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Yang Xiulan (b.1919) is a resident of Zhanggao Village, Heguan Town, Qingzhou City, Shandong Province. In this interview, Yang remembers experiences during the Great Famine. Her husband was building the reservoir elsewhere, and she grinded sweet potato vines for the People's Commune canteen. Her second son starved to death because there was not much to eat. Later they went working at Liangmeng Village, and few people were strong enough to work in the farm. Corpses were not buried but all next to the river. The filmmaker's description of this interview has been translated into English.

Yang Zhizhong (b. 1934) is a resident of Huanzidong Village, Shenyang, Liaoning Province. In this interview, Yang talks about his life during and after the Great Famine. Back then Yang's family was at his wife's hometown, Tongliao, Inner Mongolia. Foods were sufficient there, so Yang's family did not starve much. Yang was working on a livestock farm, but in order to make extra money, he hunted wild birds during his spare time.

Introductory essay and publisher correspondence

Hanover: University Press of New England, 1988. Foreword by Seelye.