Village roots

Born into a poor family in Dongkou county, Hunan province, Hou knows how difficult it is for rural students to pursue higher education. He has an elder brother and a younger one.

In 1997, when Hou was in grade four, Hou's father had to take a job at a construction site in remote Guangdong province to make ends meet. This was a common phenomenon in the countryside, with an increasing number of farmers flocking to big cities to seek a higher income and leaving their children in the village. Official statistics show that, in 2020, China had a total of 6.4 million "left-behind "children in the countryside, compared with 58 million at the peak of the migration in 2008.

In 2000, when Hou and his elder brother entered junior high school, the family could not afford tuition fees for all three children, so the elder brother quit school and went to Guangdong to support the family.

"My brother washed cars in Guangdong. In the first two years, he earned only 150 yuan per month, most of which he saved and sent back home," Hou remembers, adding that, even as a child, he knew he had to study hard, not only for himself, but also for the family.

When he was about to graduate from Hunan University of Arts and Science as a computer studies major in 2011, Hou faced a difficult choice－to become a volunteer teacher in an impoverished area or to become an IT engineer in a big city with a decent salary.