Interview with Xu Degui

Xu Degui (b. 1939) is a resident of Luwan Village, Jiangsu Province. In this interview, Xu talks about his experience during the Great Famine. In 1958 Xu went to work in the city. When he came back to the village, many villagers had developed edema disease because of starvation. To cure the patients, the government distributed tofu water made of soybeans. In 1963, although according to the state policy, Xu had to return to his village, he decided to move to Xiaoxian, Anhui Province and worked on the railroad construction. According to Xu, the famine was even worse there and there were even cases of people eating human flesh. An acquaintance of his hid a jar of food in a well and therefore survived the famine.

徐德圭1939年出生，是江苏省徐州市沛县鹿湾村村民。在这段口述中，徐老人回忆了大饥荒时的经历。徐老人1958年上城里参加工作，后来回农村看到很多人因为挨饿得了浮肿病。为了治病，政府给病人发大豆做成的豆腐水喝。1963年，根据国家政策，徐老人应该回农村工作，但他选择去安徽萧县修铁路。据徐老人回忆，萧县那一带更加困难，甚至有人吃人的情况。他认识的一位老人靠把装有粮食的罐子藏到井底才没挨饿。

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。