A video screenshot shows Ming Yue promoting bergamot via live-streaming in Leshan, southwest China's Sichuan Province in October 2024. (Xinhua/Xue Chen)

　　by Xinhua writers Li Yilin, Yu Li and Xue Chen

　　CHENGDU, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Ming Yue has come full circle.

　　The 36-year-old woman, whose name literally means a bright moon in Chinese, spent 18 years away from her rural hometown in southwest China to pursue her dreams overseas. After five years studying at an American university, and seven years working in several top-tier Chinese cities, including as a senior auditor at Deloitte, she returned to her hometown in 2019 to work for her family's poultry farm.

　　It all seems to come back to the start. However, Ming thinks differently. Her vision of a “farmer“ is far beyond the story of her own parents, two farmers of chicken.

　　In about six years, she has modernized her family business, Mia's Farm, located in Mojiang Village, Shawan District in the city of Leshan -- about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province.

　　The farm houses 800,000 laying hens and produces 500,000 eggs daily. It became a designated delivery warehouse for the Dalian Commodity Exchange in 2021, a major futures exchange in China that had become the world's largest agricultural futures market by 2024.

　　JOURNEYS BEYOND THE HOMETOWN

　　Born in a rural family engaged in poultry farming, Ming saw firsthand how agriculture improved her family's living conditions during the early stages of China's reform and opening up: Her family was able to purchase their first refrigerator, and she was able to study in a city, and eventually abroad.