China during the Cultural Revolution: an old woman assisting one of the young agricultural workers by mending her jacket. Colour lithograph after Qian Liu, 1974.

The painting shows an idealized view of members of the 'educated youth' ('zhi shi qing nian') labouring as peasantry and helping with the wheat harvest. They are very hardworking and helpful, so they are popular with the local people. While the young girl is having a rest, a warm-hearted old lady is sewing and mending her jacket. The words printed on the straw-hat are "zhi zai nong cun" meaning "ambition in the countryside". This type of straw-hat is typical of the members of the "educated youth" who worked in the countryside in the 1970s. According to a less idealised view, the members of the 'educated youth' were forced to work in the countryside, often with inadequate preparation and in conditions of extreme hardship