1 Introduction of the Concept of Neo-Ruralism
Neo-Ruralism is a concept of landscape design proposed by the author in 1994 during the experiments of rural landscape renovation and natural ecological restoration in Jiangyin City, i.e. a planning concept that embodies regional economic development and urbanisation of infrastructure and ruralisation of environmental landscape between the city and the countryside
[1]. Subsequently, similar concepts have been used. For example, the term "rural philosophy" or "neo-ruralism" has been used in vernacular literature
[2]. The name 'neo-ruralism' has also been used in the promotion of tourism products and real estate, referring to a new tourism culture between urban and rural life
[3]; however, this is only a marketing concept. The new ruralism proposed by the author here is a systematic concept of rural construction and solving the "three rural issues", which is to plan the development of new rural construction, ecological agriculture, and rural tourism from both urban and rural perspectives, and to realise the ecological benefits, economic benefits and social benefits of rural areas by building a modern agricultural system and creating modern rural tourism products. By building a modern agricultural system and creating modern rural tourism products, the harmonious unification of rural ecological, economic and social benefits can be achieved.
In the late 1980s, New Urbanismemerged in the US in the community development and urban planning sectors
[4]. It aimed to redefine the meaning and formation of cities and housing, and to create a new generation of cities and housing. Its emergence profoundly influenced the development of urban housing and communities in the United States, and soon became popular worldwide, entering China in the late 1990s. It originated in the urban development model before World War II, which sought to reintegrate the elements of modern life, such as home, work, shopping, and leisure, in an attempt to reconstruct a compact, pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood connected by transport routes within a larger regional open space. In contrast to New Urbanism, New Ruralism is not only a spatial counterpart, but the emphasis on rurality makes it fundamentally different from New Urbanism in content.
2 New Ruralism in Practice in Jiangsu Province
2.1 The Practice of Rural Gardening in Jiangyin City
In 1994, when the people's governments of Jiangyin City and Zhangjiagang proposed to the author to carry out rural gardening practice on this subject, felt relatively new, while there are at least two doubts: ① Rural areas are full of crops, green fields all year round, why still need gardening? ② Now the budget of landscaping is tight, the cost of urban landscaping construction is scarce, can we talk about the rural garden at this time?
At the end of the same year, the author led a 30-strong rural gardening working group consisting of professionals from Yangzhou University and local government departments to investigate the rural areas of Jiangyin and found that: ① China's township enterprises have a large amount of sewage. Many township-run and village-run enterprises are those that are not allowed to start or continue to be built in the city because of serious pollution. As these plants are closely intertwined with the agro-ecological environment, pollutants bring obvious hazards to the soil, water resources, crops and human health, and the rural environment continues to deteriorate, constraining the development of the rural economy and endangering the health and survival of the rural population. ②The rural environment is generally dirty, disorderly, and poor, and village public facilities are outdated. Most farmers continue to pluck rice and wash vegetables in ponds that have accumulated industrial and domestic sewage and farm water containing pesticide residues, and even use them as drinking water, which seriously affects the health of the rural population. As can be seen, the fact that farmers are richer does not mean that the quality of life has improved.
Based on the above reasons, we put forward five necessities for rural gardening. Rural gardening is necessary for the harmonious development of the rural economy and environment, rural gardening is necessary to improve the quality of life of the rural population, rural gardening is necessary for the modernisation of agriculture and the improvement of the external investment environment, rural gardening is necessary for the construction of rural spiritual civilisation, and rural gardening is necessary for the protection of arable land and rural landscape. The reason why we chose to explore rural gardening in Jiangyin is mainly because of the feasibility of rural gardening in economically developed areas. Firstly, the development of the rural economy provides the economic basis for rural gardening; secondly, the legal documents on township planning and the completion of the delineation of the "two zones" provide a reliable basis for rural gardening; thirdly, the modernisation of farmland infrastructure provides realistic conditions for farmland gardening; fourthly, farmers' desire for urban-rural integration and the pursuit of a better life Fourthly, farmers' desire for urban-rural integration and the pursuit of a better life provide the internal motivation for rural gardening.
