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From Overseas Press

Why is "Happy Farmer" so popular?

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-04-12 13:41

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"Happy Farmer" now is China's hottest web game, attracting roughly 80 million Chinese netizens since its establishment in 2008. Why is the game so popular? Newsweek's reporter Isaac Stone Fish gives this explanation: "The game's success reflects a deep and growing nostalgia for China's traditional agrarian way of life."

In an article published by Newsweek on April 9, Fish pointed out that, as 225 million Chinese peasants flocked to big cities for better jobs over the last 30 years, "cities spring out of nowhere, and social networking games like Happy Farmer have become a tangible reminder of the sense of community that many migrants believe has been lost."

In addition, the popular game also reflected the urban middle class' concerns over the country's poor air and food quality, said the article, and "Happy Farmer reflects a wistfulness for a rural China that at least in the romantic image does not suffer from such problems."

While an increasingly popular tourist trend called "Farm Family Fun" meets this need for a taste of the rural, the Happy Farmer game has taken that faux-agrarian lifestyle to a new level, and "its success is changing the way some city dwellers behave in real life. Urbanites have started leasing farmland and are building vegetable plots across South China, where urban residents volunteer and tend their sections of the garden."

Fish concluded that there are no statistics on the size of the game's spillover effect, "but one thing is clear: China's peasants are migrating to the cities in search of a better life—while a growing urban middle class is looking back toward its roots."