The experience of transplanting rice seedlings by hand taught me a lot.
I had eaten rice for decades, yet I had never understood how it grows. Growing up in the city, I felt closer to the land than ever before, from the very moment I pushed those few rice seedlings from my hand into the paddy soil...
My growing environment left me with a strong sense of distance from rice paddies. The mud and gray-black tones of a flooded field were, to a little girl, a fixed impression of "filth," and I, thinking myself sensible, kept my distance as a matter of course, using not being scolded by my mother as my reason. But the funny thing is, I had never once thought about it: wasn't the glistening, translucent rice in my bowl exactly what came from that black, fertile soil?
To promote eco-friendly rice, the Sun Foundation held its first farming experience event—A Trip to Neicheng: Hand Transplanting Rice Seedlings. On the day of the event, the cold, damp weather made you want to stay under the covers and catch up on the sleep you had missed on ordinary days, but I think real farmers would never have such a thought! The late-arriving participants were already half an hour behind schedule. Once everyone was finally gathered, Uncle Zhicheng, the most senior farmer in Lianhe Country, demonstrated transplanting seedlings for everyone.
Seeing a bunch of pretend farmers from the city, Uncle still happily shared his farming experience. Uncle talked about how hard hand transplanting used to be, hard enough that you couldn't squat over the toilet normally for three days! He had everyone laughing out loud, but how many could truly understand?
Pulling a wheel to mark the lines, then inserting the seedlings along the grid lines: that day, about thirty-some participants went into the field to experience an area of less than one fen, and in the end they finished less than half of it. Everyone then washed up at the originally scheduled time and happily went off to lunch. Out of responsibility as the event organizer, the afternoon schedule also had to be completed smoothly, so riding the force-powered cart, making snacks and so on let the participants end the first event of the Lianhe Country Elementary School trip in a cheerful atmosphere.
As for the purpose of this event, did everyone feel the hardship of farming and the gratitude for the blessings the land has given us? Perhaps ordinary people joined this little trip with a playful mindset, and because of limited time and attitude, I have no right to drag everyone back into the field to finish transplanting the remaining seedlings. If they were real farmers, I think they would absolutely never leave the field and seedlings lying there as desolately as that day's weather; because every small plot of land is their source of livelihood, and every seedling planted represents the hope of an expected harvest. And looking at it as a consumer, I dare not and cannot say I can do the same as a farmer. Instead, it gave me, someone who grew up eating rice, a chance to bow in respect to the land that feeds us, and to softly say to it—thank you!
If you want to learn more from this land, welcome to Lianhe Country~~~