As someone who spent many happy months in Maine, thanks for the reminder.
I don't think it's fair to ask if Maine – or any other polity than China – could adopt its 'build it and they will come' approach, because no other polity can marshal the level of top-to-bottom support for a program like that.
Beijing has been hard-selling its village rejuvenation for some years, almost shaming city dwellers to support their country cousins by staying in their villages and visiting their waterfalls. The President and Prime Minister split up every year to visit exemplary (or pitiable) villages, and use their airtime to proselytize for country cousins. That support goes all the way down to the village Party Secretary, who has primary responsibility for getting with the program.
I agree, but I do hope there are elements that can be appreciated and learned from.
Assuming it's successful of course. I don't think the success of the rural rejuvenation campaign is a foregone conclusion. In fact, it directly contradicts the efforts of smaller cities to continue urbanizing by attracting those same rural citizens to come live in the small cities. I don't think they can't both succeed at the same time...someone is going to end up overbuilding infrastructure that goes unused. But it's hard to say who will win right now between the small cities and the countryside...probably a lot depends on who is more effective at controlling real estate prices...
Very good piece, David, you even got me a bit emotional at the end... tabarnak...
But I think, as much as you want to compare rural China and rural Maine, the economical, social, historical backgrounds are so different... The rural decline in America was long in the making. We were already talking about it in the 70's. But it is not so much due to migration to the city as to de-industrialization. Much of these villages and small towns, in Maine or Québec, were born out of the industrial revolution, either with the lumber industry, or textile, or mining. They were never agricultural, the land is just not good enough (in Québec we call it "terre de roche", rock land). But lumber is dying, textile has long moved abroad, and mines eventually shut down. It's not a land that has been occupied for long, 100-150 years at most. America is such a young continent (for the white people at least...).
Whereas the Chinese countryside was occupied by farmers for 1000's of years, and never actually industrialized. And whichever way you want to look at it, the standard of living of villagers has still improved a lot over the past 40 years. The "decline" is a very recent phenomenon, and with adequate policies can be slowed down or reversed. I remember those women farmers we met in Yangshuo, who were still working in the field growing rice, and told us they were just doing it "for fun" and to keep busy, as there was just too little money to be made. The money came from their sons and daughters working in town in the tourism industry. But even in agriculture, there are still so many improvements and gains in productivity to be made. As in my previous comment about yak herding on the Ruoergai plateau, I think one goal is that farmers should make decent, basic income from the farm, and complement with revenues from tourism, or online sales of handicrafts etc. But not abandoning farming, just make it more efficient and profitable.
One other thing I found interesting is when you talk about the empty mall. It reminded me of that song by a famous Quebec band (les Colocs) from the early 90's, complaining about how main street in their small town was dead because everybody was now going to the shopping mall... well, now even the shopping mall is dead. What's left? Revive main street! The only hope is to get those small industries, which is possible, but as you said, they need proper infrastructure. Heck, I don't think I've been anywhere in China where there wasn't 5G, it's almost unbelievable that people would not even have 3G...
Yeah for most of Maine, it was the mills. These towns had no good reason to exist if they weren't conveniently located along rivers where they'd drive the logs downstream to be processed.
Now that the lumber industry has shifted, they have no inherent reason to exist there (versus anywhere else) except for the fact that people already live there...so they have to find some new rationale to justify their existence in that location. If they have truly outstanding natural resources to leverage, well then of course they have a reasonable industry to pivot to...
I'm not even sure the Chinese countryside really "declined" so much as it "failed to keep up". Over the last 40 years, quality of life there improved maybe 2x or 3x, while quality of life in urban areas improved 10x or 20x, at least partially thanks to the efforts of laborers who arrived from the rural areas. So this dynamic of "repaying" the countryside (and pulling it along a comparable level to what has been achieved in the cities) is quite different from the narrative of "pivoting to something else" that small towns in Maine have to adopt...
Main Street is definitely facing a revival in some areas....but I think it's tied to tourism, not a natural evolution away from big box stores. Locals mostly don't want to/can't pay Main Street shop prices...only the tourists are paying 7 bucks for artisan soap and 17 dollars a pound for handmade fudge, stuff like that...And that's what you find on the Main Streets of Maine towns that still have one...
