As one of the centers of the origin of agriculture in the world, China has nurtured numerous, diverse, and valuable agricultural cultural heritages. As of now, China has 25 globally important agricultural cultural heritage sites (GIAHS), ranking first in the world in terms of quantity. Why study agricultural cultural heritage? What is the unique value of China's important agricultural cultural heritage in promoting the construction of the Chinese national community? How to tell the story of China's agricultural cultural heritage from a global perspective? Lu Yong, Director of the China Agricultural Heritage Research Office at Nanjing Agricultural University and member of the Global Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage Expert Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China, recently accepted an interview on this matter. Reporter: What is the significance of studying agricultural cultural heritage? Lu Yong: The Chinese nation is one of the earliest ethnic groups in the world to engage in agriculture. Agriculture not only laid the foundation for the survival and development of the Chinese nation, but also served as a material condition and practical source, giving birth to the rise and evolution of agricultural civilization, supporting the long-lasting prosperity of Chinese civilization, which is rare in the world. Humanity has created a brilliant agricultural civilization in the long river of history, and protecting agricultural cultural heritage is a common responsibility of humanity. China has a vast territory and numerous ethnic groups. The diverse agricultural cultural heritage created by the children of each ethnic group according to local conditions is a valuable asset for us. Agricultural cultural heritage is an important carrier for strengthening cultural confidence, shaping the soul of rural areas, promoting excellent traditional Chinese culture, and telling the story of China well. In 2026, the No. 1 central document proposed to "promote the systematic protection of rural cultural heritage". As an important part of rural cultural heritage, agricultural cultural heritage contains rich resources, which can not only provide the most fresh and unique materials for "literary and artistic beauty of the countryside", but also effectively enable the overall revitalization of the countryside, helping to realize the vision of high-quality and efficient agriculture, livable and employable villages, and rich farmers. On March 19, 2025, workers from a tea company in Fuding were drying white tea leaves. On May 19, 2025, the Fuding White Tea Cultural Heritage System in Fujian Province successfully passed the expert review and was officially recognized as a globally important agricultural cultural heritage by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Photo by Zhang Bin, China News Service Reporter: What are the similarities and differences between China and other regions of the world in terms of important agricultural cultural heritage? What are the characteristics of Chinese culture reflected? Lu Yong: Humans live by water and choose their habitats, coordinating the relationship between humans and nature through long-term production practices, and forming an agricultural cultural heritage system distributed around the world. Their similarities and differences are mainly reflected in ideological concepts, differences in types, technological systems, and social culture. For example, the organizational core of Chinese agricultural society is the clan ethics based on the family unit; The West is more based on manorial, serfdom, or farmer cooperatives, and is more deeply influenced by the spirit of contracts and legal norms. There is no superiority or inferiority between the two. Through the above comparison, some characteristics of Chinese culture can be roughly reflected. One is the intensive tradition of adapting to local conditions and cultivating meticulously. The precision farming system in traditional Chinese agriculture, which adapts to the time, place, and material, reflects the practical rationality of Chinese culture's unity of "maximizing the nature of things" and "using resources appropriately". It also provides valuable historical insights for sustainable and intensive agriculture worldwide today. The second is the ecological philosophy of the interconnection of all things and the unity of heaven and man. Unlike the Western traditional view of nature that tends towards a "subject object dichotomy" and "conquering nature", the ecological wisdom in Chinese agricultural heritage regards all things in the world as an organic whole, and human production activities are embedded in the natural cycle rather than surpassing it. The third is the institutional resilience of mutual assistance and the homogeneity of family and country. For example, the people in the Hani Terraced Fields area of Yunnan Province use collective bargaining to ensure fair distribution of terraced water sources through "woodcut water distribution", while the government integrates the scattered small-scale agricultural economy into an agricultural civilization system with risk resistance through agricultural policies, water conservancy construction, and storage relief. On April 22, 2023, Honghe County, Yunnan Province held the "Opening the Seedling Gate" ceremony on the thousands of acres of terraced fields in Samaba. This is a traditional ceremony for local Hani villages to welcome sowing, marking the official start of spring plowing production. The picture shows Hani people blowing horn horns. Why does China rank first in the world in terms of the total number of globally important agricultural cultural heritage (GIAHS) projects? In the wave of globalization and modernization, what diversity, dynamism, and globality do they carry? Lu Yong: Chinese civilization is the only civilization in the world that has continuously developed in the form of a nation, which is incomparable to other countries and regions. Since 2012, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China has continuously carried out the excavation and recognition of important agricultural cultural heritage. In 2015, China issued the world's first national level "Management Measures for Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage", which reserved abundant resources for the hierarchical application of GIAHS. Academic institutions represented by the China Agricultural Heritage Research Office of Nanjing Agricultural University and the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences continue to speak for the protection of agricultural heritage. At the same time, the extensive participation of residents, volunteers, and various social organizations in heritage communities has injected a continuous stream of momentum into the active protection of agricultural cultural