【文稿】麦田龙袍，艺术or浪费粮食？

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Brian: I’m not sure if you can tell the difference when it is a pattern in the field there. But anyway auspicious symbol in China, cool staff there, but apparently they used herbicides. Another thing is if you look from the sky, you can also see an imposing imperial robe with dragons which, again, looks cool, but again looks like weed killers were used to turn some of the wheat - the green wheat - yellow, which is not so cool. Luo Yu: Right, I think it’s quite a good thing. For one thing, the village can obviously upgrade the local economy because previously those farmers rely heavily on husbandry, on stock-breeding, but now they can turn to tourism sector. And because of the ripple effect it can bring to the village, actually you will see probably more visitors will come in to the village to see this either imperial robe or the two-dragons-playing-with-the-ball images, and they probably will stay in either hotels or hostels, and, you know, spend money there. So, generally, it is a very good idea for the local village. Heyang: I think you make a really good case for it. But, Luo Yu, do you honestly think that tourists will want to go to this place just to see these crop circle things? Luo Yu: That’s my concern as well because nowadays the drones have become very popular already, right? You can see these beautiful pictures meticulously photographed by those drones through aerial images. And to that extent, there’s not any need for you to go to the scene yourself, right? Brian: There, there’s that. But there’re environmental concerns. But those aside for the moment, like we’re talking here, how sustainable is this? I mean, to me it feels like kind of a gimmick. For most people, I feel like no, you’re not gonna go there. And again, you know, if it was like a real tourist attraction that had like, that was really interesting, you had some value there, that’s one thing. But the idea, you know, okay, let’s try, everybody let’s try and have our town become a tourist spot whatever. That’s, I don’t think that’s a good idea, I don’t think it’s sustainable, I don’t think it’s gonna work. Heyang: Well, there you go. The other side of the story. Luo Yu: Right. Definitely. Whether it is sustainable, I think it needs some time for us to see whether it can pan out. But probably this village is becoming smart enough to create more wheat images in the future. Brian: I guess if it became really famous for having like just really exquisite patterns and doing like a world-class job whatever, a national class job, yeah, maybe you could do that. But that’s not likely what’s gonna happen here because that kind of staff doesn’t happen, you know, on accident there. I feel like it’s hard to get to that level where it’s really worthy of tourists seeing. And again, not to mention the environmental concerns. Luo Yu: They should have invited some craftsmen into the village to do the job. But environmental concern definitely is one thing. Heyang: Okay, sure. And I think, what about the conventional farming bit? What about these fields used to plant wheat and other grain and all kinds of staff? Is abandoning that and going for tourism a good idea here? Brian: I would say no. I mean not there’s tons of money in farming, but if you look at, again, just these farmers themselves, I don’t think it’s a very sustainable move like, if they had some, again, really “wow” kind of tourist attraction, then yeah, that might be a smart move. But if it’s just this sort of thing they’re planning on, you know, giving up farming just ‘cause they made some crop circles that, you know, people in other places could do just as easily, no, that’s not a smart business move. Luo Yu: Maybe you don’t think it’s a “wow”, but for a lot of people it’s a “wow”. Different people have different standards and criteria for “wow”, right? Brian: That is true, but you... Heyang: I haven’t heard so many WOWs in one conversation ever, that’s the WOW factor of that part. Brian: Yeah, yeah. Luo Yu: If you talk about conventional farming, come on, it only costs those farmers 80,000 yuan, which is not that much. It’s only about 12,300 US dollars. At the same time, they get... Brian: That’s US dollars, we are in China. Luo Yu: Well, but they get compensation. And if they can really upgrade from husbandry to tourism sector, that’s a very good sign. Brian: If it was good tourism, but I don’t think it is. And also, they’ve compensated by who, the local government? Wouldn’t it be better to put that money in a place where you might get a better overturn on your investment? A more... Luo Yu: What sort of investment? If they rely on money, they can never get enough money. Brian: Well, if the problem is only relying on farming, then they may look to diversify. But I’m not sure that tourism, by doing something that could be replicated by other people, is the best way to do it. Heyang: And the local official has been saying that it’s up to the farmers to decide whether they want to go for conventional farming which is not earning people a lot or go for other ways to earn money like tourism. I think that statement alone, itself, I don’t have anything to say against it. But look at the way that China has developed in the last two decades. Can we reject to the statement that we’ve developed so fast at the expense of the environment? Brian: At the expense of many things besides that too. Heyang: There you go. So here’s my other question, gentlemen. What about the environment? Is this causing harm to the environment? Are we doing exactly the same evil thing again? Luo Yu: I don’t think it’s an evil thing, because according to the... Heyang: Just dramatize, to sensationalize and people, our listeners tuned in... Luo Yu: No, I don’t sensationalize. Because according to the village authority. This village has been saying that previously they didn’t want to use herbicides. Why they used herbicides? Because some of the farmers didn’t know about the planting very well, so there was an accident that has happened, that’s why they have to use herbicides to create the images. Brian: Yeah, but they didn’t have to do this in the first place. And herbicides are not good, so there’s the dread damage to that. There’s the damage that, the fact, well there’s the crops have been wasted, and then maybe that will cause other problems that will not seen directly, maybe indirect problems there. And also if you want to talk about evil and doing bad to the environment, you can take a look at Miyazaki movies. He has very good ones that show that the evils of harming the environment. Heyang: Hmm. Luo Yu: Don’t dramatize it. I think you know, at least those people should give it a try. Come on. It shows their passion as well as wisdom to trying to develop themselves, upgrading their economy. Brian: Ok, I agree with that sentiment that, you know, there should be innovative and creative ways to get better, especially when it’s just agriculture, which is not a big money maker. But I think there are better ways, I mean, not that the farmers can decide this themselves, but if the local government wanted to do it, maybe they could turn it into a special economic zone or a free trade zone or something. Luo Yu: No, that’s not very easy to establish an industrial park or economic zone. Brian: It is not easy. Luo Yu: At the same time, you don’t know about local situation, maybe this is just a normal village that doesn’t have abundant tourism resources. And they want to create some of the resources themselves from scratch. What’s wrong about this?