Ha! Ha! In Stanstead, there was this nice couple who moved from France, and opened a small shop selling craft beers and expensive mustards and jams...of course it would never work. It was sad to see them become so disillusioned. Same for the bakery that had the best bread in all the Eastern Townships, until they finally woke up and moved to Sherbrooke. My other friends had a very nice French restaurant, but very few locals would go eat there, only the rich people living by the lake (Memphremagog). Stanstead still has the granite quarry, but most of the small granite shops have shut down save for big one. The few B&Bs close one after the other. It was a thriving small town 100 years ago... now slowly dying.
"I can see his eyes light up with that concept, as I could have guessed they would." I found this line to be quite poignant, you'd think that the "Cold War" mentality vs China would lead to US upping its gain on the people side, but afraid not.
coming to these two essays late, thanks to the recent boost by James Fallows. They're both excellent reads. I'm "from away," living in midcoast Maine. It's interesting to think about the parallels and differences between Ft. Kent and our little town. One worry here is to protect access to the working waterfront and the traditional livings people made on the water. We already face the loss of 4th/5th generation++ residents who can't afford to live here; they move inland and commute here to fish. Housing development takes a toll by gobbling up properties and potable water (we're 100% private water/sewage). There's no intuitive location for commercial growth on our long, narrow land necks and limited town services (low mill rate, too!), and our cafes struggle to keep staff to support predictable opening hours.
This all leads me to a parallel question that I'm trying to wrap my head around: How do you even think about what makes sense for small coastal towns when lobster+fish are moving north to find cooler waters? Maine's regional economic development and municipal associations do what they can to help, but it seems to me that they don't have the scalability or inter-networks to help think about these huge strategic issues. Whether we're talking about the county or the coast, I think Maine has opportunities despite these vulnerabilities.
As someone who spent many happy months in Maine, thanks for the reminder.
I don't think it's fair to ask if Maine – or any other polity than China – could adopt its 'build it and they will come' approach, because no other polity can marshal the level of top-to-bottom support for a program like that.
Beijing has been hard-selling its village rejuvenation for some years, almost shaming city dwellers to support their country cousins by staying in their villages and visiting their waterfalls. The President and Prime Minister split up every year to visit exemplary (or pitiable) villages, and use their airtime to proselytize for country cousins. That support goes all the way down to the village Party Secretary, who has primary responsibility for getting with the program.
We're not in that league.
I agree, but I do hope there are elements that can be appreciated and learned from.
Assuming it's successful of course. I don't think the success of the rural rejuvenation campaign is a foregone conclusion. In fact, it directly contradicts the efforts of smaller cities to continue urbanizing by attracting those same rural citizens to come live in the small cities. I don't think they can't both succeed at the same time...someone is going to end up overbuilding infrastructure that goes unused. But it's hard to say who will win right now between the small cities and the countryside...probably a lot depends on who is more effective at controlling real estate prices...
Great read. You are an excellent storyteller. Like one reader commented, the situation is very similar in Eastern Canada.
I really like the last section of your article, your accurate observations and questions raised. Looks like you have put a lot of thoughts in it.
There must be something to be learn between the two systems, Chinese and American. But for sure there is no single such a mould, even within China.
Thanks for reading!
Very good piece, David, you even got me a bit emotional at the end... tabarnak...
But I think, as much as you want to compare rural China and rural Maine, the economical, social, historical backgrounds are so different... The rural decline in America was long in the making. We were already talking about it in the 70's. But it is not so much due to migration to the city as to de-industrialization. Much of these villages and small towns, in Maine or Québec, were born out of the industrial revolution, either with the lumber industry, or textile, or mining. They were never agricultural, the land is just not good enough (in Québec we call it "terre de roche", rock land). But lumber is dying, textile has long moved abroad, and mines eventually shut down. It's not a land that has been occupied for long, 100-150 years at most. America is such a young continent (for the white people at least...).
