The gap between China’s rural and urban youth is closing

NONE OF THE universities to which Lin Meizi, a farmer’s daughter, applied was in her province of Yunnan, one of China’s poorest regions. Young people often flee to join millions of other rural migrants seeking work in booming coastal cities. Few look back. Ms Lin got her break when she was accepted to study in a big Chinese city 1,400km away, then clinched a job straight out of university. But she turned down the offer—to return home to run her family’s coffee farm.