College Students Returning to the Farm: Life Inspiration from a Rural Community in South China

Rural issues have been a topic of global concern in recent years, including: with the outflow of population, problems related to the elderly, industry, culture… and so on, all require many processes of social practice to verify, or practical operation, and then to propose better solutions or strategies.

In recent years, the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau of the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, standing from the perspective of youth, has successively proposed policies such as the Youth Returning Home to Build Dreams Program, College Students' Rural Return, Youth Return and Stay… and so on. In promoting these policies, besides giving youth the opportunity to find chances for practice, they have also added a new force of youth to rural areas; at the beginning of 107, the "College Students' Rural Return Farm Stay" activity was seen, through a five-day, four-night mini trip, allowing college students to experience rural life, making young people willing to enter rural areas, and through understanding rural life, further discovering the possibilities of rural areas.

There were ten groups in total, each distributed to communities in different counties and cities. One of the groups was stationed at the Hua'nan Community in Gukeng Township, Yunlin County. The college students who participated came from different schools in the north, central, and south, including National Taiwan University, National Chung Hsing University, National Cheng Kung University… and so on. Although the students' departmental backgrounds were also different, including students from different departments such as Mass Communication, Business Administration, Nursing, and so on, students from different family environments and with different specialties from various places gathered together. After entering the rural area, what kind of sparks would fly?