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Zeng Xinyuan was quite emotional when she talked about the great famine. She said that the commune canteen started in 1958 was a true disaster, people had to eat chaff, wild leaves and kaolin clay. People starved to death the most in Huangjuwo village, the older generation all died and she lost all her hair. She said that the cause was the government policy.

Zeng Shaokang said that the iron furnace built during the great leap movement fialed in a few months. Trees in the villages were all cut off to burn the furnace. The famine started in the second half of 1958, there was only three-jin rice each meal for the whole village at the canteen. He said that all this was because of Mao. In those years, people were critcized at class struggle meetings for their wrong words, so he is careful even today not to record anything bad against the communist party.

Zeng Shaoying has his won political opionions. He said that agricultural cooperation started in 1956. The anti-rightist campaign in 1957 was because there still many spies of Kuomintang, the government actually value intellectuals very much. During the 1958 great leap forward, trees in the villages werre almost all cut off to burn the iron furnace. The the three-year difficult period started in 1959 because China owed foreign debts. There were more than 100 people in Huangjuwo village, more than 60 people survved the famine. Deng Xiaoping started the reform and opening policy, which was good but people started to value money more than anything else. He said that peasants are realistic, as long as they have enough to eat, they will be contented.

Zeng Zihua became the school headmaster in 1958. There were iron furnaces built in schools that year and students were organized to operate the furnace. From 1958 to 1961, there was a shortage of food, schools organized students to plant produce and kept the harvest to themselves which helped the students survive the famine. Some people in the village starved to death. There were health clinics set up in villages to try to help those who were sick due to the starvation.

Presentation copy signed by Blyth