It is a tranquil image of rural Chinese life -- except for the overhead whirr of a drone, the hiss of a smoke machine and the excited chatter of smartphone-wielding day-trippers.
Residents in Xiapu, Fujian province, have achieved viral online fame by staging picturesque country scenes and charging tourists up to 300 yuan ($40) to photograph them.
By doing so, they indulge visitors' nostalgia for a pastoral idyll that perhaps never truly existed and has been swept away by rampant urbanisation and industrial development.
"Back in the day, when we were sent down to the countryside, we used buffalo for ploughing," said Liang Liuling, 72, on holiday from the southwestern Guangxi region.
In the 1960s and 70s, her generation toiled for years in rural backwaters during Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution -- though many remember their hardships fondly.
"Now, they've become props for us elderly to enjoy," Liang said, smiling after posing for shots with the animals.
"Seeing them here is just wonderful."
- Farming clicks -
About 20 percent of Chinese people lived in cities in 1980, compared to around two-thirds today -- a result of the country's rapid development.
The jarring shift in living styles feeds a trend for reminiscing about economically leaner but arguably simpler times.
A search for Xiapu county -- population 480,000, small by Chinese standards -- returns hundreds of thousands of posts on the country's version of TikTok and on Xiaohongshu, known as Red Note in English.
Many users flaunt stunning photographs of supposedly timeless scenes and offer guides on how to create the best shots.
That the vista is manufactured does not seem to have dampened the enthusiasm of the coachloads of daily visitors.
"We saw this scenic spot online and changed our plans at the last minute to come", said tour guide Huang Jumei as she led a group of people mainly over 60, adding that they were "reluctant to leave".
"It brings back childhood memories for many of us who come from farming families... but as life has improved, most families stopped keeping cattle," she told AFP.
- Nostalgia trip -
Visitors must thrash out a price with buffalo owner Chen Weizuo before he steps in front of the cameras.
The 62-year-old poses several times a day and rents costumes for extra income.
Originally a farmer, a decade ago he borrowed a fellow villager's buffalo and began charging a trickle of mostly local tourists for photos.
Larger groups began arriving a few years back, and he imported his own bovine from Vietnam as "no one in China sells buffaloes anymore".
While his customers revel in nostalgia, Chen is glad to have shaken off his former life working the fields.
"Now, I spend my days under the banyan trees. In the summer it's cool, and when guests come I chat and joke with them," he said.
"It's much more relaxed," he told AFP, adding: "I'm not into taking photos myself."
Nostalgia and escapism: highlights from Paris Couture Week
Paris (AFP) Jan 30, 2025 -
Nostalgia-tinged evening wear, fantasy-fuelled escapism and messages about world peace featured during a packed Paris Couture Week that also saw new changes on fashion's artistic director merry-go-round.
Twenty-nine houses showed off collections during Couture Week, which wrapped up on Thursday, following Men's Fashion Week last week.
- 'Past centuries' -
Dior chief designer Maria Grazia Chiuri said her Spring-Summer 2025 collection was inspired by "the creativity of past centuries", making the Italian one of several artistic directors who was looking back for inspiration.
Retro draped skirts or short crinolines, as well as trapeze dresses and coats inspired by Yves Saint Laurent's designs in the 1950s for the venerable Parisian brand, were highlights of a show watched by a star-studded audience at the Rodin Museum.
Daniel Roseberry, chief designer at Parisian house Schiaparelli, sent out models including Kendall Jenner in a range featuring corsets prominently, saying he had been inspired by ribbons he discovered from the 1920s and 30s.
In his notes accompanying the show he said he "wanted to travel through time, to create silhouettes that might conjure up the haute couture of the past".
- Escapism -
For many fans of haute couture, it serves as pure escapism, a celebration of beauty, creativity and craftsmanship.
But just like everyone else, designers have the rapidly shifting and unpredictable nature of our world on their minds.
Zuhair Murad, who has been working with his homeland Lebanon under Israeli bombardment, said his collection was inspired by the idea of a tropical island that would be a refuge from the harsh realities of life.
"The message of this collection is about escaping from our hectic world. I imagined this beautiful island, far from the cities, far from technology, far from the world that we live in right now, a peaceful world," he told AFP.
- 'Out of the bubble' -
But as conflicts rage from Ukraine to Congo and Sudan, French designer Franck Sorbier tackled war and peace directly in a theatrical show that combined music, singing and dance.
Titled "Symphonie Barbare" ("Barbaric Symphony"), it featured bare-chested "barbarian" men and female "warriors of peace" dressed in trapeze gowns adorned with tassels or sequins.
It ended with a "peace" phase and concluded with Sorbier appearing in a black anorak bearing the words "peace and love".
"The idea is not to get stuck in a bubble of haute couture," he told AFP afterward. "Even though we do haute couture, we can still talk about the news and worrying issues, without sounding like we're lecturing people."
Eccentric Dutch duo Viktor & Rolf riffed on technology and the advent of our worrisome AI-powered era by sending out 24 variations of the same outfit, announced each time with the same slightly robotic voice.
"It is a collection of 24 variations of the same dress, taken to the extreme. It is somewhat a human interpretation of the unlimited possibilities of artificial intelligence," Rolf Snoeren told.
- Change at the top -
Amid the ruffles and glitter, the game of musical chairs among top fashion houses continued this week.
British designer Stella McCartney announced Monday her departure from the LVMH group, while Belgian designer Glenn Martens was appointed artistic director Wednesday at Maison Margiela to succeed John Galliano.
Meanwhile, rumours continue to swirl about Grazia Chiuri at Dior, with speculation she is set to cede her place to British designer Jonathan Anderson from Loewe, which is also owned by LVMH.
Chanel is currently in flux, with its latest show crafted by the brand's creative studio following the sudden departure of artistic director Virginie Viard in June.
Her successor, Matthieu Blazy -- who made his mark at Italian leather goods specialist Bottega Veneta -- was appointed in December but is not expected to present a collection before September.
- Legs out -
One of the traditions of Haute Couture Week is that each fashion house closes its show with a bridal look.
This season, several designers from Chanel to Giambattista Valli sent out white dresses that were short at the front and long at the back.
Jean Paul Gaultier's collection featured a full-length feathered gown that was highly transparent, also leaving the legs prominently visible.
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