The content of this article is based on authoritative historical data, and there are citations at the end of the article.
With the economic and social development, the urbanization progress of the mainland has also accelerated.
In recent years, the city's population has grown steadily, and everyone seems to have become accustomed to the bustling traffic and high-rise buildings in the city – but in nearly 2,000 counties, there is another life that many people can't see.
The "embarrassment" of the age of the population
The main population of the county is middle-aged and elderly people of retirement age and young people with children, and the young and middle-aged people who are the backbone of society are mostly in big cities. As a result, middle-aged and elderly people of retirement age are in a position of "not up or down", not only because they do not go to the city to live with their children for some reason, but also because they are not old enough to move.
A considerable number of them can't accept the change of identity for a while after retirement, and can't find the meaning of their life, so they will appear in a state of "wanting to find things to be busy": one of the most obvious characteristics is that they want to help their children take care of the next generation, which also causes a lot of family conflicts;
Or they want to find their next job and stay busy, despite the dissuasion of their children who want them to have a good rest at home. In this case, these middle-aged and elderly people will also pursue more emotional connections with their peers, relatives and friends.
In the final analysis, people are a kind of social animals, in most cases need to be in touch with society and others, many young people can't understand the strong family and blood concept of their elders, in fact, part of the reason is this-in the young people "can't talk" them, they will naturally be more inclined to their own concepts, hobbies close to their peers, which will make them feel that they are not "abandoned" by the society, immersed in the past, so it is natural to maintain relatives and friends.
In this case, it is understandable that many middle-aged and elderly people will indulge in square dancing.
Square dancing is a kind of collective activity, in which they can partner with their peers and talk about topics that they are familiar with, which brings them a "sense of belonging" that is incomparable; the selection of square dance songs is full of dynamic rhythm, which is very in line with their aesthetics; at the same time, square dancing with the rhythm of music can also make people feel comfortable and release stress.
Many young people are amazed by the behavior of middle-aged and elderly people who gather on time every day to square dance, and do not understand why they are so persevering in this matter, but after understanding the reason, this behavior becomes understandable.
Similar to some children who like to go to kindergarten and school just to play and socialize with their peers, the need to "connect with others" is common, and it is not easy to overcome the loneliness of being alone as they get older.
There are also some people with children, but these people are more likely to use the county's kindergartens and primary schools as a temporary "springboard", these families are basically composed of dual-income workers, and their ultimate goal is to have a place in the city and lay a good foundation for their children's education and future.
Therefore, such people usually only spend a few years in the county with their children, and then settle in the city, which is why there are many more children and young people in the county than in the countryside, but they still lack the vitality that they should have with underage children.
In this case, the shops in the county naturally revolve around the above two groups of people. Most of the shops near the school are snack bars and stationery stores, which are not large, but they can maintain a stable daily income, and they are basically regular customers;
In the county, the centralized clothing market is more popular than the "clothing stores" - in which shoe stores, clothing stores, and fabric stores "gather" at very favorable prices, and of course, there are also boutique clothing stores in the county, which are more fresh and fashionable in comparison, and are more for young children and parents with children.
The demand for entertainment is singular
When it comes to entertainment activities in the county, the "chess and card room" is the mainstream. Among them, playing cards and mahjong have become the mainstream, these two kinds of chess and card activities have a wide audience, a table gathers three or four people, and entertainment and competitiveness coexist, so it is very popular with the people in the county.
There are retired people, or idle people, they can almost do "from morning to night" "full attendance", every day as if to go to work to punch in, come to the chess and card room, mahjong hall to sit down, this is the main force.
There are also middle-aged people who like to come for a few rounds after work and on vacation, although they are not as good as the "full-time attendees" in terms of time, but they are no less sticky to this entertainment activity than the above-mentioned people.
In addition to the large and small chess and card rooms, the entertainment activities in the county are a little monotonous, occasionally a few KTVs, or follow the trend of "script killing", "experience hall" - these stores often peak the traffic is only in the opening and Spring Festival holiday, basically it is difficult to escape the fate of "short life".
Is it because the county town "doesn't deserve" to have those colorful entertainment activities in the city? In fact, there are many reasons, the most important of which is the change of audience. As can be seen from the foregoing, the middle-aged and elderly people who have spending power in the county are basically the middle-aged and elderly people who have retired and middle-aged parents with children, who have different attitudes towards entertainment consumption, and they also know very little.
