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Photographic negative(s).

Cheng Zhongfu (b. 1940) is a resident of Renjiagou Village, Shaanxi Provicne. In this interview, Cheng recalls his experience of eating at the communal canteen. The communal canteen of Renjiagou Village was established in 1958 and closed down in 1960. Life was the most difficult in 1959 and 1960 when the food they had was even worse than pigswill these days. Some people even stole the radishes in the vegetable garden that were just poured over by feces, and then washed them and ate them. Both humans and cattle were too hungry to climb up to the hill. The workload at the production team was very heavy too. Cheng used to boil urine to make fertilizer. The villagers had to work till two days before the Chinese New Year for a break. Although the life was quite difficult in those years, no one dared to question the cadres, otherwise they would have been arrested, criticized and even beaten up.