The Trajectory Of My Life Has Been Changed By A Chinese Subsistence Farmer.
Through the current zeitgeist of our world I’ve recently been introduced to the young Chinese farmer Li Ziqi , a vlogger and internet star with millions of followers in China (including their state media ) and throughout the world.
From the moment I started watching this young woman work her Grandmother’s farm I was mesmerized. Other than a soothing soundtrack of Chinese flute and piano music, the only thing we hear are the sounds of Li planting, tending , harvesting and preparing her farmed goods, and chatting happily with her grandmother in Chinese.
Each episode focuses on a particular project or food crop. For example, in “The Life of Potato” you’ll watch her plant spuds and see the seedlings sprout in fast motion photography. Then many months later, you’ll see her dig the potatoes and use them in several remarkable looking and, I’m certain, delicious dishes, that she enjoys with her Granny in an outdoor covered dining area, lit by candlelight and moonlight. She might pluck a pomelo off a nearby tree and carve a lantern to light the table, which she then floats off into a nearby stream , it’s candle illuminating the old stone bridge it disappears under.
She’ll decide she wants a silk quilt and scatter real silk worms over an area , feeding them green leaves plucked from the lush vegetation surrounding her home. They grow into soft white cocoons which she harvests, stretching them over an antique handmade spreader, pulling the threads into large rectangles and hand sewing a silk quilt for her bedroom.
She ventures into a mystical looking bamboo grove , chopping down several towering, verdant specimens , drags them back to her patio and proceeds to manufacture a daybed and table. She does it all by hand, with a cleaver of some sort, using no power tools, even making pegs from the bamboo to secure the furniture pieces together. Yes, she really does.
At the end of one episode she calls to her Granny to come outside and watch the plum blossoms drifting from a tree like snowfall and, as she gazes up in her handmade red hooded cape, one is reminded of a princess in a long ago fairy tale.
I’ve come to think of this as a daily meditation and, like any good meditation practice, it changes my awareness to my own day to day existence. I find myself listening to the soothing splash the water makes while I tend my plants, or realizing how precious the silk is we use in our clothing. I am slowing down and taking real pleasure in the comfort of chores. I reflect on the zen proverb -“Before enlightenment, chop wood , carry water. After enlightenment , chop wood, carry water”.
More than ever I want a place outside the big cities I’ve resided in for the past four decades. I’m grateful to have a peaceful backyard space , and glad I planted clumping black bamboo in a side yard 15 years ago. But now I find myself truly appreciating it’s versatility, hardiness and graceful beauty. Because of Li, I now know I can use the dried culms I’ve thinned from my bamboo hedge and bend them into arched plant supports , even lining up three or four in a row with netting as a screen for seedlings.
Since watching the episode that shows her planting and harvesting a rice field , I’m pondering long and hard about the availability of this inexpensive staple, along with corn , cotton and wheat.
As I watch her live off the land, I realize how trained I am to make a quick Amazon purchase for something I like or need, rather than looking at all the stuff I’ve accumulated and making beauty or usefulness from the things I have.
The series is beautifully filmed, and I understand that she is shooting with an assistant. I don’t know exactly how it’s all put together but it’s clear she’s not unsophisticated but extremely artistic as well as incredibly hard working.
According to her website- https://liziqishop.com/ -prior to moving back to her rural home to take care of her widowed grandmother she moved to the city and “starved, slept in a cave under a bridge, worked as a waitress, an electrician, and as a DJ at a nightclub. These work experiences help her develop her ability to think and judge independently.”
Do I believe she’s a typical Chinese farmer? Definitely not. Do I think she actually kills the beautiful ducks we see her feeding Chinese mustard plant leaves torn from the stems she chops up to pickle in earthenware jars? Probably, and we certainly see her tossing their whole purple plucked bodies into the stew pot.
She does inspire a realization that it’s possible to do and be more than we imagine we are capable of , if we make beautiful plans and execute the day to day steps to achieve them , unhurried and living in the moment.
Many city dwellers are ready to flee to quieter, less populated areas and she is a dreamy beacon of how life could be.
