People’s commune is a kitchen where everything was shared. People cook here, dine here, and share all cooking ware. From 1958 to 1962 in China, it was a time called Great Leap Forward. That was a time when China wanted to chase United States and Soviet Union’s developing pace, so it came up with a few radical administration strategies including industrialization and collectivization.
On the one side, industrialization means steel production which seen as key pillars of economy development by Zedong Mao. Every household was asked to hand in all metal artifacts to support steel production in the community. The heavy machinery production changed into a household activity. On the other side, collectivization basically means people doing everything together in the form of People’s Commune. Each People’s Commune consisted 5,000 households on average.
In the commune, everything was shared. Private cooking was banned and replaced by communal dining. Everything originally owned by the households, private animals, stored grains and other food items were also contributed to the commune. They were put to different uses as assigned by the commune.Everybody in the commune were assigned jobs by their commune leaders, usually farming activities. Mao thought collective production would increase efficiency and enhanced socialism.
My grandma was born in 1947, I called her the other day for an interview to ask her life during Great Leap Forward.
“We did not cook any more, we all went to People’s Commune for every meal. This sounds a good thing that helps you get free from household cooking work, but you would never get full by eating food made by others. Too many people were eating in a People’s Commune, every one wanted to eat more.”
“Could you cook a little extra more after coming back home to feed yourself?” I was curious.
She laughed loudly, “How can you do that? We did not even have a pot. All cooking ware were turned in for steel production! Hahahahah”
I was just amazed. I could not imagine I live in a time when I could not have any private items even a pot. My grandma unfortunately went through a hard time, she was lucky as well to has experienced such a bizarre time where radical political revolutionary totally changed a family’s lifestyle.
Reference:
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/16/5/3/n7797570.htm
http://baike.baidu.com/item/大锅饭
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Gone Jobs 