6:30pm: A long morning, a long afternoon, a long day.

(photo by Fang Liang)

Global Lives Project: China

The subject of our shoot is Kai Liu, 37, a purchasing officer for a middle school in Anren town, 35 kilometers from Chengdu. Chengdu is the regional capital of Sichuan, a strong agricultural region in the center of China.

Kai grew up in a small village but has migrated, like millions of others in China, from a rural region to an urban center in hopes of finding work. It's common for rural transplants to leave their children behind in the care of village elders. Luckily, Kai's wife found work as a convenience store manager in Anren, so Kai and his wife and daughter are able to stay together in a small apartment behind the store.

As a purchasing officer for the middle school, Kai manages the procurement and preparation of lunch and supper for 2600 students each day. Kai gets up around 2AM every morning and carpools with another vegetable businessman to a wholesale market half an hour's drive away. It takes him 2 to 3 hours to buy the produce. Kai has to constantly haggle for bargain prices so that he can make a bit of money when he sells the vegetables to the school's kitchen later in the morning. He can make anywhere from 15 yuan (2 USD) to 120 yuan (20 USD) a day, depending on the season.

Kai gets to Anren middle school around 5AM and then helps to unload, clean and prepare the vegetables until noon. Often he stays a little later to help with serving lunch. He returns home in the mid afternoon, sometimes taking a nap. Kai doesn't have his own work for the rest of the day so in the evening he helps his wife in the convenience store or plays a game of mahjong with his neighbors.

Kai is indicative of many Chinese farmers in the 21st century who, either by choice or by necessity, leave their home village to more urban areas to make money. Working in the fields no longer brings home enough income to support a family, especially with rising public school fees and inflation in China. In fact, it's hard to find farmers between the ages of 15 and 45 in the traditionally rural / agricultural regions of China. Only in the most remote areas do men stay at home to farm. Kai's story is a reality for many Chinese farmers in the process of urbanization.