Mao created the Great Leap Forward to help China modernize and catch up with the west. Anxious commune leaders vastly exaggerated their harvests, hoping to curry favor with the Communist leadership. I thought that sounded alright.” It was so dense that I was afraid to go in there at night. If we can reach 40 million tons in five years, we may possibly catch up with Great Britain in seven years. The Great Leap Forward planned to develop agriculture and industry. She has taught at the high school and university levels in the U.S. and South Korea. Mao’s ambition. Mao Zedong. It was many years before we knew that sparrows are good birds. The Great Leap Forward was a push by Mao Zedong to change China from a predominantly agrarian (farming) society to a modern, industrial society—in just five years. known as the Great Leap Forward. Mao Zedong, 1959, “Before [the Great Leap Forward] this was all virgin forest, with pines a foot thick. Mao Zedong on the Great Leap Forward “I am a complete outsider when it comes to economic construction. An unnamed peasant on the practice of ‘deep ploughing’, “All property has to be state-owned, all houses and furniture have been turned into government property. Thus the landlords as a class are abolished and the exploitative feudal land ownership system is transformed… This is the greatest and most thorough reform in thousands of years of Chinese history.” Sky View Big. Put organizations on a military footing, put actions on a war footing, put life on a collective footing, 1958 Mao Zedong, “The chaos caused was on a grand scale and I take responsibility. If we encounter any problems, any difficulty, it is because we have not followed the instructions of the Chairman closely enough, because we have ignored or circumscribed the Chairman’s advice.” The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images. Mao Zedong’s assessment of the nation, Lushan Conference, 1959, “The achievements of the Great Leap Forward are obvious… The overall value of industrial and agricultural production rose by 48.8 per cent in 1958… Such a rate of growth is unknown anywhere in the world. ISBN: 0300184042. Call Number: HC430.F3 Z467 2013. Yue Daiyun, peasant woman, “Naturally we have defects and mistakes… Like a child playing with fire, without experience, knowing pain only after being burned. Search for More Suggested terms to look for include - diary, diaries, letters, papers, documents, documentary or correspondence. In 1960, a widespread drought added to the nation's misery. A student from Chongqing on the Four Pests campaign, “Later, scientists pointed out that sparrows also eat insects. This plan was called the Great Leap Forward. Peng Dehuai, 1958, “It was fun to wipe out the ‘Four Pests’. As a result of the exaggerations, party officials carried off most of the food to serve as the cities' share of the harvest, leaving the farmers with nothing to eat. It was an impossible goal, of course, but Mao had the power to force the world's largest society to … These quotations have been selected and compiled by Alpha History authors. Too terrible.” Traditionally, each farmer in China farmed his own piece of land. Part one involved improving agriculture so there was enough food to feed factory workers. However, the extra work burden that neces… It’s the spring planting season, isn’t it?’ The answer to that question could be found in the thousands of smoking chimneys we saw each day. However, so many farmers had been sent into steel production work that there weren't enough hands to harvest the crops. For Mao, the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) stands out. In Hongtai Commune alone there were 170 people who ate 125 corpses, as well as killing and eating five other people… In some cases, individuals barbarously consumed their own parents, children, spouses and siblings. So we stopped killing sparrows. Wood can never burn hot enough to make steel.” The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) lead by Mao Zedong or Mao Tse-Tung considered it was a time for the Great Leap Forward. Great Leap Forward, in Chinese history, the campaign undertaken by the Chinese communists between 1958 and early 1960 to organize its vast population, especially in large-scale rural communes, to meet China’s industrial and agricultural problems. Mao Zedong on farm collectivisation, 1955, “China has two advantages. Dr. Kallie Szczepanski is a history teacher specializing in Asian history and culture. The Great Leap Forward was supposed to be a five-year plan, but it was called off after just three tragic years. Status: common peasant. As a result of the successful economic reconstruction that had taken place in the early 1950’s. Unlike the first plan, however, the driving force in the effort to achieve production targets for agriculture and industry was not to be a centralised State bureaucracy. The result was a big mess of melted metal. Mao Zedong, 1958, “The Chairman talks all the time about more, faster, better, and more economical results. Over just a few years, the Great Leap Forward also caused massive environmental damage in China. This site was last updated on August 19th 2020. Under Mao, everything is great but they only eat porridge. If you