A Second-Generation Farmer's Journey to Africa

"The African Aid Mission of a Farmer's Son"

A realist novel about the growth of a new generation of Chinese farmers and their contributions abroad, it tells the inspiring story of Du Zhuangzhuang, a young man from the Daba Mountains who goes from a directionless student disappointed by his gaokao results to a key agricultural specialist on an aid mission in Africa.

After failing the gaokao at twenty, Du Zhuangzhuang retreats to his family home in Shixiping, where he spends his days lost in video games, drifting through life. His father, Du Jiuchu, has spent thirty years researching and cultivating high-yield, drought-resistant rice suited to the Daba Mountains, and has written an outstanding work of practical farming wisdom, Essentials of Farming. To help his son recover from his slump, Du Jiuchu cleverly arranges for him to attend training in the provincial capital, using drone technology studies as a pretext.

By a stroke of luck, Du Zhuangzhuang is then selected for an agricultural aid project in Africa and sent to the country of Mosang. Life on the aid mission proves far harder than he imagined. Generations of African farmers have relied on slash-and-burn farming; a sudden cholera outbreak and rampant locust swarms also pose serious challenges for this farmer's son and the project team, leaving their path through Africa strewn with obstacles.

From his initial blind confidence to the self-doubt that follows setbacks, and then to finding his footing with the team and earning the trust of local villagers, Du Zhuangzhuang gradually grows into a specialist who can take charge on his own.

In the end, Du Zhuangzhuang returns to school for further study, carrying the record of Wohu Village's bountiful harvest with him. On that distant African land, the seeds of Chinese agriculture have already taken root and begun to grow.