As a matter of fact, for generations, farmers have buried in their hearts the desire to "be a city dweller", just to enjoy the convenience and spiritual wealth of the city, hoping to provide the neat and elegant living environment that city dwellers have in the countryside. By actively promoting the improvement of the rural environment (including the agricultural production environment and the living environment of farmers), the experiment of rural gardening seeks to combine the advantages of the countryside and the city, eliminate the shortcomings of each, promote the pace of agricultural modernisation, increase agricultural labour productivity and create new opportunities for the rural population. It also creates a new and superior living environment for the rural population to improve the quality of life of the peasants and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, which is undoubted of great practical and strategic importance for the stabilisation and development of agriculture.
Quite rightly, rural gardening and urban gardening are both centered on gardening, i.e. creating an ideal and beautiful environment. However, as rural and urban realities do not exactly match, it is impossible to apply the principles of urban garden planning and design rigidly. How to make the gardens consistent in style with the countryside and in tune with the modernisation of agriculture to properly reflect the unique face of the modern countryside is an issue that must be considered in the planning and design process of rural gardening. Through rural gardening the production and living environment of the rural population (including the physical living environment and the spiritual and cultural environment) is improved, thereby enhancing the productivity of agricultural labour and the quality of life of farmers, to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, stabilise and develop agriculture, and protect arable land and the rural landscape (a landscape resource that cannot be regenerated after urbanisation).
Through the exploration of rural gardening, we have learned that the art of gardening is no longer the preserve of city dwellers, but is the commonwealth of all mankind, including hundreds of millions of farmers, who aspire to a better life. However, due to the difference in gardening conditions between urban and rural areas, rural gardening differs from urban gardening in its approach to the pursuit of the ideal environment: the former is to tidy up the rural landscape and embellish the artificial landscape in the extremely natural fields, while the latter is to reclaim the lost nature and recreate the natural landscape in the city full of artificial traces. Thanks to the modern small towns set amidst vast farmland, the landscaped Jiangyin countryside becomes an interweaving of idyllic scenery and urban atmosphere
[4].
As one kind of newly emerging things, it has encountered many problems during its implementation. But the ultimate success of rural gardening provided new ideas for a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of what it means to garden. It is not the result of the romantic suburban movement in 19th century America, but a product of the rapid economic and social development of rural socialist China in the wake of reform and opening up.
2.2 Planning of Ecological Agricultural Demonstration Bases and Urban Agro-tourism Sites in Wuxi New District
In 2006, the Administrative Committee of Wuxi New District decided to build an eco-agricultural demonstration base and an urban agro-tourism zone to enhance the modernisation of agriculture in Wuxi New District, to further strengthen the interaction between the city and the countryside, and at the same time, to respond to the development plan of the cultural tourism resources of the Hongshan site, to protect and utilise ecological agricultural resources reasonably and effectively, to provide supporting leisure service facilities for the cultural tourism products of the Hongshan site, to improve its overall functions and to comprehensively promote the ecological, social and economic benefits of the zone. The decision was made to build an ecological agricultural demonstration base and an urban agro-tourism area on a large scale.
Rural tourism first emerged in Europe after the First Industrial Revolution, when some urban dwellers from rural areas took a 'back home' holiday lifestyle
[5]. In China, rural tourism in its modern sense emerged in the 1980s and developed on a large scale in the 1990s. The year 2006 was the year that the National Tourism Administration (NTA) established the year of 'rural tourism'. The number of national rural tourism demonstration sites advocated by the National Tourism Administration has reached 359, spreading across 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, covering all forms of agriculture, including agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, vice, and fishing. Rural tourism has become an important means of stabilising rural society, reducing poverty, and regulating the flow of people from rural to urban areas, as well as providing a broader space for enriching the leisure life of urban residents and creating a new socialist path of "cities feeding the countryside".
