Dictator: Lv Trangai (female, born in 1928, Zoujia Village, Store Town, Yangxin County, Binzhou City, Shandong Province)
Interviewer: Zou Xueping (female, born in 1985, stationed at Caochangdi workstation)
Interview Time: February 22, 2010
Interview location: Zoujia Village, Lv Trangai Home
Interview notes.
When I learned that Grandma Jin’s first name was Lv Chuanchang, I learned it after the first interview with her in February 2010, and I asked her grandson about it. I didn’t know the name of any old person in the village, except for my grandmother. I was nervous about interviewing her for the first time because I had never spent so much time with an elderly person before, and I wasn’t sure how to enter her Life at first. However, since I was born and raised in this village, I was familiar with all the village elders, so it was not difficult for me to make contact.
Grandma Jin was the old person I remember from my interviews, and she was the only one in the village who wore glasses. I remember going to her house often when I was a child, but I forgot what she looked like at that time. After I went to school, I seldom went to her house, and when I slowly reached high school and college, I would not even call her grandma when I saw her, and whenever I saw her in the village, I remember that I would often sneak past her, but now that I think about it, I can’t think of a reason why I would sneak past her.
I started to get back in touch with Grandma Jin in early 2010, when I went to interview her about starvation. I remember when I went to her house, she was sleeping on her bed, and I walked into her room and woke her up. She hurriedly put on her glasses and looked at me like she had seen a stranger. Now that I think about it, it seems too offensive to the elderly, but it was because of that encounter and listening to the stories Grandma Kim told me that I started to pay attention to her again.
Grandma Jin is an old man with small feet, and old people like her are not often seen in the village. Looking at Grandma Jin’s feet, they were so small that they didn’t seem half as big as mine. The first time I went to her house, I took a picture of her sitting in front of her house and staring at it. Seeing her skinny body and those two aggressive little feet, I couldn’t feel how she walked through the decades. Once I went to her house and happened to see her walking in the yard, her two small feet moving slowly forward with small steps, there was no way to appreciate the weight she was carrying. She also told me in the interview that she had been to other villages to ask for Food and was too hungry to walk, but I couldn’t imagine how she had walked to other villages.
When I returned to her home in 2011, I stayed with her again and listened to her stories, and the greatest feeling I had was that I was very grounded.
Oral narrative
Eating bran and vegetables and bark
Aigoo, I didn’t go hungry when I first married her, but only after I joined the commune. When I was starving, I remembered that I was starving, I couldn’t think of anything, I ate bran and vegetables. I went to the field to look for wild vegetables, and I ate all kinds of vegetables. Aigoo, just did not eat shit, just did not eat artemisia (a kind of wild grass), there is nothing not to eat. I married (over) at that time, is here to suffer from hunger. In the team work to pout, people make a rod measure on so many pieces of land, you can not finish pouting people do not let you go home, but also eat in the ground. In those days, we ate groundnuts and vegetables, and we ate green vegetables, tulip sour (the name of wild vegetables), yanzhiin (the name of wild vegetables), slender stink (the name of wild vegetables), wild vegetables and elm leaves. The straw bales on the bed were covered with blighted seeds, so they were pressed down and clutched into biscuits and eaten with the mixture, that is. I’m not sure what to eat. I ran to my sister’s house in Zhengjiadian, where I asked for some radishes and brought them back. When I came back, my partner could not move, so I pounded him to eat. People are suffering, not more than I suffer.
Eat those bark, the vegetables cooked, chopped, put some salt, mix it to the mouth. That’s it, how else can you eat it? Those elm leaves are boiled and eaten like this, and acacia leaves are also eaten like this. We can’t pick them in our village, so we go to other villages to pick them. When I climbed up the tree to pick the elm leaves, Xiaozhu (referring to her daughter) handed me a basket and a hook, and I hooked a basket, and when I came back, I steamed balazi (made of vegetables) and made bean cakes, and so on. I can’t think of anything good, so I think of this. Those tulip sour, green vegetables or good vegetables, grilled and mixed to eat, not difficult to eat. Aigoo …… eat elm bark, first cut off that bark to throw away the old bark, the only thing left is the tender, and then cut into pieces, so that the pick and pull to eat. Bark what taste …… can not remember, just know delicious. There are still good tastes, bitter, sweet, sour and spicy.