heritage. During the 15th Five Year Plan period, the waves of globalization and modernization have deepened. In this context, the diversity of agricultural cultural heritage is deeply intertwined with germplasm resources, folk culture, ideological concepts, and farming techniques. The core value of China's agricultural cultural heritage lies in its "vitality", which continuously absorbs experience, keeps pace with the times, adapts to the environment and changes through intergenerational transmission. It is necessary to achieve its inheritance and development through dynamic protection and adaptive management. The agricultural cultural heritage of various regions in China is deeply rooted in the ethnic characteristics and local differences nurtured by the principle of 'one place nurtures one people' - because it is' special ', it is' world'. For example, the "four element isomorphism" of Hani terraced fields, the rice fish symbiosis in Qingtian, Zhejiang, and the water symbiosis in Xinghua, Jiangsu, although originating from specific survival choices of soil, water, and ethnic groups, reveal the universal law of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, respond to the common concern of global sustainable development, transcend regional and ethnic boundaries, and are highly recognized globally. On June 16, 2023, in Alkerqin Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, it was the first day of the summer transition for the Alkerqin nomadic system. The picture shows livestock in transit. What is the unique value of China's important agricultural cultural heritage in promoting the construction of the Chinese national community? Lu Yong: To a certain extent, agricultural cultural heritage deeply nourishes the community of the Chinese nation from both material and spiritual dimensions. For example, the ceremony of "picking tea, making tea and offering sacrifices to tea gods" has been passed down from generation to generation among all ethnic groups in the the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, which not only reflects the awe of natural gifts, but also demonstrates the emotional ties of cross ethnic cultural identity. The concepts of "unity of heaven and man" ecological wisdom, "harmony in diversity" communication ethics, and "mutual assistance" practical tradition, which have been sublimated from the aspects of production mode, customs and habits, transcend the boundaries of a single ethnic group and become a shared philosophy and value principle respected by the Chinese nation. In the future, we should fully leverage the role of agricultural cultural heritage in the construction of the Chinese national community. Firstly, we should focus on exploring and protecting the multi-element agricultural cultural heritage that contains grassland civilization, marine civilization, and other elements. Taking the globally important agricultural cultural heritage sites such as the Zhagana agroforestry and animal husbandry complex system in Diebu, Gansu, and the Arhorqin grassland nomadic system in Inner Mongolia as examples, their typical characteristics fully reflect the development model of the combination of agriculture and animal husbandry with grassland civilization, effectively refuting the erroneous historical view of the binary opposition between agriculture and nomadism. The second is to further highlight the important value of agricultural cultural heritage in the theoretical system, historical data system, and discourse system of the Chinese national community. In the practice of heritage revitalization and utilization, the narrative line should be based on "common source and common flow", and the shared ecological wisdom, collaborative mechanisms, and value concepts of various ethnic groups should be taken as the core of interpretation. Reporter: How to tell the story of China's agricultural cultural heritage from a global perspective? Lu Yong: Firstly, we need to delve deeper into and extract the stories of heritage sites. Zhejiang Xianju revolves around the four core elements of "plum, tea, chicken, and bee", telling vivid stories of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. It has been praised by officials from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and representatives from multiple countries as a "successful example of traditional wisdom and modern innovation". Between the lakes and swamps in the hinterland of Lixia River in Jiangsu Province, the people of Xinghua fearlessly face difficulties and engage in battles, forming the "Xinghua Spirit" of "building piles of soil and choosing heights to move upwards". The stories behind the agricultural heritage products such as Qingtian Tianyugan, Aohan Xiaomi, Anxi Tieguanyin Tea, etc. can be translated into specific symbols and integrated into consumer goods on the basis of clear explanation, so as to realize "going to sea by boat". Second, we should make good use of new communication channels and build a multi-level collaborative communication system. Create with the core content of agricultural cultural heritage sites, including agricultural wisdom, ecological landscapes, folk culture, and character stories. Through visual elements such as rice terraces, irrigation projects, and agricultural festivals, construct a communication mechanism that is both emotional and tangible; And by extracting the core cultural symbols of various agricultural heritage sites, creating exclusive IPs, upgrading from "product output" to "cultural brand output". Based on existing platform resources, we will build a multimedia communication matrix and continue to create a globally influential dialogue brand for agricultural heritage, in order to promote the story of Chinese agricultural heritage to the world. (Xinhua News Agency) Interviewee Profile: Lu Yong, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Development at Nanjing Agricultural University, Director of the China Agricultural Heritage Research Office, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor, and Senior Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge, UK. Chief Expert of Major Projects of the National Social Science Fund and Member of the Global Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage Special Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Long term commitment to teaching and research in the fields of agricultural history and agricultural cultural heritage protection, concurrently serving as the Deputy Director of the Key Laboratory of Traditional Agricultural Heritage of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Executive Deputy Director of the Chinese Agricultural Civilization Museum, and Editor in Chief of CSSCI's "Chinese Agricultural History". Published six monographs, participated in the compilation of four textbooks, and published over one hundred academic papers.