The nation goes on a cleaning spree. Posters say everyone must help exterminate pests. Songs were sung, “Pest free areas are glorious. Let’s wipe out the flies, bugs, mosquitoes and rats.”
Sparrows were considered pests since they were accused of eating crops. Whoever killed the most sparrows in each village was rewarded. However, exterminating sparrows caused insect populations to explode endangering crop yields.
Cleaning Rice in Mountain Village
Then the people were asked to watch for capitalistic or counter revolutionary behavior and to denounce suspicious people.
In 1958, the boldest program was launched. Mao wanted to out-produce industrialized nations in manufacturing and crop yields. The land given to the peasants was confiscated and 100 thousand people communes were created. Mao believed that more people meant larger projects. He said, “Revolutionary enthusiasm will triumph over all obstacles.”
To achieve Mao’s goals, the Communist Party encouraged competition between communes. Instead, overproduction caused crops to rot in the fields and the communes hid the truth by faking records.
Huge construction projects began without proper planning leading to accidents and deaths, which were hidden by the project managers. No one wanted Mao to discover the lack of proper revolutionary enthusiasm.
Return to Part 2, China’s Great Leap Forward or go to Part 4
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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