Whereas the Chinese countryside was occupied by farmers for 1000's of years, and never actually industrialized. And whichever way you want to look at it, the standard of living of villagers has still improved a lot over the past 40 years. The "decline" is a very recent phenomenon, and with adequate policies can be slowed down or reversed. I remember those women farmers we met in Yangshuo, who were still working in the field growing rice, and told us they were just doing it "for fun" and to keep busy, as there was just too little money to be made. The money came from their sons and daughters working in town in the tourism industry. But even in agriculture, there are still so many improvements and gains in productivity to be made. As in my previous comment about yak herding on the Ruoergai plateau, I think one goal is that farmers should make decent, basic income from the farm, and complement with revenues from tourism, or online sales of handicrafts etc. But not abandoning farming, just make it more efficient and profitable.
One other thing I found interesting is when you talk about the empty mall. It reminded me of that song by a famous Quebec band (les Colocs) from the early 90's, complaining about how main street in their small town was dead because everybody was now going to the shopping mall... well, now even the shopping mall is dead. What's left? Revive main street! The only hope is to get those small industries, which is possible, but as you said, they need proper infrastructure. Heck, I don't think I've been anywhere in China where there wasn't 5G, it's almost unbelievable that people would not even have 3G...
Yeah for most of Maine, it was the mills. These towns had no good reason to exist if they weren't conveniently located along rivers where they'd drive the logs downstream to be processed.
Now that the lumber industry has shifted, they have no inherent reason to exist there (versus anywhere else) except for the fact that people already live there...so they have to find some new rationale to justify their existence in that location. If they have truly outstanding natural resources to leverage, well then of course they have a reasonable industry to pivot to...
I'm not even sure the Chinese countryside really "declined" so much as it "failed to keep up". Over the last 40 years, quality of life there improved maybe 2x or 3x, while quality of life in urban areas improved 10x or 20x, at least partially thanks to the efforts of laborers who arrived from the rural areas. So this dynamic of "repaying" the countryside (and pulling it along a comparable level to what has been achieved in the cities) is quite different from the narrative of "pivoting to something else" that small towns in Maine have to adopt...
Main Street is definitely facing a revival in some areas....but I think it's tied to tourism, not a natural evolution away from big box stores. Locals mostly don't want to/can't pay Main Street shop prices...only the tourists are paying 7 bucks for artisan soap and 17 dollars a pound for handmade fudge, stuff like that...And that's what you find on the Main Streets of Maine towns that still have one...
Ha! Ha! In Stanstead, there was this nice couple who moved from France, and opened a small shop selling craft beers and expensive mustards and jams...of course it would never work. It was sad to see them become so disillusioned. Same for the bakery that had the best bread in all the Eastern Townships, until they finally woke up and moved to Sherbrooke. My other friends had a very nice French restaurant, but very few locals would go eat there, only the rich people living by the lake (Memphremagog). Stanstead still has the granite quarry, but most of the small granite shops have shut down save for big one. The few B&Bs close one after the other. It was a thriving small town 100 years ago... now slowly dying.
"I can see his eyes light up with that concept, as I could have guessed they would." I found this line to be quite poignant, you'd think that the "Cold War" mentality vs China would lead to US upping its gain on the people side, but afraid not.
coming to these two essays late, thanks to the recent boost by James Fallows. They're both excellent reads. I'm "from away," living in midcoast Maine. It's interesting to think about the parallels and differences between Ft. Kent and our little town. One worry here is to protect access to the working waterfront and the traditional livings people made on the water. We already face the loss of 4th/5th generation++ residents who can't afford to live here; they move inland and commute here to fish. Housing development takes a toll by gobbling up properties and potable water (we're 100% private water/sewage). There's no intuitive location for commercial growth on our long, narrow land necks and limited town services (low mill rate, too!), and our cafes struggle to keep staff to support predictable opening hours.
This all leads me to a parallel question that I'm trying to wrap my head around: How do you even think about what makes sense for small coastal towns when lobster+fish are moving north to find cooler waters? Maine's regional economic development and municipal associations do what they can to help, but it seems to me that they don't have the scalability or inter-networks to help think about these huge strategic issues. Whether we're talking about the county or the coast, I think Maine has opportunities despite these vulnerabilities.