Well, my eyes are blind, once on the ground (to the ground) will cry, once on the ground will cry, cry like this. Why are you crying? I couldn’t find any vegetables in the field. There was nothing to burn at home, so I had to take my pocket to collect firewood. Vegetables are eaten up, bark are stripped, come home and cry, can not find it is starving. I don’t know what to eat, but there is nothing. I went to my mother’s house, she steamed dry food. My mother said to me: Nee, I steamed a good dry food. I said: What kind of dry food? My mother said it was green leaf, and she put some noodles on it. I ate several biscuits (buns). When I was coming, she also gave me a few, home to (back home) let the old partner eat on, ouch ……
Daughter Xiaozhu fell asleep in the field looking for wild vegetables
The actual fact is that you can find a lot of people who are not only interested in the actual products and services, but also in the products and services. The first thing you need to do is to go pick alfalfa, it’s 11 or 2 o’clock at noon and she hasn’t come back, so I went everywhere to look for her, but I couldn’t find her. I went to her grandmother’s house in Lv’s grave, but she wasn’t there, so where did she go? The child starved to death? I went around the village and screamed: “Xiaozhu! Xiaozhu! The child was sleeping in the ground with the basket. She was crying and coming back with me. In Zhao’s village, I said, “Ni, come home, it’s late. The child came back with nothing to eat, and half a basket of alfalfa was picked in the basket. When I came back, I picked it and put it in that small copper pot and boiled it, and she steamed (ate) the bowl of vegetables. Other people starving still have a little bit of chaff, buy some food, we have no, just point to eat vegetables ah.
Several of my daughters starved to death, my elder brother starved to death
Several children died of starvation, one is so big, will run, to die still clutching the chaff dry food. All the children who died were daughters, but Douqiu (referring to his son) (a) person was left. Aigoo, what law ah! I am 83 years old, when I was working in the field to pout, I asked Grandma Chang Zeng to help me coax the children, the little bead net point point (very small), to someone’s grape shelf, picked a handful of grape leaves, add to the mouth, the shelf leaves are eaten up. One of them was her, and the other one was Yuzhai from the Boling Family, that is, the two of them. Grandma Changzeng said that the other children were not like that, but the one from the Jin family and the one from the Boling family just ate the leaves under the grapevine. People in the village say that they are hungry, not hungry to eat that well. Aigoo, fuck …… starving my several daughters, that Huan’e (daughter) bare buttocks (rotten buttocks), her buttocks are insects, I came home with the sole of my shoe to wipe her, otherwise all let the crickets bite rotten, she then will run, so high, dead.
At that time, there were four or five people in the family, my partner, his brother, me, Xiaofeng, Xiaozhu, five or six people. My elder brother died of hunger, there are seventy. He was feeding livestock, where he took back the hemp meal (a kind of food), so that the official saw, people home discipline him to die. One night still playing there, Changhe when the captain. Meeting to brick, I said to my brother, the village to brick, our family did not how to do, a person wants six, seven. I said, brother, what to do? He said let’s talk about it tomorrow. I got up in the morning and I kept thinking about these six or seven bricks, so I called him from the window. I said, “Brother, people are yelling for bricks, where are we going to get them? He didn’t say anything. Every time he was plugging the door, that day he did not plug. I said, “Oops, why didn’t he say anything? I think every time he heard it clearly. I said to him again, brother, people want bricks, you get up and go with me to pick up, let’s go pick up the wall. He still did not speak, I broke his head, his mouth spit foam (spit). At that time, he was still alive, his mouth just spitting foam. I came out and called out, “Brother Changhe, come quickly, Brother Yin (my brother) is dying. He said, “What’s wrong? I said, “I don’t know what’s wrong, but I’m frothing at the mouth. Changhe looked, he said really can not, the person is finished, the person is finished. He died in a while, that is not starved to death. In the end the five bricks, but also did not find, patronizing the dead (my brother). Call Changhe to come, call the village cadres to come, and Zou Peixi look. There is no coffin, with two doors tied to a piece, put him in it, if there is food, he can not die.
