Is this reliable?, Another group of young people are joining the wilderness, and the countryside is losing its young people

In Xilong Township, almost every household grows white tea. For a long time, "Hometown of White Tea" has been the biggest and only label for this village under the jurisdiction of Anji, Zhejiang.

Tea trees and tea leaves have brought a rich and comfortable life to the people of Xilong Township. However, they cannot retain young people. Like many wealthy villages in the Yangtze River Delta, aging and hollowing out are realistic problems that Xilong Township cannot avoid. As the seat of the township government, Xilong Village in Xilong Township has a permanent population of about 2,800, more than half of whom are elderly.

Lack of young people means lack of vitality and vigor. In the words of a township official, Xilong Township used to be a place where "you couldn't even order takeout." It was not until the end of 2021 that a group of young people finally arrived here. Their destination was a local bamboo and wood processing factory that had been abandoned for many years. Before that, the renovated old factory building had been hung with a new sign: DNA.

The Chinese name of DNA is "Anji Digital Nomad Commune", and DNA is the abbreviation of Digital NomadAnji. Digital Nomad literally means "digital nomad". With the rapid popularization of Internet remote work in recent years, this concept has emerged widely around the world, usually referring to those who can work and earn income anytime and anywhere as long as they have a computer and the Internet. From programmers to graphic designers, from product managers to freelance translators, digital nomads are engaged in a variety of industries, but the common point is that they do not need a fixed office space, so they can choose a lifestyle of traveling and working at the same time.

Suosuo, the manager of DNA, is currently busy preparing for the 1,000-day commemoration of the commune. She told reporters that DNA has been "full" since its opening, with more than 160 digital nomads working and living here. In the past 1,000 days, a total of more than 5,000 people have settled here. At the same time, DNA has completed a "copy and paste" in Tianhuangping Town, Anji. "DN Yucun", managed by Suosuo's partner Xu Song, officially opened last year and is also "full", with more than 150 digital nomads living here.

What is the purpose of building a digital nomad community in the countryside? What is the significance? What is the value? As the earliest digital nomad community in China, in the eyes of the two managers, everything that has happened in the past 1,000 days is nothing more than trying to solve a problem: how to attract young people to the countryside.

Xu Song, born in the 1960s, was born in Hangzhou and later went to work in Shanghai. He has lived in the city since he was a child, and he once had no idea about the countryside. Many years later, the countryside has become the theme of his work.

In the 1990s, the domestic advertising industry was in its infancy. As one of the earliest advertisers, Xu Song claimed that he had "received the dividends of the times." Although this "dividend" was not enough to achieve the so-called "financial freedom," it was already Xu Song's capital for "willfulness." In 2004, he quit his job and began traveling around the world with his wife, becoming a travel writer.

The birth of his daughter made Xu Song decide to find a place to settle down. In 2009, the family of three came to Dali, Yunnan, and has settled there ever since.

Although Dali was not well-known back then, it was already the "poetry and distant place" that many young artists yearned for, and attracted a group of cultural industry workers represented by writers, film and television screenwriters, and book editors to live here for a long time. Xu Song said that in Dali, he lived a "very happy life" and made many like-minded friends. Whether it was a casual chat after dinner or nonsense at the wine table, a major topic between Xu Song and his friends was what magic Dali had that could continuously attract outsiders to live here. Furthermore, how to replicate this ecology of Dali elsewhere?

While Xu Song was thinking about how to "copy Dali", Xilong Township was seeking ways to stimulate rural vitality and achieve rural revitalization. In 2018, Xilong Township introduced a Shanghai real estate development company to cooperate in building the agricultural, cultural and tourism project "Anji Xilong White Tea Original". The total investment of this project is planned to reach 6 billion yuan, covering the entire area of ​​Xilong Township, and will create a full industrial chain layout in multiple fields such as culture, education, medical care, and tourism with white tea as the core. An important part of the project is to build a youth community to attract young people to live in.

The connections he had accumulated over the years in the advertising industry allowed Xu Song, who was far away in Dali, to participate in this project by chance. In early 2021, he and his friends were invited to lead the comprehensive planning of the community as the managers. At that time, the concept of digital nomads was fashionable. And for many years, Xu Song also figured out his own preliminary answer to the question of "how to replicate Dali". As a result, the idea of ​​DNA gradually matured and eventually became a project proposal.

