来源：中国日报
来源：中国日报
Zhang Jiacheng has lived his entire life in Longhuai village, a small settlement comprised of earthen and aged red-brick homes in Li county, in southern Gansu province's Longnan city. An orchardist, Zhang spends his days tending to his 0.67-hectare apple orchard.
Like most agricultural jobs, his work is highly physical, involving planting and pruning trees and picking and packaging fruit come harvest time. One aspect of his career, though, is somewhat untraditional for a farmer: Livestreaming.
When I visit Zhang's orchard in mid-September, the 58-year-old farmer is preparing to harvest his terraced fields. The branches of his apple trees are weighed down by American red delicious and hua niu apples, the latter known among locals as a favorite of the China's founding father, Mao Zedong.
It took Zhang and his wife 10 years to plant his terraced orchard, one year for each 0.06 hectare of land. The property now produces 30,000 kilograms of apples each year, according to Zhang.
While only a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Longnan's administrative seat in Wudu district, Longhuai village is an entirely different world, lacking comparable public facilities, housing infrastructure and job opportunities.
To alleviate poverty and help raise incomes, the government in Li county began offering free courses in 2013 to teach residents how to use the internet to expand their businesses and reach new customers across China.
The education program has since achieved tangible results.
According to Director Shi of Li county's E-Commerce Service Center, over 20,000 people have attended classes covering various topics, ranging from e-commerce to livestreaming.
Zhang is among the program's alumni and has raised his annual income by an astounding 1,900 percent.
"Before taking the livestreaming class, I was making 4,000 to 5,000 yuan per year," Zhang tells me over a lunch of hand-pulled noodles. "Now, I can make 200,000 yuan each year, with 100,000 yuan in profit."
Frankly, the change is astounding and highlights the benefits of utilizing technology to connect rural farmers and other workers with a broader audience. In the past, Li county farmers were limited to selling their produce to local markets or on the roadside to passing motorists.
Now, utilizing Taobao's livestreaming feature, Pinduoduo, Douyin and other platforms, these workers can promote their crops and connect with customers across the country – raising their incomes while also providing quality products to big-city residents longing for a taste of Li county's oh-so-delicious rural produce.
After lunch, I join Zhang for a livestreaming session in his apple orchard to see how he plies his trade. While livesteaming is more commonly associated with teens and young adults, dancing and singing, makeup tutorials and the like, Zhang quickly demonstrates that – with the right training – people of any age can master the medium and use it to make money.
Within minutes of launching Taobao's livestreaming feature, the apple orchardist has an audience of more than 2,000 netizens, captivating them with information about his agricultural project, as well as the taste profile of his apples and their health benefits. (You know what they say, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away!")
He's animated in his delivery, and his passion for his work is evident. He quickly sells a box of 24 apples.
When I ask Zhang what he took away from the local government's training courses, he tells me, "How to use the Taobao app. I didn't know how to use it before [the training]." He adds that the classes also helped him master livestreaming, a notable achievement for a man who was in his mid-50s when the medium gained popularity.
Li county is not the only place in Longnan that is utilizing technology to help its residents attain better living standards. In Wudu district, businesses and producers use livestreaming and e-commerce to sell local products, including virgin olive oil made with locally grown olives and the area's Sichuan peppercorn crops.
Further north, in Gansu's Linxia city, artisans manufacturing traditional carved bricks are keen to use livestreaming to introduce their work to people across China and worldwide.
Zhang Hailin, a brick craftsman in Lingxia, tells me that he plans to use Douyin and Kuaishou to share his work and the area's brick-carving culture with a broader audience. He adds that the company he works for is using e-commerce platforms to sell products further afield.
Thanks to government training and a resulting job at a prestigious brick-carving workshop, Zhang Hailin has been able to care for his family of six, including his two sick, elderly parents. He also has been able to ditch his scooter in favor of a brand-new sedan – an investment that makes his commute to work much more comfortable during the frigid winter months.
China's progress in poverty alleviation is by all metrics incredible, and by 2018 the country had lifted a whopping 82.39 million Chinese people out of poverty. That said, there are still areas that lag. Without question, China's most difficult places to carry out poverty alleviation work are remote rural areas with limited economic opportunities and traditionally scarce access to new technology and internet services.
his stubborn poverty is becoming easier to tackle, though, thanks in large part to China's increasing technological prowess, as demonstrated by its big data capabilities, extensive 5G network and innovative high-tech products.
Chinese tech companies also are getting involved to help out, including e-commerce and internet behemoth Alibaba, which runs a 'village livestreaming project' that helps farmers just like Zhang to sell their agricultural products online. During my time in Wudu district, many local producers, government officials and companies spoke positively about Alibaba's role in the area's poverty alleviation efforts.
According to the Ministry of Commerce, the value of agricultural products sold online was 397.5 billion yuan ($56.1 billion) in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 27 percent, while the number of online merchants in rural areas grew to 13.84 million.
Overall, it's a positive trend, and I find myself relieved that the internet is useful for more than just cute cat photos and how-to videos – it has positive real-world applications.
When the sun begins to set over the rugged hills surrounding Zhang's home and orchard, it's time for me to leave Longhuai village.
As I wander through the warren of dusty alleyways that make up the small settlement and make my way towards the main road, I can't help but think of a quote from Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, who once allegedly said, "The Web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future is still so much bigger than the past."
While I'm unsure what Berners-Lee envisioned for his creation, I like to imagine that he wanted it to change people's lives for the better, which is precisely what is happening in Li county.
As for the future? Well, if Zhang's success can be replicated elsewhere in China, then there's reason to be hopeful that the future of poverty alleviation is indeed much bigger than the past.
The author is writer with China Daily.
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