In addition to the popular "chess and cards" and "karaoke", they not only do not know about other novel entertainment activities, but also have no interest in consumer experience. Those students may be more inclined to the popular "script killing" and "experience hall" in big cities, but first of all, the objective environment of the county town does not allow these trendy shops to achieve popular effects in decoration investment;
Secondly, the level of consumption of students is there, and even if it is a perfectly renovated "script killing shop", it is difficult to make ends meet without income for a long time - after all, this is a business, not a charity.
Therefore, those who are ready to open stores for young students in the county are more choices such as bubble tea shops and fast food restaurants: "people take food as the sky", catering stores capture a kind of rigid needs of students after school and holidays, sweet milk tea and delicious fast food capture the taste buds of students;
At the same time, the pricing of these drinks and food is more in line with the children's pocket money level, and it is one of the favorite social places for elementary and junior high school students, and it is also the responsibility to provide them with a place to go.
This kind of restaurant is obviously a "win-win" compared to the novelty entertainment store, and can be called the middle and back choice of "popular" and "traditional". Admittedly, there is a slightly helpless part in this, but it is better to guarantee that there will be no greater losses, which is what the owner needs to consider more.
The helplessness of few development opportunities
The existence of the county seat is a slightly embarrassing "buffer zone" for today's society, which sounds like neither the prosperity of the city nor the rustic nature of the countryside, so people have more of the impression of being "backward" and not understanding.
Square dances, chess and card rooms, and fast food restaurants are inevitably a little surprising when these "entertainment activities" that can hardly be discussed separately for "city people" are the main daily routines of county residents. In the final analysis, it is the lack of development opportunities in the county, which is a legacy of the times.
There are few job opportunities in the county seats, and aspiring young people rarely consider returning to these small counties after graduation to live a life "away from entertainment", and those middle-aged people who do not have the ambition to work hard in the big city centers but have family responsibilities also mostly want the next generation to receive a better education, and the county town is only a "prelude" to settling in the city, and will not become the mainstream.
The lack of jobs will naturally lead to the next problem: the supporting medical and educational resources are more backward, which makes the people living in them feel less secure - after all, this is a guarantee involving major life events, if the disease is basically transferred to the big hospital in the city for treatment, and if you want your children to receive a better education, you can only go to the city, then the number of people who are willing to stay in the county for a long time will naturally decrease.
Since the basic security of life is insufficient, let alone people's entertainment life. Therefore, there are only "square dances and mahjong games" in the county, which reflects a deeper problem of "insufficient resources", which is by no means perfunctory with a few words of ridicule and banter. Is it because the residents of the county don't want to have a higher quality of life and richer entertainment?
They are constrained by the objective environment and can only rely on the most easily achievable entertainment around them to make themselves appear less lonely and depressed.
In order to make the life of the county residents "wonderful", it cannot be as simple as "opening a few more script killing shops", but to put the county into the planning - find suitable factories in the industry and provide more jobs here, which is often one of the fastest ways to improve supporting medical and educational resources;
At the same time, it is precisely because there is a group of parents who regard this place as a "springboard" for their children's primary and junior high school education, but they should pay more attention to the allocation of educational resources here.
Teenagers are the future of the motherland, and if they fail to get a good education when they are young, they will most likely become the 50 percent or even higher that are "eliminated" in the first level of "diversion" of the "high school entrance examination", and many of them will become well-known "little gangsters".
If these "gangsters" are allowed to develop, they will miss out on the golden development period of their lives at the least, and at worst they may become potential criminals in the future, which is not conducive to social stability - there are many cases that can testify to this.
We hope to see that in the near future, the situation of the county will no longer be "embarrassing", not the "low-level version" of the city and the "advanced version" of the countryside, but so that the residents can have their own rhythm of life, their own living security, and their own entertainment, and no longer have to look forward to "entering the city".
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Bibliography:
Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology,2013.
- Gao Fan.Exploration of the development path of urban-rural integration at the county level in mainland China——An analysis based on the thinking of "continuum"[J].National Governance,2023,(21):45-51.DOI:10.16619/j.cnki.cn10-1264/d.2023.21.004.