Hi everyone, I’m Fan Zihe. It’s a pleasure to meet you all through this blog. To briefly introduce myself: I am a Pakistani girl, adopted by Chinese parents, and I’ve lived in Henan, China, for the past 20 years. Today, I want to share something deeply personal—a reflection on the strong connection people here have with the land. I call it the Henan obsession.
In Henan, the land isn’t just a source of income—it’s a part of who we are. For many, farming is a tradition passed down through generations, and taking care of the land feels like a responsibility rather than just a task. It reflects our history and values, rooted in more than 5,000 years of agricultural civilization.
This connection to the land is something you can feel in the air. Even though the world is changing, with young people leaving villages for jobs in cities, the fields still call them back. There’s a quiet but powerful sense of duty that draws them home, especially during the harvest seasons.
In our village, many young people leave every year to work in bigger cities. But no matter how busy they are, they return to help their families when the crops need planting or harvesting. It’s not uncommon for them to travel long distances—back to the wheat fields in summer and the cornfields in autumn—just to lend a hand.
What’s remarkable is that the cost of these trips often exceeds the money earned from the harvest. And missing work for a few days means losing wages too. But still, they come. Why? Because for them, the idea of letting crops go to waste is unbearable. The land at home holds more meaning than numbers on a paycheck.
Growing up in Henan, I experienced this culture firsthand. I remember how, during the busiest farming seasons, schools gave us special holidays so children could go home and help in the fields. Everyone—young or old—had a role to play.
At the time, I didn’t fully understand why it was so important, but now I see it clearly: farming was not just about growing food. It was about families working together, passing down values like hard work, resilience, and cooperation. Those days in the fields weren’t just chores; they were lessons in life.
What also left a deep impression on me was the sight of elderly people working in the fields. Even those in their seventies or eighties—despite having pensions or savings—would still go out to tend the land. For them, farming wasn’t about the money. It gave them a sense of purpose, a way to stay active and engaged with life. They refused to sit idle, because as long as they could still work, they felt connected to the world around them.
Henan’s farming traditions go back thousands of years, deeply intertwined with Chinese civilization. This long history seems to have given the people here a sense of mission. For us, farming is more than just planting crops—it’s a way to honor our ancestors and stay connected to something bigger than ourselves. Even with all the changes in modern life, that connection to the land has never been lost.
The Henan obsession is hard to put into words, but it’s something you can feel in every harvest and every field. It’s a quiet, unspoken belief that some things in life are more valuable than money: the land, family, tradition, and the sense of purpose that comes from hard work. No matter how far we go, we always find our way back to the fields, because they are not just where we grow food—they are where we grow roots.
Thank you for reading my story. I hope it gave you a glimpse into the culture of Henan and the pride we take in our farming traditions. Even as life pulls us in different directions, we Henan people know that the land will always be waiting for us to come home.
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