In this post, a farmer turned peasant looks back on how wonderful the five year plan has been for him and his family.
I sit here today a new man. I can hardly believe that only five years ago I was a man without a skill in the world. Today, on the fifth anniversary of my country’s incredible five-year plan, I think back on all the good it has done. In 1953, I was nothing more than a simple man, alone in a large city with nothing but the few belongings I had in a flat in a run-down building. By the end of that year, I had become something much more powerful than that.
It began the day I heard our new leader Mao Zedong speak. He spoke of such wonderful things, prosperity for all, starting with a five year plan that would bring great things to China. It seemed too simple to be true. Things this wonderful are never this easy to come across. But this was no dream. Starting that week, I began to see changes occurring: factories being built on every other street; men who I had once known to be less well off than myself had new clothes, and looked happier than before; work for unskilled men like us. It was simple; it was benefiting our great homeland. I traveled to my city’s center, to catch up on announcements. Lo and behold, there it was, my name on a great big list of men assigned to work. I knew this opportunity would be a once in a lifetime shot. I reported to a local man who had been put in charge of running a factory producing iron. He was to assemble men like me to build a small factory. Just this small factory was contributing to our goal of industrializing and making China a better place to live.
My days started to form a routine; I would go to work, eat and sleep. Occasionally I would receive some pay, enough to buy some clothes, or splurge on Pijiu. Day by day, the skeleton of a factory turned into a new building. As workers like myself began to put the finishing touches on our hard work, new things began to arrive. Shiny and big, they looked like monsters of the future. I learned from the man who gave me my pay each week, Jin, that these were the machines which would turn something found in the earth into something that will be used all over the world. They had been generously donated from the Soviets to help us thrive. As it got closer to the opening of the factory, I learned that I would be sent to build another factory on the other side of town. By this time I had met my lovely wife and we had bought a slightly nicer flat close to the factory that I had been building.
Upon this wonderful occasion I went back to visit my roots in the country. Before I had moved to the city, I spent some time working on a farm with my Uncle Chang. He and his wife and few children made their living off agricultural means. The five-year plan had also made some changes to his lifestyle as well. He was told to consolidate land with his neighbors, and had been told he could retain a small piece of land for himself and his family. The rest would be sold to boost the economy. He was satisfied with his life, and was considering coming to work in the city. He had been told that life in the city in industrial factories had helped our homeland become a new industrial power. He had learned of the great goals that Chairman Mao had set into place, and wished to help his great Chairman achieve them.
I helped Chang find work at the original factory I had built, producing coal. He seemed satisfied with his new life and often we would remark on the wonderful place chairman Mao had turned our country into. We thanked the chairman everyday for his dedication to making our country a better place.
Today I live my life as a changed man. I live in a comfortable home with my wife and child, and together we find enough money to keep us happy and satisfied. While the original five years has expired, I look forward to the future plans that chairman Mao will put into affect. I am completely comfortable that my country is headed toward prosperity.
Jia Bao
靳豹
