Rural Chongqing's 'Stephen Hawking' blazes a trail for smart agriculture

China Daily

29th August 2025

Rural Chongqing's 'Stephen Hawking' blazes a trail for smart agriculture

By TAN YINGZI and DENG RUI

In the picturesque outskirts of northwestern Chongqing, 36-year-old Li Xia, despite grappling with a rare congenital ailment that left him with just a single movable finger and toe, has become a renowned farm owner who runs a smart home farm and is leading fellow villagers toward embracing artificial intelligence.

Self-taught in agricultural internet of things technology, Li is dubbed the "Stephen Hawking of rural Chongqing".

Famed British scientist Hawking (1942-2018) battled ALS throughout his life while making groundbreaking contributions in theoretical physics and cosmology.

Li was diagnosed in childhood with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare genetic neuromuscular disorder. While different from ALS, both conditions can cause muscle weakness and atrophy, sometimes leading to death from complete muscular paralysis. At 32, Li underwent a tracheostomy, as Hawking had. But in a more severe turn, Li's respiratory muscles were impaired, and he has since relied on a ventilator to breathe.

https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202508/29/WS68b100bba3108622abc9dc0a.html