Interview with Tang Rugui and Tang Zhenni

Tang Rugui (b. 1946) is a resident of Tangjia Village, Shaanxi Province. In this interview, Tang talks about the situation during the Great Famine. Life was the most difficult in 1959. Lots of villagers sneaked out at night to purchase grains. However, the grains would be confiscated if they got caught. When working on the production team, if someone didn’t work on some day because of sickness, they couldn't get food from the communal canteen on that day. Because of hunger, many villagers even caught crickets to eat. The communal canteen was closed down in 1961, however life didn’t get better until 1967 and 1968.

唐如贵1946年出生，是陕西省旬邑县咸阳市唐家村村民。在这段口述中，唐老人讲述了大饥荒时的情况。59年生活特别困难，不少村民晚上偷偷出去买粮食。一旦被人发现，粮食就会被没收。在生产队干活如果哪天因为生病没有劳动，那一天就不能在食堂领饭吃。因为饥饿，不少村民甚至抓蛐蛐吃。61年食堂解散，但生活直到67年、68年才有所好转。

Tang Zhenni (b. 1951) is a resident of Tangjia Village, Shaanxi Province. In this interview, Tang recalls the life lacking food and clothes during the Great Famine. Tang’s family was quite poor at that time but there were many people in his family: 5 brothers and 8 sisters. As a result, several people had to share one quilt and eveyday they didn’t even have a bun to eat.

唐振匿1951年出生，是陕西省咸阳市旬邑县唐家村村民。在这段口述中，唐老人回忆了大饥荒时期缺衣少食的生活。唐老人家条件很差但人口众多，有弟兄5个、姊妹8个，因此好几个人只能盖一条被子，每天连馍都没得吃。

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。