Interview with Zeng Xianggui

Zeng Xianggui is a communist party member. He was the accountant at the production team starting in the 70s and was the village party secretary in the 90s. He said that the Great Leap Forward movement started in 1958 was an inevitable result of the international situation. China at that time didn't have iron production capability. But the iron produced by these backyard furnaces were useless and a total waste. It was just a formlism and the village trees were all cut off to burn in the furnace. The production team had a canteen, an adult villager had only three liang of rice each day. There was a little food in 1959, no food at all in 1960. Villagers ate tree barks and kaolin clay. His parents went to build Simenluo Reservoir, he had to take with him his younger brother and sisiter when he went to school. He later also worked at the same reservoir because workers could get seven and half liang's food every day. He said that many people starved to death, but few cadres starved to death.

曾祥贵是老党员，他70年代起做大队的会计，90年代做过支书。他说58年大办钢铁是国际形式所迫，因为中国没有钢铁，但炼的铁都没有用，浪费了，搞的是形式，还把树都砍光了。各个队开食堂，村民一天只有三两米。59年还有点吃的，60年就完全没有吃的了。村民们还吃树皮，吃观音土。他的爸妈那时候在四门楼修水库，他把弟弟妹妹带到学校去。他后来也去修四门楼水库。那时候去四门楼每天能够吃十二两，等于现在算法的七两五。群众饿死的多，干部家饿死的少。

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。