Tiktok Brings Me Home：a Case Study on How Short Videos Promote the Return of Labor in Northwest China

The return of labor is critical to the local sustainability, especially in poor rural areas. With the popularity of short videos like TikTok, many people have chosen to return to their hometown to become a video blogger, profiting from the production of short videos that showcase local agricultural culture to the outside world. With the "Targeted Poverty Alleviation Strategy" implemented by the Chinese government, the local community has given significant technical and financial support to this endeavor. Based on the grounded theory of sociology, this paper explores the contribution of short video production to the living preservation of agricultural culture and the extent to which this process drives the return of labor through a survey of a village in Qingyang, one of the poorest regions of northwest China. We coded the field data and used NVivo12 software to validate a model of the mechanism between the popularity of short videos showcasing local agricultural culture and the return of labor. The results show that 1) there is a significant relationship between the regional usage of instant video users and the return of labor, 2) there is a significant relationship between technical support from local government and the return of labor, and 3) the emotional strategies and local knowledge employed in their videos are vital to this mechanism. This research can help local communities build more competitive strategies, while helping bloggers produce more communicative works to present their agricultural heritage (e.g., ensuring a balance of authenticity and interestingness in their works) and to ensure a sustainable relationship between encouraging cultural heritage preservation in agriculture and increasing economic returns.