XIAPU, CHINA, Feb 5 (AFP/APP): A wizened farmer leads a buffalo through a misty copse of gnarled trees in eastern China, closely followed by a woman in a straw hat heaving pails of water.
It is a tranquil image of rural Chinese life — except for the overhead whirr of a drone, the hiss of a smoke machine and the excited chatter of smartphone-wielding day-trippers.
Residents in Xiapu, Fujian province, have achieved viral online fame by staging picturesque country scenes and charging tourists up to 300 yuan ($40) to photograph them.
By doing so, they indulge visitors’ nostalgia for a pastoral idyll that perhaps never truly existed and has been swept away by rampant urbanisation and industrial development.
“Back in the day, when we were sent down to the countryside, we used buffalo for ploughing,” said Liang Liuling, 72, on holiday from the southwestern Guangxi region.
In the 1960s and 70s, her generation toiled for years in rural backwaters during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution — though many remember their hardships fondly.
“Now, they’ve become props for us elderly to enjoy,” Liang said, smiling after posing for shots with the animals.
“Seeing them here is just wonderful.”
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