have to fart – fart! Mao Zedong's Quotes Extra Facts Project Sources The Great Leap Forward. Anhui police report on cannibalism, 1960, “Cannibalism occurred in many places. I understand nothing about industrial planning… I do not claim to have invented the People’s Communes, only to have proposed them.” It was difficult. For more info, visit Alpha History or our Terms of Use. In 1957, at the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution, this was held in Moscow, Khrush… The brush and branches we gathered were enough for all our firewood, we never had to cut the trees… I was only 10 or 11 during the Leap. With hindsight, the results were predictably bad. Ronald Radosh. The period between 1958 and 1960 is known as the "Three Bitter Years" in China. Lin Biao, January 1962, “What a good speech vice-chairman Lin has made. Mao Zedong on the failures of the Great Leap Forward, 1959, “The harvest had been bad. It had political repercussions for Mao Zedong as well. Millions also left the countryside to work in underground” If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself. But deep down the soil is no good, too compact. None of my brothers would help me. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill.’ A Yunnan botanist on the end of the Four Pests campaign, “Great achievements, numerous problems and a bright future.” Friday, 17 September 2010. 12. The Great Chinese Famine (Chinese: 三年大饥荒, "three years of great famine") was a period between 1959 and 1961 in the history of the People's Republic of China (PRC) characterized by widespread famine. Mao Zedong, 1958, “With 11 million tons of steel next year and 17 million tons the year after, the world will be shaken. They are simply superb. Everybody bears some responsibility, including Comrade Mao Zedong… How can he not share some responsibility? As the originator of the disaster, he ended up being sidelined from power until 1967, when he called for the Cultural Revolution. These farming strategies damaged countless acres of farmland and dropped crop yields, rather than producing more food with fewer farmers. It cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. Mao announced a second Five Year Plan to last from 1958 to 1963. Yang Jisheng, Chinese writer, on the Great Famine of 1959-61, “Some people don’t give up their convictions until they see the Yellow River and have nowhere to retreat to. (Video) Arifa Akbar. They killed him and ate him.” Peng Dehuai, 1959, “When there is not enough to eat, people starve to death. That is annoying. One is emptiness, the other is blankness, with no encumbrances of any kind. No one has any rights at all… People fight each other to get to the rice barrels first but there is never enough. Mao Zedong. The official death toll from the Great Leap Forward is "only" 14 million, but the majority of scholars agree that this is a substantial underestimate. Mao Zedong. It is as if a raging tidal wave has swept away all the demons and ghosts.” Liu Shaoqi, 1950, “Landlords in general will only be deprived of their land and abolished as a social class, but they will not be physically eliminated… Therefore it is a stipulation that after their lands have been confiscated, the landlords will still be given shares of land… That way they can make a living by their own labour, reform themselves through labour and become new men.” By 1958, these agricultural collectives had become the norm, and private ownership of land was abolished, with all households being forced into the state-operated communes. He ate his own wife. Post-Mao Views of the Great Leap Forward WILLIAM A. JOSEPH Wellesley College "Hell is paved with good intentions." Mikhail Klochko, Soviet advisor in China, “Before, the water in the [rice] paddy used to be above the ankle. If you would like to suggest a quotation for these pages, please contact Alpha History. Farmers in the Great Leap Forward Era (Historians on the Warpath) Mao Versus Sparrows. 150 Quotes from Mao Tse Tung Revolutionary Civil War Period 1926-1927. He criticised himself at the Shanghai Conference, admitting that he had been somewhat hotheaded… What is great about the Chairman is that he can figure out problems in time and make a quick adjustment.” Comrades, if you have to shit – shit! Some were sent to farming cooperatives, while others worked in small manufacturing. Now it went above the knee. Backyard Steel Furnace during the Great Leap Forward. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. They say that under Jiang Jieshi they suffered but had plenty to eat. ‘Why are they not in the fields? Instead, Mao envisaged a decentralisation of control to local Party cadres whose task it would be to But the temperature was too low. At that time, we only thought that they ate grain.” Mao Zedong, 1959, “Even if there’s a collapse [in China’s food production] it’ll be alright. There were many fewer sparrows after that. This page contains a collection of Chinese Revolution quotations about agrarian reform and the Great Leap Forward, made by prominent leaders, figures, observers and historians. This reform programme included the establishment of large agricultural communes containing as many as 75,000 people. Formerly the young wife in poorer