Interview with Xu Jinying and Liu Zixiu

00:00:00--Xu Jinying (b. 1938) was born in Shandong Province. In this interview, Xu recalls how her family starved during the Great Famine. The famine was the most severe in 1960 when lots of people died of starvation. Xu’s husband was working outside and had red sorghum to eat, therefore his situation was better than that of those who stayed in the village. After people started to have private lots for farming in 1962, their life was gradually improved. (2011-08-21)

00:00:00--徐金英1938年出生于山东省。在这段口述中，徐老人回忆了大饥荒时家人挨饿的情况。60年饥荒最严重，不少人饿死。徐老人的丈夫在外头干活，有红高粱吃，比留在村里的村民情况好一点。62年开始有自留园子，生活逐渐好转。(2011-08-21)

00:01:40--Liu Zixiu was born in Shandong Province in 1940. In this interview, Liu talks about the difficult life in the sixties. In 1958 during the “Five Winds”, many production team leaders lied about the production. As a result, the villagers started to starve in 1960 when on average everyone only got 4 Liang of grains. Dozens of people died in Liu’s village. Someone stole wheat from the field for her young kid. However, because the wheat was not properly processed, the kid died of indigestion. Life didn’t get about until 1962 when the policy of “Three Freedoms and One Fixed Quota” was put into practice. However, after the Cultural Revolution started in the winter of 1966, due to the policy changes, life became difficult again. (2011-08-23)

00:01:40--刘子修1940年出生于山东省。在这段口述中，刘老人讲述了60年代的艰苦生活。58年开始刮五风，生产队长都虚报产量，村民因此在60年开始挨饿，每人平均只有四两粮食。刘老人当时所在的村子饿死了好几十个人，一位村民偷地里的麦子给年幼的孩子吃，但因为麦子没有处理好，孩子无法消化，结果去世。情况直到62年开始实行三自一包后才有所好转，但66年冬天文化大革命开始后，因为政策调整，生活又开始变得困难。 (2011-08-23)

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。