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Wang Canzhou (b.1934) is a resident of Zhifang Village, Linying County, Luohe City, Henan Province. Wang was in school for a few years before he became a peasant. In the 1942 drought and famine, Wang's grandfather, uncle and little sister were all starved to death. Wang's mother solicited food in Wuyang, and exchanged belongings for food, so Wang's father and other sisters survived. After the 1948 land reform, there was another movement of denunciation and many anti-revolutionaries were shot down. Life was good in 1955, when elementary communes were established, but went bad next year after the advanced communization. People could only eat sweet potato dishes every day and got three liangs of food. The filmmaker's description of this interview has been translated into English.

"Holy Temple of Mount Sinai Church." Durham, N.C.

"New York City, Chinatown." New York, NY

Wang Cheng (b.1935) and Lin Yucui (b. 1938) recollect that it was most difficult around 1960. There was only (wild) vegetable soup available at the canteen, and people were always hungry. A lot of them suffered from edema because of hunger. Wang talked about making delicacies out of coarse food, such as using corn and yam to makeing "sweet and sour rib"dish.

Wang Cunji (b. 1931) is a resident of Xiangzidian Village, Yinhua Town, Shanyang County, Shangluo City, Shanxi Province. He experienced Sino-Japanese war and the Civil War. He was a village cadre. He said that 1958 was the most difficult time. The village commune canteen served only two meals every day. The elders all had edema. During the Backyard Furnace period, he was head of Xigou steel factory. During harvest season, people were busy at the factory and had no time to harvest the grains in the field. From 1957 to 1965, villagers were also busy with road constrction. From 1959, the village started to have enough food. The transcript of this interview has been translated into English.