I also went to ask for food.
I also wanted to ask for food. I went with Changen’s family (Changen’s wife) to ask for food, to Xiao Wang’s family and Chai’s family, and asked for two villages. People there are old (a lot of) picking ditch, that road walking people trips (many people), many people fell on the road and did not move. I was not afraid at that time, I went to people’s fields to pick up dried cabbage leaves, while picking up and adding them to my mouth. When I went to people’s doors to ask for food, once I entered the door, tears fell from my eyes. They were feeding their children, just half a bowl of porridge. I said, “Ma’am, you can give me some porridge to drink. The lady said, “Oh, I don’t have any, it’s my child’s leftovers. I said, “I don’t mind the leftover one either. People gave me so half a bowl, I swished and drank. When I saw people on the well Tao leak (wash) vegetables, I said to them, “Ma’am, give me some vegetables to eat. People said I still buy this. I looked at her and said, you bought it, you give me some. The person took out the leak (wash), gave me a little, I added in my mouth. Want some radish on the pocket, want to point groundnuts on the pocket, there are children at home. The good ones are left for the children to eat, that chaff that vegetable, I and the long-en family will eat. Aigoo …… think this society is really good, and eat bun, eat noodles, eat cake. At that time saw it still not hold up well. Aigoo …… Aigoo ……
Stole a stick are admonishing me
I am not planting corn behind my home (house)? The child is hot and crying, wrapped around my legs, do not let me burn the fire, I pouted back home, I thought to split some leaves behind the house, home to burn the fire. I broke a mallet (corn cob), the mallet (corn cob) hitch (sagging), I put the broken mallet (corn cob) in my pocket, Xizeng family in a corner of the wall saw, she said to me, Lao Jinjia, you broke the cob? I said, “No. No? She said, I saw it. I said, you saw it, I did not either. I thought I’d go home and burn it for the kids to eat. She came up to me, and in one fell swoop, she snatched the stick out of my pocket. In times of hunger, that one cudgel is in charge, my ass. She took the cudgel (corn cob) and went to the village cadres to find Zou Peixi. In the evening meeting, they all lectured me, the village cadres also lectured me, Zou Peixi also lectured me. I told them that I did not do anything else, but stole a cudgel. My child cried, and at that time I was so annoyed that I cried. It was the team’s stick, there is food not allowed to eat, the team’s grain old more, just not allowed to eat. The sticks were kept in the house of the old fourth family, and they all grew buds and were not divided. At that time, people were so hungry that they stuffed the sticks into their mouths whole. When working in the field, groundnut straws, tender lump sticks, people clicked and ate, the village cadres could not see and stole to eat. If they saw Yutang (the village captain) coming, they did not eat. When I think about those things from long ago, it’s amazing.
The village had food and put it aside, not allowed to eat. If someone steals it, people will see it, it’s great! If you steal, people will see you paraded, and steal food. Dare to steal, the bold dare to steal. The mother of the West River family in the east said to me, Xiao Ni, you are still so hungry, how can you not get something ah. I was too timid to do so. I don’t dare to go to the field to break the sticks, I don’t dare. People are not starving, but I am starving. The seedlings of wheat in the ground, I picked back to cook and eat, and old grass like, not rotten. At that time parade, is with a high hat in the village parade, people say for what? They say that in order to steal grain.
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