According to the theory of the "Thunen Circle", around metropolises such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wuxi, a ring of agricultural industries is bound to emerge, mainly to meet the needs of urban survival and development. However, with the further development of the city, the main demand is also changing dramatically, so the function of the "Thunen Circle" will be further extended outwards, and the traditional agriculture in the original circle will develop into other industries or sectors. This has led to the creation of leisure agriculture. Leisure agriculture is a combination of agriculture and leisure tourism, both in a broad and narrow sense. It is characterised by the fact that it is no longer primarily aimed at mere self-sufficiency or the mere buying and selling of agricultural products, but rather is a cross-industry economic development model under the umbrella of the wider agricultural context, using agriculture as the backbone and tourism as the means to rely on the rental or sale of the entire agricultural production process, agricultural production materials as well as agricultural products and even the future development of agriculture as the main means of operating profitably.
However, the general ecological agricultural demonstration park suffers from unclear demonstration content, unclear construction objectives, and ineffective demonstration effects. To avoid this, we adhere to the principle of "high starting point planning, high target construction, high-level management", adhering to the concept of "three life agriculture" with ecology, life, and living as the core and urban agriculture as the foothold, boldly innovate and build a Five Major Systems of Modern Agricultural Development (agricultural science and technology innovation and application system, agricultural product quality and safety system, agricultural market information system, agricultural resources, and ecological protection system, agricultural social service and management system) have been established. Through the introduction, digestion, absorption, demonstration, and promotion of new modern agricultural technologies and varieties, a virtuous cycle of the agricultural economy of Wuxi New District is achieved. At the same time, the construction of sightseeing agricultural attractions and an ecological environment will provide leisure places for urban residents, employment and income generation for farmers in the area, and build a healthy "green lung" system for the New District.
According to the objectives and overall positioning, we have proposed five major development strategies (ecological agriculture and ecological tourism development strategy, product dislocation development strategy, brand strategy, environment-friendly strategy, biodiversity development strategy) and six major product series (organic agricultural products, green agricultural products, pollution-free agricultural products, tourism products, holiday tourism products, leisure tourism products) in the plan. With the theme of creating "harmonious countryside, affluent countryside, urban villages and efficient farmland", the project will demonstrate a comprehensive modern agricultural development system, create an agro-ecological aircraft carrier integrating modern agricultural technology, industrialisation and information technology, and ultimately achieve three national-level demonstration agricultural goals, namely, from the perspective of urban agriculture: international urban agriculture; from the perspective of ecological agriculture: national ecological agriculture demonstration park; from the perspective of sightseeing agriculture: national agricultural tourism demonstration site and national AAAA-level tourism scenic spot. This will make Wuxi New District a truly ecological agricultural demonstration base and urban agricultural tourist spot with the theme of "ecological agriculture and rural tourism".
2.3 Comprehensive Demonstration Project of Science and Technology for the Construction of a New Socialist Countryside in Jiu Li Village
In the comprehensive demonstration project of science and technology for the construction of the new socialist countryside in Jiuli Village, Yanling Town, Danyang City, our objective is to follow the requirements of "production development, affluent living, civilized countryside, clean village and democratic management" in the construction of the new socialist countryside, take the integrated application of technology and rural informatization as the entry point, the focus is on improving the comprehensive economic strength of Jiuli village, taking into account the development of agricultural production, the improvement of the living standards of farmers and the improvement of the agricultural ecological environment, with the construction of Jiuli central village technology demonstration (including the construction of public buildings, service systems, comprehensive quality training demonstration projects for farmers, technology demonstration projects), Jiuli agricultural industrialization demonstration (including breeding industry seed system, agricultural science and technology innovation and application system, animal and plant protection system, agricultural products quality and safety system, agricultural market information system, agricultural resources and ecological protection system, agricultural socialization service and management system) and Jiuli rural tourism demonstration of three major projects as a demonstration basis, to make Jiuli Village a new rural science and technology demonstration village with significance for replication on the surface in a certain region.
With the promotion of agricultural industrialisation as the guiding ideology and the development of a circular economy as the core, the coordinated development between production, life, and ecology in Jiuli Village is comprehensively studied. By studying the material conditions, geographical environment, and climatic conditions arising from the production and life of Jiuli Village, and focusing on the development of biogas energy, solar energy, and biological pollution treatment projects, searching a scientific and technological development program with low investment, quick results, and easy operation, and fully implement the ecological construction project of Jiuli Village, ultimately building it into an efficient leisure agricultural park.