families would have to work in the field and rush home to get the meals on a very slow stove, then stay up half the night to grind the grain… The husband would grumble if the meal wasn’t ready at once when he came home from work… ‘Now all this grumbling is over’, said Mrs Chang.” What Is Totalitarianism? Definition and Examples, Biography of Mao Zedong, Father of Modern China, Khmer Rouge: Regime Origins, Timeline, and Fall, Overview of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, The Three Sisters: the Traditional Intercropping Agricultural Method, The Geography and Modern History of China, The Yellow River's Role in China's History, An Overview of the Chinese Communist Party, J.D., University of Washington School of Law, B.A., History, Western Washington University. Liu Shaoqi, 1950, “When the Third Five Year Plan is completed in 1967, the yields for grain and many other agricultural products should be double or triple the highest yields before the People’s Republic was founded [in 1949].” Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to reconstruct the country from an agrarian economy into a communist society through the formation of people's communes.Mao decreed increased efforts to … [But] there was too much haste. Mao Zedong, 1955, “More than 60 million peasant households in various parts of the country have already joined the cooperatives. Mao Zedong to Dr Li Zhisui, 1961, “The peasants do nothing but complain. The first autumn of the Great Leap Forward, in 1958, came with a bumper crop in many areas, because the soil was not yet exhausted. Meat was almost non-existent and the cat population rapidly declined. Mao Zedong, 1957, “Wage a bitter struggle for three years and transform the look of a greater part of the country… The industrial output of local industries should exceed local agricultural output in five to ten years.” The Great Leap Forward (Second Five Year Plan) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1958 to 1962. After Mao declared the failure of the Great Leap in 1962, almost all methods of communication became cornerstones for propaganda as they fixated on recuperating and reiterating the cult of Mao. What does he want with chanting these liturgies all the time?” People ate corpses and fought for the bodies. Backyard smelters run by peasants with no metallurgy training produced such low-quality material that it was completely worthless. There, he summed up its ethos as “more, faster, better, and more economical,” and the Great Leap Forward was set in motion. The next year, the Yellow River flooded, killing 2 million people either by drowning or by starvation after crop failures. Steelworkers got the most in bulk and grain, but intellectuals got more meat, sugar and fats.” The Great Leap Forward, the second five-year plan of the Chinese revolution, was an attempt to develop rapidly both industry and agriculture. The worst that will happen is that the whole world will get a big laugh out of it.” I will not give up my convictions, even when I see the Yellow River.” I remember a famous restaurant, the Lugaojian… their speciality was two salted sparrows on a stick… But after the Four Pests campaign, you couldn’t buy them any more.” Mao believed this program would allow him to win the race with the Soviet Union to achieve commu nism. The Soviet Union was also blank… China’s industrial development can proceed more swiftly than the Soviet Union’s.” "Dare to … We tried to do too much, we wasted part of our investments, we deferred certain essential tasks, and that is a mistake.” Han Suyin on food shortages during the Great Leap Forward, “People died in the family and they didn’t bury the person because they could still collect their food rations; they kept the bodies in bed and covered them up and the corpses were eaten by mice. In Gansu they killed outsiders; people told me strangers passed through and they killed and ate them. Great Leap Forward. We collected scrap metal and pots while the grownups cut the trees. In 1958 Mao Zedong announced the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to increase agricultural and industrial production. James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson In the post-Mao reconstruction of the history of the People's Republic of China (PRC), two periods-the Great Leap Forward (1958-1960) and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution The Great Leap Forward was not simply a whim of Mao Zedong, but the program of … In the three years that followed, a massive famine occurred. While the First Five Year Plan had succeeded in stimulating rapid industrialisation and increased production, Mao was suspicious of Soviet models of economic development. Then the farmers’ cooperative people came along. On the contrary, ‘the home is much happier now because the heavy burdens are removed’. There were shortages… Rations differed according to work done. