Interview with Zhang Zeying

Zhang Zeying (b. 1943) is a resident of Shaziying Village, Yang Town, Shunyi District, Beijing. His early life was quite difficult as his family was identified as landlords, his mother passed away when he was very young and his father was identified as a rightist during the Anti-Rightist Movement. In this interview, Zhang recalled the life from the Great Leap Forward to the Great Famine when clothes and food were very scarce. Everyone was assigned 17-jin grains per month and eating on the Production Team's canteen. However, because a large amount of the assigned portion was also for the 10 cooks working at the canteen, the foods were far from enough. Only catres had enough to eat because they either extorted or stole from the public properties. In 1958 there was a big harvest, so a large amount of grain were wasted. However, starting from 1959 when the harvest was not good and the stored sweet potatoes went bad because of low temperature, people started to starve.

张泽英1943年出生，是北京市顺义区杨镇沙子营村村民，家庭出身是地主，早年母亲去世，父亲也在反右期间被划为右派。在这段口述中，张老人回忆了大跃进至大饥荒时期缺衣少食的生活。当时吃食堂，一人一个月分配17斤粮食，其中不少还要供给队里十个大厨，根本吃不饱。只有干部或偷或搜刮公家财产才不至于挨饿。58年粮食大丰收，大家吃饱饭就浪费粮食。59年开始粮食减产，存的白薯也冻坏了，挨饿的日子便开始了。

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。