Teens in Rice County Are More Interdependent and Think More Holistically Than Nearby Wheat County

China’s smallest province Ningxia sits in north-central China. Surrounded by herding cultures to the north and wheat farmers to the south, Qingtongxia is a small outpost of rice farming fed by the Yellow River. We test the hypothesis that rice-farming cultures are more interdependent by comparing high school students from Qingtongxia (N = 190) to students in a nearby wheat district, Yuanzhou (N = 223). Comparing two nearby counties provides a natural test case that controls for third variables. Students in the rice county thought more holistically, treated a close friend better than a stranger, and showed lower implicit individualism. Students in the rice area showed more relative perception than students from the wheat areas on the practice trials of the Framed Line Task, but differences were nonsignificant on the main trials. Differences between teenagers — born after the year 2000 — suggest that rice-wheat differences continue among China’s next generation.