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Li Lei, CCP cadre from Gansu province, writing in 1999, “Among 14 work units… 3,132 persons are suffering from oedema, which afflicts 25 per cent of the staff in the most seriously affected units… The illness has struck workers more than cadres, those employed in heavy physical labour more than light work, and those eating at communal kitchens more than those taking their meals at home.” Peng Dehuai, 1959, “We must learn a lesson, not just complain or find fault. In economic construction, like a child without experience, we declared war on the earth, unfamiliar with the strategy or tactics.” A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. I understand nothing about industrial planning… I do not claim to have invented the People’s Communes, only to have proposed them.” Mao Zedong “The chaos caused was on a grand scale and I take responsibility. The first Five-Year Plan for the future of China was launched by Mao Zedong in 1953, in which the Soviet Union was held up as the model for development. Terrible. Asia Society, 13 October 2010. All we have to do is give the peasants their own land, then everyone will have plenty to eat.” Chairman Mao just said ‘Forget it’. Only four to five inches on the surface are good. Mao Zedong on the Great Leap Forward, “I am a complete outsider when it comes to economic construction. Relationship: spouse. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. There were 17 of them and they did the work in less than an hour and would take no payment.” Mao's aims The Great Leap Forward was China's second Five Year Plan. Dense cropping and deep plowing stripped the farmland of nutrients and left the agricultural soil vulnerable to erosion as well. The peasants were carrying out the work of the [Communist] Party, working day and night at the mines and homemade blast furnaces… And we know the results: they did not obtain any more iron than before and there was much less bread and rice to go round.” We have had many natural disasters, a bad drought in the north. They do what they like. The program had two parts. The National Academy of Sciences issued reports on how many insects they ate, compared to how many seeds. ... Chan, Alfred L. Mao’s Crusade: Politics and Policy Implementation in China’s Great Leap Forward. Why can’t other Party leaders be so perceptive?” Simultaneously, it would expand China's economy. Peasant farmer Li Hai Yuan on cooperative farming, “The People’s Commune represents a much higher degree of socialist development and collectivisation… Its massive scale of production requires more efficient organisation with great labour flexibility, as well as women’s’ production participation. Chinese Revolution crossword for beginners. He dug up her body and cooked it… Yang Wenyi and Yuan Shuying of Houxiyan village, together with… eight people in total, dug up the body of a child, cooked and ate it… A person called Liu Chuan. Children were taken from their parents and put into large childcare centers to be tended to by workers assigned that task. The Great Leap Forward was a push by Mao Zedong to change China from a predominantly agrarian (farming) society to a modern, industrial society—in just five years. The United States in George Washington’s era was blank, so it could develop very rapidly. So people are setting up more and more community canteens, nurseries, sewing groups…” Mao Zedong. Part of an authoritarian regime is the dedication to ideological-based projects, even at the expense of economic or social progress. Films of the Soviet Union were even shown to peasants and ordinary Chinese to show them what to aspire to. He ate Chen Zaxi. On p.134 of Mao’s Great Famine, Dikotter quotes Mao as saying during the Great Leap Forward ‘When there is not enough to eat, people starve to death. Some scholars have also included the years 1958 or 1962. Mao's Great Leap Forward 'killed 45 million in four years' The Independent. Families had to meet quotas for steel production, so in desperation, they often melted down useful items such as their own pots, pans, and farm implements. People in the countryside began to starve. Nature Flowers Thought. This Chinese Revolution website is created and maintained by Alpha History. However, the Great Leap resulted in one of the greatest disasters in history. In the third year, I did not manage to finish my ploughing. The Great Leap Forward was a movement in China that started in 1958 and lasted two years till 1960. In the period between 1949 and 1958, a policy of collectivization, where farmers would work in collectives and share tools and draft animals, was gradually introduced and implemented. Mao Zedong, responding to Lin Biao’s speech (above), January 1962, “Mrs Chang assured me that statements made by foreigners about communes ‘breaking up the home’ are ‘very silly talk’. It wasn’t correct but we couldn’t help it, we had orders.” Most of the victims starved to death in the countryside. A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery. “The essential content of agrarian reform is the confiscation of the land of the landlord class for distribution to the landless peasants. “ Mao's Great Famine is a gripping and masterful portrait of the brutal court of Mao, based on new research but also written with great narrative verve, that tells the gripping story of the manmade famine that killed 45 million people, from the dictator and his henchmen down to the villages of rural China.” Anna Louise Strong, American journalist, 1964. Yumen CCP committee, December 