In the area of agricultural industrialisation, the group takes the core concept of "three-life agriculture", which aims to show the seven systems of modern agriculture, develops ecological agriculture, facility agriculture, and tourism agriculture as a means to cultivate and develop high-quality, advantageous, and characteristic agricultural industries through the introduction and application of new agricultural varieties, technologies, and achievements, and realises a virtuous cycle of Jiuli's agricultural.Finally, jiuli Agricultural Science and technology Demonstration Park with certain influence and promotion significance will be formed.Based on the industrialisation of agriculture, leisure agriculture will be vigorously developed to improve the economic benefits of agricultural production. The development of leisure agriculture involves several areas such as agricultural production, processing of agricultural products, and leisure services, and requires the cooperation of various parties. The project will be based on the industrialisation of agriculture, increase efficiency with leisure agriculture, and support the development of biogas energy, solar energy, and bio-energy, Jiuli Village will become a model of rural development with economic development, good ecology, harmonious life and farmers living and working in peace and happiness, and a new socialist village with "efficient production, developed economy, beautiful environment, green trees and fragrant flowers and fruits".
3 Characteristics of the Neo-Ruralism
3.1 The Core Concept of Neo-Ruralism
The core concept of Neo-Ruralism is "rurality", which means that agricultural production, rural life, and rural tourism should all be maintained as much as possible in a way that suits the actual situation in the countryside. The countryside is the place where farmers produce and live, and the countryside should look like the countryside, rather than pursuing uniform European-style architecture, industrial lifestyles, or other so-called 'modern' styles that are completely divorced from the realities of the countryside.
Life in rural society is vivid and moving, a different state of affairs from the bustling city. A countryside is a place where every person, every object, every grass, every tree, even a dog or a flock of chickens, is lively and can brings smile to the face of outsiders. This is a free and uninhibited state of life, an important element that distinguishes the countryside from the city. The naturalness of a place's ecology and the originality of its regional culture are the prerequisites for maintaining rurality and the basis for sustainable development. The productive life in the countryside, where people rest at sunset and work at sunrise, is something that many city dwellers can only dream of. From the originality of life to the naturalness of ecology, for generations, are natural and unadorned, this is the initial state of mankind and the inevitable state of mankind's future development.
Rurality is particularly important for rural tourism. Dernoi (1991) states that rural tourism is a tourism activity that takes place in non-urban areas where there are permanent inhabitants with economic activities closely linked to the land (essentially agricultural activities). He also clearly states that the presence of permanent inhabitants is a necessary condition for rural tourism
[6]. The keys to maintaining rurality are small-scale operations, local ownership, community participation, and cultural and environmental sustainability
[7].When choosing a tourist destination, the most important consideration for tourists is the meaning of the tourist activity, i.e. how to make their trip more rewarding or unforgettable. The core attraction of the destination plays a fundamental role in this. An important difference between rural tourism and urban tourism is the difference in the way they approach the core concept of their existence. "The city is the source of anti-life and anti-ecology, the vitality and vitality of the city are given by the constant enrichment and accession of the countryside"
[8], which is opposed to the orderliness and naturalness of rural agricultural production. And the idea of ruralism presents a good vision and effort for the rural to save the city. The core attraction of rural tourism in the countryside, agriculture, and rural culture, with the idyllic flavour being the central and unique selling point of rural tourism. The most important feature that sets rural tourism apart from other forms of tourism is its strong sense of rusticity and mud culture. This is also the basic starting point for the choice of themes for existing rural tourism, and where the core themes of rural tourism development lie.
Rooted in the countryside and originating from agriculture, rural tourism is guided by its core theme, and the key products of rural tourism include the following four components.
(1)Natural conditions - the unique geographical environment. The area where rural tourism takes place is different from both the concrete urban areas with their high buildings and the purely natural areas where no human beings live, and it can be said that this area still retains the half-natural and half-artificial living conditions of human beings when they were young. It is a place where there is no noise to keep you awake at night, no stinking gutters or mountains of rubbish, and no chemicals that kill people everywhere; although life here is not as convenient and comfortable as in the city. Therefore, the natural conditions can be expressed in the rural tourism product system as the healthy air, water, and soil of the countryside and the peaceful and tranquil environment of the countryside.
