In this post, an industrial worker looks back on the “Great Leap Forward” and expresses his opinion on how the situation has been handled.
I thought it was a fine idea at first: increase agriculture and industry, become more influential in the world. It seemed to be a step much like the first five-year plan, one that would bring even more success to China. But we, the responsible people of China, should have been smarter. My job at the factory in town was doing so well. I was helping my family thrive, and aside from some doubts about our Chairman’s harsh reactions to “traitors,” my wife and I began to regain our commitment to Chairman Mao.
We crowded around the square to hear the Chairman speak. He spoke of “Walking on two feet,” taking a “great leap forward” and becoming stronger. No one protested. We trusted the Chairman; he brought us to a new level of production.
But things soon began to spiral out of control. My factory leader, a normally kind man, became obsessed with out-producing other factories around us. He enforced nearly impossible quotas in order to produce the highest amount of goods possible. I was exhausted. Everyday after work I would crawl home and sleep. The amount of work placed on a single person was almost unbearable. At the end of the year, my factory workers and I rejoiced; industrial production had increased 65 percent from last year. This was enough incentive to keep us working hard.
The Chairman spoke of wonderful things. He spoke of how we were to be even more powerful that the Soviets. We wondered how they could see any fault in our miraculous outputs. They claimed it was impossible to “leap from capitalism to communism.” Our Chairman disregarded this, thus so did we. Things were going well.
Things started to spiral out of control. Men in my factory were exhausted and slowed their output. So much food had been shipped out of China that food here was running low. My children began to ask me why they were still hungry after dinner. In a desperate attempt to get more food, I traveled to the countryside to try and buy food from the men who grew it for a living. These towns were empty. Upon investigating, most farmers in every village were either emaciated and starved, or dead. I began to wonder how this would affect the rest of our country.
We could sense the trouble we had gotten ourselves into. My fellow factory workers could barely produce energy, let alone iron. We were angry, we wanted relief, we wanted food. Rumors spread that our once-abundant economy was losing close to 66 billion dollars. My relatives in the country had either passed away or had written to me, desperate for basic supplies. Every day the food supply diminished; each day brought us closer to desperation ourselves.
On July 23, 1959, history was made. Our once-great chairman was forced to give in. HE had made a mistake and could not support it any longer. He also admitted he could not fix the problems he had caused by himself. With that he stepped down as Chairman. The other factory workers and I were not sure how to handle this. What would be next for China?
We learned that a new group of people would bring China back. People who had never been fooled by Mao’s plan all along. These people, called Pragmatists, were confident they could fix the devastation that currently crippled China. We had no choice but to have faith in them. We couldn’t afford more tragedy.
So today, we slowly rebuild. We went back to work, with more realistic quotas. Agriculture is working on portioning its goods more carefully. A better China will prevail. It is estimated that close to 30 million people died under Mao’s leadership. Never again will we be so foolish to rush into the ideas of our leaders.
Shi Tan
施趿嗯
