Wanghong’s hometown. It is said that the township government is planning to introduce a "wine restriction order", which stipulates that only full moon wine, white affairs, wedding wine and longevity wine (over 80 years old) can be served, which will be implemented on July 1.
The news spread and many villagers applauded. Unexpectedly, the situation turned sharply in a few days. At that time, the college entrance examination was just around the corner. After hearing the news, some villagers rushed to hold a school banquet for their children before July 1. Some children are only in the first year of high school, and they also have a wine for further study in advance. On July 1, the rumored "alcohol restriction order" was not introduced.
The regulation of some banquets has been explored in many places. Before the Spring Festival, Kaili City, Guizhou Province issued a trial method to regulate the catering behavior, which triggered a heated discussion.
Refreshing rural customs, in addition to the government guidance that villagers expect, should also encourage rural autonomy and stimulate villagers’ consciousness. In this regard, we should explore ways to change customs into village rules and regulations, and focus on the construction of red and white councils, so as to obviously reduce the economic burden of farmers and improve the social atmosphere.
Take Shandong as an example. As of last October, there were 86,000 red and white councils in the province. The Red and White Council is composed of people who are highly respected, enthusiastic in service, fair and just, frugal and have certain etiquette skills. According to unified standards, procedures and ceremonies, it helps the masses to handle red and white affairs free of charge.
Lei Wanghong tentatively asked his mother if there should be an institution like the Red and White Council in the village, and would the people support it? Mother said without hesitation, "I am the first to raise my hands in favor, and I can assure you that other villagers will agree." Our reporter Zhang Zhifeng.
