Farmer's accounts offer insight into social change

A farmer's daily handwritten account books, recording his family's earnings and expenditure on agricultural production and life during the past decade, have been added to the National Museum of China's collection.

It is the second time the museum has shown an interest in this farmer's books. An earlier set of records dating back 35 years were included in the museum's collection 10 years ago.

Liu Yuanjiu, a 65-year-old farmer in Pingdu, Shandong province, started writing down his family's income and expenses every day after his marriage in 1982, ranging from buying daily necessities, such as cooking oil and salt, to purchasing a house or a car.