(2)Local products - the products that are unique to the place. Tourism activities are not without local products, and in rural tourism places, their products are one of the core products that attract tourists. There are two types of rural tourism products, namely, geographical products and humanistic products. Geographical products are the products produced in a specific geographical and climatic environment, such as fruits and vegetables, cattle, sheep, and fish in a specific land in a rural tourism destination. Humanistic products are mainly those produced in the unique cultural soil of rural tourism destinations, such as ethnic decorations and daily necessities. In general, in the process of rural tourism, the local products are the basis for tourism activities, and eating farmhouse meals, tasting farmhouse food, staying in farmhouses, doing farmhouse work, entertaining farmhouses and purchasing farmhouse products are also one of the main contents of the tourist experience for tourists.
(3)Social customs - local folklore. Rural tourism sites are often areas with a strong traditional flavour. In China, where peasants account for over 70% of the country's total population, the role of the countryside as the direct inheritor and transmitter of traditional Chinese culture should still not be underestimated. Many folklorists have traveled to the countryside to learn about folk customs and ideologies, thus gaining a greater understanding of the social conditions of China in the past. And the quaint and simple rural folklore has become a good point of interest for the development of tourism in the countryside today, such as wedding and funeral customs, distinctive ethnic cultures, and so on. On the other hand, with the development of the times and the global tendency towards integration, some traditional things with individuality are rapidly diminishing, by about 50% every 10 years. For example, the old potsherds, windchests, cottages, lead stones, ox carts, horse-drawn carriages, and seven-inch walking plows of the northern countryside. Yet these can be found everywhere in the vast countryside, and it is only when people from the city come to the countryside and see them that they still have their unique charm.
(4)Landscape - sights to be admired. The countryside landscape is probably the main attraction for the mass tourist. The landscape in a countryside destination can include the above 3 points in a broad sense and is everything that the tourist can gain interest in as a tourist. And in a narrower sense, it is the unique tourist landscape that exists in rural tourism as distinct from other forms of tourism such as urban tourism. It includes both human and natural landscapes. The natural landscape is mainly the surrounding natural environment or artificially modified environment that the countryside is attached to. The human landscape refers to the unique regional lifestyle and cultural expressions of the permanent inhabitants of the countryside, such as living customs, architectural styles, cultural festivals, and so on.
In addition to the rurality of agricultural production, farmers' life and rural tourism, the rurality of rural ecological environment construction (including natural ecological environment and cultural ecological-environment) is also an important aspect that cannot be ignored. The construction of the rural ecological environment includes the construction of a beautiful natural ecological environment and a healthy cultural-ecological environment, including the improvement and optimisation of the agricultural production environment and the farmers' living environment. The construction of a new rural area should focus on improving the living standards of farmers and promoting a balance between the quality of life in urban and rural areas. "Ecology" runs through the whole process of "production" and "life", and is the guarantee for the realisation of the "rurality" of the Neo-Ruralism
[9].
4.2 A Development Model for the Harmonious Society
4.2.1 Harmony in Production
Agricultural production is the basic form of the countryside, and it is also the basis for agriculture to become the primary industry of the national economy. It can be said that agricultural production is both the industrial base of the primary sector and the economic base of the national economy. However, the current situation in the country is one in which agricultural production is neglected and industrial production is over-emphasised in the countryside. The road to completing industrialisation and modernisation in China is not one of weakening agricultural production in favour of industrial production, but rather a process of increasing industrialisation based on securing agricultural production and consolidating the position of the primary sector in the national economy. The result of the irrational development of industry inevitably leads to agricultural land being swallowed up by industrial land, the environment for agricultural production being destroyed and agricultural products being contaminated and made unsafe. This is reflected on the surface in the destruction of the rural landscape and the gradual loss of rurality.
