The Great Leap Forward… Or Perhaps The Great Leap Backwards

Dear Reader, I know it has been a few years since my last dispatch. So much has changed since I last gave my report on Mao Zedong’s Land Reform movement. I have decided to make my way back into the countryside from Beijing to give you, the reader, a first-hand account of the rumblings of food shortages happening here. I had heard in a letter correspondence with the Jinan Municipal Investigation Team that a famine had occurred in Gaoguanzhai, in West Shandong Province. [Zhou Xun, 9] This was not the first time I had heard an inkling of such events occurring however it made me curious to head for the countryside.

I arrived in the countryside villages looking for people who might be able to offer me some sort of clue. I spoke to a man by the name of Dr. Li Zhisui, formerly Chairman Mao’s physician [China A Century of Revolution – The Mao Years 39:59] He agreed to speak with me after a little bit of pressure. He told me that Mao had gone to his hometown of Zhoushan to look at what had gone wrong. Zhisui said, “I think that when he was in Zhaoshan, he found that there really were problems in the Great Leap Forward” [China A Century of Revolution – The Mao Years 50:04] It was clear that Chairman Mao and his party were aware of the situation that was unfolding. 

I made my way back to Beijing following my short trip. Once in Beijing, I accessed some reports that had been published about 4 years ago. I located a document coming from the General Office of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Province by province, village by village, the reports became more and more shocking. One from Guangdong in the south stated, “According to information from fifty-five counties, the famine in the spring caused 963,231 people to go without food, and seven people have died of starvation. There are also sixty-nine people suffering from edema. In these areas, 547 families have lost their homes and been forced to move elsewhere. Twenty-seven people from among them ran away, ten families sold their children, and sixty-six people became beggars” [Zhou Xun, Document 2, Page 12]. It is becoming clearer to me that the famine is causing more than just death, but serious struggle in terms of quality of life.   

Though it is becoming ever clearer that the famine has caused immense deaths across the country, I want to bring to your attention the issues regarding women during these terrible times. It seems to be that the party is expecting women to fill two roles at once. They want them to work and care for their kids [Zhou Xun, Document 23, Page 53]. This double expectation is highly problematic during the famine. It was clear in a document I was able to read that women were not receiving any of the proper resources they needed to maintain this double expectation. Local cadres used their power to humiliate working women. Following many instances of women being pressured into working with their tops off as was to the enjoyment of local cadres, a few women shared their thoughts in the document. “Female workers such as Du Laojiu and Zhouchun from Number 3 regiment said, “Since the day we came out of mothers’ wombs, we had never felt so humiliated [What happened was more humiliating than being caught having an affair.] According to our investigations, more than thirty women became and vomited as a result of working topless” [Zhou Xun, Document 11, Page 42]. This kind of humiliation and abuse of power is symbolic of the ignorance that caused the Great Leap to be such a failure. 

I can only wonder who will claim responsibility for the devastating past few years. I worry that the Chairman will need to transform the party once again to bring China back to full-strength but I believe in his leadership capabilities. I hope that the Chairman can harness the power of the many people who still believe in him.