Interview with Lian Kun

Lian Kun (b. 1936) is a resident of Mafen Village, Guangdong Province. In this interview, Lian talks about the situation during the Great Famine. Lian was building a reservoir at that time. They had to work no matter how bad the weather was. Working overtime at night was also very common. Later Lian couldn’t endure the hardship and escaped back home. However, after he got back, the production team didn’t let him eat at the communal canteen, so he had to share his wife’s ration. Lots of villagers died of starvation, so people had to use bed planks when they didn’t have enough coffins. Some people buried others in the morning and died of starvation themselves in the afternoon.

练坤1936年出生，是广东省惠州市横沥镇马坌村村民。在这段口述中，练老人讲述了大饥荒时的情况。当时练老人参与建造水库，无论天气多么恶劣都要工作，经常需要晚上加夜班，练老人最终受不了辛苦的工作，偷偷逃回家，但到家后生产队不让他吃饭，只能和妻子分一份饭。村里不少村民饿死，棺材不够只能用床板应付，甚至有人早上去埋葬别人，下午自己就饿死了。

Transcripts for this interview and more may be available under the ‘Documents’ link above. 采访抄录和相关内容，请点击查看上面的’Documents’链接。