Digital technology has given rise to a global wave of digital nomads, and the Chinese context shows a localised shift towards ‘digital villagers’ – a group that returns to the countryside on its own initiative, combining digital connectivity with local rootedness. Currently, the construction of digital villages favours material support such as infrastructure and neglects the inherent diversity of value demands, leading to the dilemma of ‘high introduction and low retention’. Taking Wenzhou as a case study, this study employs the Q method to conduct an empirical study on 56 typical digital villagers, integrating literature, in-depth interviews and online texts to construct a system of 32 Q statements covering the four dimensions of personal development, relationship building, cultural identity and spatial perception. Factor analysis identifies four types of value orientations: cultural co-creation (knowledge collaboration and cultural revitalisation), rational choice of residence (environmental adaptation and low-burden living), technological self-sufficiency (functional autonomy and skill growth), and eco-slow living (anti-alienation living ethics). The study reveals that digital villagers are actually strategic ‘selective embedders’ with significant differences in their value structures. The study proposes a theoretical model of ‘digital-village inter-construction’, which advocates a shift from ‘one-size-fits-all’ to ‘precise adaptation’ in rural governance, and the construction of a hierarchical, categorised, and demand-oriented policy system. The results effectively bridge the cognitive gap between ‘policy supply’ and ‘subjective demand’, provide empirical evidence for the governance of digital rural talents, and promote the construction logic from ‘attracting people’ to ‘understanding people’. The results effectively bridge the cognitive gap between ‘policy supply’ and ‘subject needs’, and provide an evidence basis for digital village talent governance, promoting the construction logic from ‘attracting people’ to ‘understanding people’ and ‘keeping people’.