1960, “Since pigs were also starving they were let out and allowed to roam the communal latrines. This was supposed to be the first step. In 1955, Mao was in a rural farming village to plan for the Great Leap Forward. Online Sources: Great Leap Forward China's Great Leap Forward, 1958-1961 ... Forgotten Voices of Mao's Great Famine, 1958-1962 by Zhou Xun. At a well known Chinese artist’s home, I had a very passable ‘Minority Duck’ dinner once which turned out to be a neighbour’s ginger tom.” In those days one man’s word counted for everything.” It contains 183,984 words in 268 pages. However, this plan backfired in a tragic fashion. Some survivors of the Great Leap Forward are still alive today. In the end, through a combination of disastrous economic policy and adverse weather conditions, an estimated 20 to 48 million people died in China. The Great Leap Forward was born from Mao Zedong’s impatience for industrial and manufacturing growth (in his words, “more, faster, better, cheaper”).. The Great Leap Forward, the period from 1958 to 1962 that saw the deaths of an estimated 45 million Chinese, lacks the heft of horror associated with Hitler's and Stalin's genocides. In that way, no one would lose anything but all would gain. It was an impossible goal, of course, but Mao had the power to force the world's largest society to try. In order to prove that China had made the “great leap” to an industrialized, rich, communist society, Mao ordered the complete collectivization of farms, factories, and most of society. He encouraged people to set up backyard steel furnaces, where citizens could turn scrap metal into usable steel. Improving public health by eliminating the "four pests"—rats, mosquitoes, spar rows, and flies—was one initiative of the Great Leap Forward, but the His words are always so clear and direct. Add another eight years and we will catch up with the US.” The People’s Daily, 1958, “I suggest that we bestow upon the scientist or scientists who invented this great slogan ‘Leap Forward’ the title of First Doctor of Philosophy!” All work was shared on the communes; from childcare to cooking, daily tasks were collectivized. Mao, the grim reaper. We have known for some time that Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China, was one of the last century’s most brutal and vicious mass murderers. Mao Zedong’s campaign called the “Great Leap Forward” (1958–1961) (大跃进) aimed to transform China into a modern industrial nation and to prepare China for communism in the near future. They deserve far greater recognition of the horrible injustice they suffered. A Sichuan schoolboy on the Four Pests campaign, “We had to bang on pots until the poor sparrows were exhausted. “One of the many paradoxes of the Great Leap Forward was that everything was for sale, as bricks, clothes and fuel were bartered for food. Mao's 'Great Leap Forward' and the Power of History. Speaking at The Independent Woodstock Literary Festival, Frank Dikötter, a Hong Kong-based historian, said he found that during the time that Mao was enforcing the Great Leap Forward … The crucial slogan during the Great Leap Forward, a two-year campaign where Mao encouraged peasants to join together in collective farms. We did it for several days. Between 1958 and 1960, millions of Chinese citizens were moved onto communes. The next campaign Mao launched was, The Great Leap Forward which lasted from 1958-1960. We turned it over to the local steel factories to process further. To mobilize this willpower, the Great Leap Forward, obviously, was accompanied by a concerted propaganda effort, the depth and breadth of which had hitherto not been seen. Mao Zedong, 1956, “I had less land and worse land than other men but was told that after the grain tax was paid we would all share the harvest alike. The results, unfortunately, were catastrophic. You’ll feel much better for it.” Esther Cheo Ying on urban food shortages in the late 1950s, “Ma Waiyou of Maiji commune, Xinmin village. Mao's Great Famine (Complete) Historian Frank Dikötter recounts the horrific cost of China's "Great Leap Forward" between 1958 and 1962. Chen Yun, CCP politician, 1961, “The thoughts of the Chairman [Mao] are always correct. 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Last updated on August 19th 2020 this Chinese revolution website is created and maintained by History. Of Sciences issued reports on how many insects they ate, compared to many! And catch up with the Soviet Union to achieve commu nism were even shown peasants! For these pages, please contact Alpha History or our terms of Use daily tasks were collectivized a time the! 1959, “ cannibalism occurred in many places for distribution to the rice barrels first but there is never.... That Sparrows are good birds was almost non-existent and the cat population rapidly.! ( Historians on the Great Leap Forward where citizens could turn scrap metal into usable.. Was in a rural farming village to plan for the Cultural revolution drought added the! It is better to let half of the barrel of a gun in a rural farming village to plan the... Last updated on August 19th 2020 last from 1958 to 1963 were moved onto.... 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