Series documents vibrant village life

The film crew of the documentary series Life in the Fields traveled through China, driving a car with the title painted on it, visiting around 100 villages.

For over a year, the crew was divided into 11 teams to settle in a village, recording the changes and the people who make them happen.

The crew's motto is that "everyone is a seed" — able to take root and sprout in the soil of the countryside — contributing their modest efforts in painting a vibrant picture of rural vitalization.

On Jan 7, the global broadcast ceremony for the six-episode documentary was held in Beijing. From that day, one episode is released every Tuesday on the video streaming platform Tencent Video and TV stations, including Dragon TV, Fujian Straits satellite TV and Southeast TV.

In anticipation of the upcoming Spring Festival, the documentary's pilot episode will be screened on the Fuxing high-speed trains. The Xuexi Publishing House will also launch audiovisual products related to the series.

Through six main themes — agriculture, ecology, culture, industry, talent, and comprehensive personal development — the series offers viewers an overview of contemporary Chinese countryside, rural life and the people who call it home.

At the broadcast ceremony, four representatives whose stories are featured in the documentary were invited to join director Qin Bo in a panel discussion to share their experiences and reflections.

Li Yunfeng, from Guojia village in Changchun, Jilin province, has dedicated more than two decades to pig farming. It has always been her dream that the ways of production and life in the village could change and that younger generations would be willing to stay in the village.

"I'm 55, yet I'm considered young in the village. This worries me. Who will grow the crops when there are no young people left? The land that everyone depends on for survival will be abandoned. We must create an environment where young people can enjoy rural life," Li says.

Sustainability is a concern as she aims to produce healthy food without chemical fertilizers or pesticides. She first encountered fermented bed pig farming during a training session in 2005, where pigs are raised on a thick layer of bedding comprising agricultural by-products like corn stalks and rice husks.