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The wives who stay in the countryside not only bear the loneliness but also toil to keep their homes running. [file photo]

In Lianchi village of Yongren County, Yunnan Province, 43-year-old Li Fumei is dancing with other women in a circle at the village square.

Li's husband is a migrant worker in neighboring Guangdong Province. Her only son is a driver in coastal Fujian Province.

Li's husband and son only come home once every year during the Spring Festival. The rest of the time, Li stays home alone taking care of her father-in-law.

Lianchi village has a total of 1,020 households, with an average of two people from each household working as migrant workers. The left-behind are all women, children or seniors.

To seek better-paying jobs, more and more married men in the village, unhappy with their tiny farming incomes at home, make their annual exodus to cities after the Spring Festival, leaving their loved ones behind.

The wives who stay in the countryside not only bear the loneliness but also toil to keep their homes running.

To improve the lives of these left-behind women, the Lianchi village committee has built a cultural square and set up an art troupe to organize dancing and singing activities for those left at home.

"When I was home by myself, I sometimes felt lonely. Now I often come to the square to dance and sing with others. I love singing and dancing, plus chatting with other people makes me feel better," Li Fumei said.

China now has nearly 50 million left-behind women in rural areas, statistics from the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) show.

Research conducted by the China Agricultural University also showed that left-behind women have taken up more than 85 percent of both farm work and household chores.

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