Modern agriculture should be highly efficient, not only in terms of stable and productive agricultural products but also in terms of diversified and complementary agricultural production methods. For example, "tourism agriculture" and "leisure agriculture", which have been called the "The Sixth Industry", are ways of using existing resources to develop complex agricultural products, i.e. while agricultural production is going on normally, new forms of products are brought in to increase agricultural production. This means that new types of products are brought in to increase agricultural income. Tourism farming is a new industry that organically combines agriculture and tourism. It takes the development of green agriculture as a starting point, features the production of new, strange, special, and excellent agricultural products, and relies on high-tech development and construction of modern agricultural tourism parks, which is a new choice for agricultural industrialisation.
As agriculture is the primary industry, it is the source of the industrial chain and provides the basic raw materials for the development of other industries. Therefore, the safety of agricultural products has a direct impact on the livelihood of the whole nation, especially food safety, which poses the greatest threat to a people-oriented and harmonious society. To solve this problem, it is necessary to start at the source and make the construction of spiritual civilisation in rural areas an important task in building a new socialist countryside; at the same time, institutional guarantees are sought through the establishment of a sound assessment system, while actively providing cultural training and construction to farmers, a qualification evaluation system is introduced, i.e. farmers have to pass an assessment to obtain an induction certificate (green certificate) before they can engage in agricultural production activities.
4.2.2 Ecological Harmony
Protecting and improving the rural ecological environment is a prerequisite for the construction of new countryside and will be an important guarantee for the successful implementation of the new rural construction. An ecological environment is a whole consisting of various ecosystems composed of biomes and abiotic natural factors, formed mainly or entirely by natural factors, and indirectly, potentially, and in the long run, having an impact on human survival and development. Damage to the ecological environment will eventually lead to the deterioration of the human living environment. Therefore, to protect and improve the living environment, it is necessary to protect and improve the ecological environment. Our environmental protection law makes the protection and improvement of the ecological environment one of its main tasks, precisely based on this close relationship between the ecological environment and the living environment.
Some people think that burning wood for cooking, or being "dirty, messy and poor" is a rural area. This is an extremely wrong view, as the countryside needs a beautiful rural landscape, a clean living environment, and an energy-saving energy supply. In recent years, most of the visitors to the "farmhouse" tourism are rushing to eat farmhouse rice, sleep in farmhouse kang(heatable brick beds in North China), see the farmhouse landscape which are belong to the pure experience of folk tourism, but in the future period, this kind of folk tourism will definitely decline. The pursuit of peace of mind and complete relaxation in an environment with exquisite rural scenery, good ecological connotations, high environmental protection, and energy conservation will be the future direction of agricultural tourism and folklore tourism development. A beautiful and good rural ecological environment includes settlement ecological environment, farmers' habitat environment, rural natural environment, agricultural production environment, rural landscape environment, and so on, which can be further divided into external visual landscape ecology, internal energy cycle ecology, and cultural landscape ecology.
The external visual landscape ecology provides a good background for rural production and life, reflecting the original rusticity in the external landscape image. This is mainly expressed through farmland ecology and rural scenery, for instance, patches of orchards, neat vegetable gardens, endless wheat fields, hills full of cattle and sheep, ponds with flocks of geese and ducks, and so on, are ecological landscapes that can best reflect the rural idyll. Nowadays, agricultural demonstration gardens and other forms around the world are good visual landscape forms that demonstrate rusticity.
Ecology and energy conservation should be one of the outstanding features of the new rural development. The ecology of the internal energy cycle refers mainly to the ecological and energy-saving circular agriculture model. The so-called circular agriculture is an economic model that applies the concept of circular economy to agricultural production, improves the capacity for sustainable agricultural development, and realises a virtuous cycle of ecological protection and agricultural development. Achieving clean, resourceful, and circular agricultural production is a basic requirement for the development of circular agriculture. For a long time, as China's agricultural production methods have been relatively crude, they have failed to effectively utilise production factors such as land, fertiliser, pesticides, and water, resulting in serious waste of resources, and ecological damage. The concept of ecology, cleanliness and recyclability should be established, and the cleanliness, resourcefulness and recyclability of agricultural production should be vigorously promoted. Therefore, the significance and ways of developing circular agriculture should be vigorously publicised, and farmers should be educated and guided to save land, water, energy, and fertiliser. The "3Rs" principle of ecological transformation of urban buildings can be considered, i.e. Reduce (minimise all kinds of negative impacts on the human body and the environment), Reuse (reuse all resources or materials as much as possible), and Recycle (make full use of resources and materials that can be recycled after treatment). Implement clean agricultural production and actively participate in and support the development of circular agriculture.
