The rice scientist Yuan Longping used to tell his students: “Rice does not grow in a computer, and it does not grow in books. To grow good rice, one has to go down into the fields.”
His student Li Jianwu recalled the words in People’s Daily in 2021. For decades, he wrote, going into the fields was almost part of Yuan’s daily life. Yuan carried dry rations with him to Yunnan, Hainan and Guangdong.