"Two years ago, there was a 'golden sentence in the circle of friends': Life is not a track, but a wilderness. Although many young people now hope to enter the system to seek stability, there are also a large number of young people who choose to go into the wilderness alone. Digital nomads are just such a group of people." Xu Song said.

The great changes in information technology have not only profoundly changed the way people work, but also quietly challenged the traditional labor-employment relationship. No longer bound by the "track" composed of "996" and office cubicles, but devoted to the broader and freer "wilderness". The digital nomads born under this background are a new choice for contemporary young people to achieve self-development. Xu Song said that what he wanted to do was to light a pile of bonfires in this "wilderness".

Xu Song explained his so-called "bonfire" in this way: "A person's power is ultimately limited. No matter how strong one's ability is, walking alone in the wilderness, one will inevitably feel anxious. If one sees a bonfire and other people walking in the wilderness sitting around it, one will naturally feel relieved, take a short rest and continue on their way." According to Xu Song's conception, wilderness travelers attracted by the "bonfire" will naturally form a temporary settlement. In the settlement, some people choose to stay, some choose to travel together, and some choose to travel alone.

Xu Song and his friends' proposal was soon put into practice. In December 2021, DNA released information to recruit the first batch of digital nomads to settle in. Since then, this bonfire has been officially lit in Xilong Township.

The rent for a single room at DNA is 980 yuan per week, or 2,980 yuan if paid monthly. The cheapest 6-person room has a single bed rent of only 180 yuan per week, or 440 yuan per month. Even at such a low price, DNA has already achieved a break-even point. DNA's current manager Suosuo told reporters that DNA has been "full" for 1,000 days since recruiting the first batch of residents, and queuing for check-in has become the norm.

It seems that digital nomads walking in the "wilderness" really need such a "bonfire". In addition to the low cost of living, the atmosphere here also attracts them to DNA.

"What we run is not a 'digital nomad theme homestay', but a real community. Since it is a community, the most important thing is the community atmosphere. And this atmosphere grows naturally and cannot be created artificially," said Suosuo.

Saosuo is from Lishui, Zhejiang. She majored in fashion design and has worked as a backpacker, opened a homestay, and run a youth hostel. Like Xu Song, she is also a "new Dali person." In a sense, DNA, led by Saosuo and Xu Song, is trying to "reproduce" the "atmosphere" of Dali, Yunnan in Anji, Zhejiang.

The difficulty lies in the atmosphere. The initial hardware construction of DNA is perhaps the simplest part: the dormitories and public office areas were converted from existing factory buildings, with almost no major structural changes, and the apartments added later were converted from containers. However, the atmosphere cannot be "created".

"The so-called community atmosphere refers to the relationship between people. This atmosphere is the result of natural growth, not artificially created." Xu Song said that this is the answer he "realized" in Dali. "Back then, people chose to go to Dali because it was quiet and cheap. There are many quiet and cheap places, why Dali? At the beginning, of course, it was accidental. But as more and more outsiders lived there and their identities became more and more diverse, a unique living scene gradually took shape."

Why Anji? Why Xilong Township? Why DNA? When the "accidental factor" does not exist, someone needs to light the "bonfire" first. After that, it still depends on "natural growth".

In DNA, in addition to the common identity of digital nomads, the young people who work and live here have different educational backgrounds, life experiences, temperaments and personalities. According to Xu Song's logic, when these digital nomads from all over the world, working in thousands of industries, come together and live and work under the same roof day after day, without any external interference or guidance, they will form a close interpersonal relationship far beyond that of colleagues or classmates, and then evolve into a miniature acquaintance society. Based on this close interpersonal relationship and the diversity of members in the "miniature society", more exchanges and collisions and even cooperation become possible.

In fact, in the past 1,000 days, Suosuo and Xusong have indeed witnessed a series of cooperative achievements among community members. Some temporary project teams have even grown into startups and eventually settled in Anji.