The cultural and ecological landscape refers mainly to the folklore and cultural aspects of the countryside.Many unhealthy folk customs are circulating in the countryside nowadays, causing a relatively bad social impact, hindering the smooth progress of the construction of new countryside, and not conducive to the construction of a harmonious society. The cultural ecology of the countryside is mainly reflected in the creation of a healthy and harmonious social climate, the shifting of customs, the abandonment of bad social customs, and the creation of a good social and cultural environment for the construction of the new countryside. Some folk activities that reflect excellent traditions and are healthy can be transformed and developed, and integrated into the social and cultural construction of the new countryside to form a cultural-ecological landscape with full rural characteristics.
4.2.3 Harmony of Life
If production harmony and ecological harmony are the important significance of a harmonious socialist society in a new socialist countryside from the perspectives of economic harmony and natural harmony respectively, then the harmony of life is a reflection of the requirements of a harmonious socialist society in terms of human harmony. The harmony of human beings is the core and the ultimate goal of the harmony society, which is reflected in the harmony of material and spiritual civilisation in the countryside, as well as the harmony of industrial and social development.
The ultimate requirement of building a new socialist countryside is to fundamentally improve the quality of life of farmers. According to the spirit of the Central Government's Document No. 1, the issue of increasing farmers' income has become an urgent issue to be resolved. The issue of increasing farmers' income is not an isolated problem, especially to achieve a rapid and sustainable increase in farmers' income, it is necessary to combine the improvement of rural material civilisation with the improvement of spiritual civilisation. Material civilisation has to be supported by production harmony, while spiritual civilisation has to be achieved by constantly improving the cultural quality of farmers. Modern agriculture requires modern farmers to be able to adapt to the requirements of specialised agricultural production, to constantly promote innovation in industrialised modes of operation, and to carry out modern marketing and distribution activities, all of which are based on farmers having a high level of cultural quality. Cultural quality has become a necessary foundation for the development of modern agriculture and the construction of new socialist countryside and is also an important prerequisite for effectively solving the problem of increasing farmers' incomes.
The most fundamental purpose of the stable development of agriculture as a primary industry is to feed a society, to ensure that the various types of materials needed for a social life can be met, and to provide, together with other downstream industries in the industrial chain, abundant material materials for people's lives. However, the countryside has always been a place where material resources are scarce compared to the cities. The development of society and the development of industry should be in harmony with each other. The development of industry provides the necessary basis for the development of society, while only the harmonious development of society can make the efficient and sustainable, and stable development of industry possible. Concern for the harmonious development of society requires concern for whether the life of farmers is of high quality, whether it meets the needs of farmers, whether it reflects the characteristics of rural life and whether it is in line with the future development trend of the new countryside.
Furthermore, while the cities are generally carrying out improvements to the living environment and creating a good living environment, people have overlooked the problem of serious damage to the rural living environment. As large industrial and mining production bases have gradually moved out of the cities and into the countryside, the living environment in the countryside has been seriously damaged and the natural green hills and waters have been replaced by an increasingly deteriorating habitat. New Ruralism believes that to truly narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, it is necessary to make the evaluation index system for measuring and evaluating the current state of rural development and the living standards of farmers the same as that for urban residents' living environment, which is an important prerequisite for making real improvements to the surroundings of farmers.
5 Conclusion
In conclusion, Neo-Ruralism is a new concept of building a harmonious society through the construction of a new rural village with "3-harmony", that is, on the basis of the harmony of production, life and ecology and on the premise of maintaining the "rurality" of the rural area as far as possible, through the "3-harmony" development model to promote the construction of a beauteous countryside and build a truly ideal society in the true sense.
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