Feature: Yale graduate yearns for rural yield

Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-08 11:48:09|Editor: An
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BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) -- When Qin Yuefei set off as one of only a few Chinese students awarded full undergraduate scholarships to Yale in 2007, no one knew what the future might bring.

Today, many of his peers think Qin has wasted the cards fate dealt him in his first 26 years.

As his contemporaries besieged Wall Street and first-tier cities in 2011, he registered to become a village cadre and got on a train to the countryside.

In Hejiashan Village, Hunan Province, he became assistant village head.

"Everyone has the right to live a better life, and I'm here to help villagers make it," he says.

BEND LOW

Hejiashan Village is not much like New Haven, Connecticut, home of Yale University. Nor does it much resemble the megacity of Chongqing, where Qin was born and raised by his blue-collar parents. It is a small village of 800 where cabs are rarely seen. The nearest Starbucks is 100 km away.

On arrival he was put in a dorm for government workers, built in 1950, with a communal toilet.

Villagers did not know him nor anything about "Yale." All they knew was he was "the guy who showered twice a day."

"What a waste of water! The countryside world is so filthy for him?" he had heard villagers saying, labelling him an "alien."

So Qin dumped his branded sneakers for second-hand farm shoes, put his T-shirt on inside out, and rolled up his pants to his knees as local farmers do.

He also reduced his shower frequency, avoiding public bathhouse in the morning. He learned wash his hair in a basin, a common scene in China's countryside.

Months later, visitors started to arrive with bizarre requests. Some wanted him to repair electric appliances, some asked math questions for their grandchildren's homework, and some turned to him to set up a blind date for their son.

"It felt like a bride finally marrying into the village," Qin recalled.

Where farmers used to live at the mercy of nature, one of the first things Qin did was build a water channel. He put on his smart shoes again and the suit that had been left unworn since graduation and headed for Beijing.

"I told my countryside stories a million times to former classmates and friends, and finally brought back some money," he said.

In the following three years, he raised 800,000 yuan (117,000 U.S. dollars) to construct the water channel, a nursing home, install street lighting and buy supplies for the local school.

In 2012, he was elected as a county lawmaker.

"I got 3,027 out of the 3,547 votes. I was happier than when I received my admission letter from Yale," he said.

"Qin from Yele (Yale) is surely something," said villager Chen Yunzhi. "Many U.S. presidents graduated there, I heard."

DREAM HIGH

In 2014, Qin rejected an offer of promotion. After his three-year term in Hejiashan Village, he signed another three-year contract, in another village in the same county.

He has encouraged villagers to grow commercial crops, such as gold lotus and camellia trees. He also attends influential forums, including Fortune, Boao and APEC forums for young makers, to raise funds.

Figures like Jack Ma from Alibaba and Zhang Yaqin from Baidu are among his contacts on WeChat.

Last year, Qin and his schoolmates established a non-government organization called "Serve China," which encourages young talent to start businesses and provide public services in rural area.

More than 30 volunteers from Harvard, Tsinghua and Fudan universities are working across rural China.

Song Shuzheng, one of the volunteers, encourages farmers to grow camellia trees and contacts oil producers to sell camellia seed. He is used to the snoring of pigs, as his bedroom is next to the pigsty. "I can tell the mood of the pigs just by hearing them breathe," he said with a smile.

While Qin's former classmates have bought houses and cars in big cities, all he bring home to his parents is rice and home-made oil at the Chinese New Year.

His monthly salary as village cadre is 1,450 yuan, one fifth of the Beijing average and perhaps the least money earned by a Yale graduate.

"Salary is no big deal. I hope people can see how the village has changed through my strength, and that more will be done for rural areas."

In Qin's words, rural China is a "blue sky" where the talent should come to create wealth for farmers.

"I'm a doer, not a thinker," he said.

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