Autonomy is a key word of DNA. According to the usual measurement standards, DNA does not provide any form of service except for accommodation and office space. In the community, except for security and cleaning, who are full-time external personnel, all other daily management and maintenance work is performed by the digital nomads living there. All decisions, big and small, related to the development of the community are the result of collective discussion: someone wants to build a gym in the community, so everyone sets aside a corner in the cafeteria and puts out the fitness equipment they brought; there is no bar in the entire Xilong Township, so someone moved in a few wine cabinets and regularly purchased various types of wine and beverages, which community members can drink as they like and scan the code to settle by themselves...

A public office space of DNA. Photo by Yu Liang

Xu Song calls what he and his colleagues are doing "a solution for the continuous input of young talents into rural areas": "Digital nomads are just a trigger. Our ultimate goal is to attract more young people to join the countryside."

More than 5,000 young people were brought here in 1,000 days. For Xilong Township, this may be the greatest significance of DNA. Although most of these 5,000 young people are just passing through, some of them have taken root here or actually participated in the local rural construction during this period. More importantly, the arrival of these young people has brought vitality and future imagination space to the countryside.

When talking about this group of digital nomads, the relevant person in charge of the Talent Department of the Organization Department of Anji County Party Committee frankly stated that DNA was led by the developer and Xu Song's team. At the beginning of the project, Anji County and Xilong Township did not pay much attention to it at the government level. The logic is simple, but also very realistic: young people come from all over the country, social security is not paid locally, and the results of entrepreneurship may not be transformed locally. For the local government, it is nothing more than a fun thing.

The change of thinking often takes only a moment. In Suosuo's eyes, the "pragmatic and open-minded" civil servants in Zhejiang Province soon began to realize the value of DNA: "They may not understand what digital nomads are, and what a digital nomad community is. But they never easily deny our ideas, let alone interfere too much."

Xilong Township did its best to help with the subsequent expansion of DNA. At the same time, it also gave the team the greatest trust and never interfered with community management. After DNA became famous, there was an endless stream of people coming to visit and inspect, or even just to hunt for novelties. Unable to bear the annoyance, the saxaul got angry several times. Finally, the township made a decision: for visits and inspections, we would block them if we could, and refuse them if we could; we would not receive anyone without prior notice. When the reporter first went to DNA for an interview, he wanted to talk to a few digital nomads, but was rejected by the Xilong Township cadres in charge of reception, who seriously said not to disturb the daily lives of community members.

"The key issue of rural revitalization lies in people, or more precisely, young people. In the past few years, all localities have invested huge amounts in rural infrastructure construction and environmental transformation, but due to the lack of people, these investments are often not used efficiently and are in a de facto dormant state. Only by bringing in people can these dormant investments be reactivated, thereby enhancing the overall value of the block." said a relevant person in charge of the Talent Department of the Organization Department of Anji County Party Committee.

It is reported that the DN Yucun project does not involve any assessment indicators such as social security payment and tax collection. In the words of the person in charge, "people coming" is the greatest value: "This account cannot be calculated simply, but must be calculated in the long term."

At the same time, a series of small changes are also happening at an equally astonishing speed. Xu Song said that when he was "supervising" on site in Yu Village more than a year ago, he had to drive half an hour to buy a cup of coffee. Now, three or four coffee shops have opened around DN Yu Village.

Rural revitalization is a big topic. Different regions have different ideas, paths and methods to achieve rural revitalization, which can be described as "each village has its own unique strategy". However, with the continuous advancement of beautiful rural construction over the years, solving the problem of rural aging and hollowing out has become a major issue that needs to be solved in the process of rural revitalization.

The countryside needs young people. Anji's Digital Nomad Commune provides a new solution: what matters is "coming" rather than "staying". When there are enough young people who "come" to the countryside, the possibility of these young people "leaving" something will naturally increase in proportion - it may be people who stay, it may be companies that stay, even if it is just a restaurant or a cafe, it is still a rare source of vitality for the aging countryside.

Data shows that in 2022, the number of digital nomads in the world will reach 35 million. It is estimated that by 2035, the number of this group will exceed 1 billion. Today, many places in the Yangtze River Delta have followed Anji's example and built digital nomad communes. The construction forms and construction entities are different, but the purpose is to attract more young talents.

Xu Song and Haloxylon ammodendron’s theory of “natural growth” may not be universal, and we cannot determine whether walking in the “wilderness” will become the mainstream for young people in the future, but it should be a good thing to have more “bonfires” lit in the rural areas of the Yangtze River Delta.