After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, while land reform was carried out in the countryside to eliminate the “landlords” and suppress rebellion, a campaign to eliminate the urban and rural ethnic “bourgeoisie” in the name of the “Five Anti’s” was also started in the cities. In January 1952, the CCP proposed the “Five Anti-Communist Campaigns” against entrepreneurs, namely, “against bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, jerry-building, and theft of economic information”. In the first half of February, the five anti-corruption campaigns were launched in all major cities, soon setting off the climax of reforming the “bourgeoisie”, with Shanghai as the first target, because Shanghai, as a commercial center, had many entrepreneurs.
In the “Five Anti’s” campaign, if industrialists and businessmen handed over their assets and expressed their support for the Communist Party, they were classified as internal contradictions of the people; if they had objections and grievances, they were classified as “counter-revolutionaries” and became the target of state dictatorship. The principle is that those who go along will prosper and those who go against will die.
In this process, entrepreneurs were called to “explain their problems” day and night, or were taken to private public halls for interrogation and forced to “explain their crimes”. In the bloody storm, entrepreneurs, small business owners and traders were forced to hand over their assets, and many of them were so humiliated that they committed suicide by swallowing poison, or jumped off buildings.
It is said that no one dared to walk on the roads in Shanghai at that Time because they were afraid that a person would suddenly fly down from the air and crush themselves to death. Why not choose other ways to die? It turns out that if they jumped from the Huangpu River, the Chinese Communist Party would say that they had gone to Hong Kong if they could not see the body, and they would continue to force their families, so they had to jump to their death, so that the Chinese Communist Party could see the body and die.
It is reported that Chen Yi, the mayor of Shanghai back then, listened to the report every night on the sofa with a cup of fresh tea. The usual question used was, “How many airborne soldiers are there today?” In fact, it is to ask, today and how many business owners and entrepreneurs jumped to their deaths.
By relying on this method of coercion, within a few years, the CCP completely abolished ethnic entrepreneurs and private ownership throughout the country and took business back into the ownership of the CCP. It can be said that the “Five Anti-Revolutionary Movements” were actually robbing entrepreneurs of their money and even killing them.
I am afraid that it is still a mystery how many entrepreneurs in Shanghai became “paratroopers” during the “Five Rebellions” campaign. According to the “Facts of Historical Political Campaigns since the Founding of the People’s Republic” compiled by the Party History Research Office of the CPC Central Committee and four other departments in 1996, more than 323,100 people were arrested and more than 280 people committed suicide or disappeared during the “Three Anti-Violence Campaigns”. Until the real figures are disclosed, this is probably only for reference. This series will talk about what happened to several well-known entrepreneurs, this one is about Xian Guangsheng.
The success of Shanghai Guangsheng Park
It was once one of the four major Food companies in Shanghai, and its production of sweets, snacks, canned goods and other foods were famous in China and abroad, and its moon cakes were even exported to Southeast Asia.
The founder of Guan Sheng Yuan, Xian Guan Sheng (1887-1952), a native of Foshan, Guangdong, graduated from Guangya Academy. In 1915, Sin co-established Koon Sang Yuen, which produced candy, cakes, canned goods, and snacks such as beef with juice, orange-flavored beef, and plum with orange peel. The unique southern flavor was highly appreciated by customers.
In 1918, Kuan Sang Yuen was reorganized into a joint stock company, with Sin Kuan Sang as the general manager. Upon his return from a visit to Japan in 1933, he developed such products as apricot-Chinese soft candy, fish-skin peanuts, and jam sandwich candy, all of which were the first of their kind in China.
Mr. Sin also proposed a “Three Principles” as a guideline for the production and management of Guan Sheng Yuan: “the heart”, “the ability” and “the money”.
The “heart” refers to the spirit of enterprise and responsibility, requiring all employees to treat Guangsheng Park as a business, work together to ensure success, and at the same time must have a sense of responsibility to do their duty, pay attention to the relationship between food and human health, and be responsible for people.
“Competence” refers to the ability of management and business technology, requiring good business management, continuous improvement of product quality and continuous innovation of products.
“Capital” refers to the capital and funds, requiring joint efforts to cut costs and accumulate sufficient funds to facilitate the development of the enterprise.
The most important thing to Xian Guangsheng is “the heart” and “the ability”. He regarded quality and hygiene as the foundation of the enterprise. Therefore, he went to the factory every morning to supervise the production, and went to the office in the afternoon, and never slackened for decades. He went to the factory and seriously started from checking the raw materials and carefully analyzed and studied each production process. He can even judge the quality of food by simply licking it with his tongue. He also hung the words “real workmanship and real materials” on the wall of his office to encourage his staff to pay attention to the quality of the products.
In addition to quality, Sin also attached great importance to advertising, and in practice he summed up four principles about advertising: “wide, big, small and live”.
“Wide” means that the publicity of advertising should be large and wide, where newspapers, road signs, movies, radio stations, stations, docks, etc. should be the place of publication of Guangsheng Park’s advertising. Guan Sheng Yuan has erected a 6-meter-high “Shanghai Guan Sheng Yuan Candy and Biscuit Factory” giant neon advertisement on its own factory, and erected a 3-story-high “Guan Sheng Yuan Chen Pi Plum” advertisement on the Wusong wharf in and out of Shanghai. The “Kuan Sheng Yuan Chen Pi Plum” billboard was erected at the Wusong wharf in and out of Shanghai, so that passengers entering and leaving Shanghai port were attracted by the huge advertisement. Small” means that the three words “Guan Sheng Yuan” are constantly reflected in people’s eyes by publishing lively small advertisements in newspapers and magazines. “Live” means that the means of advertising should be flexible and novel, such as asking the star Hu Die to endorse. The idea has made even contemporary practitioners in the advertising industry marvel at it.
Under the management of Xian Guangsheng, the business of Guangsheng Garden became more and more prosperous, and dozens of branches were opened in many places in China. It became the leading enterprise in China’s food industry at that time, combining production and marketing, and integrating industry and commerce.
In 1949, after the Chinese Communist Party took power, Guan Sheng Yuan made some adjustments according to the situation, such as producing marketable and popular food products, shifting its sales channels to the China Bai Company and the supply and marketing cooperatives, and sending people to the countryside to promote its products.
At the beginning of 1950, due to labor disputes, the operation of Guan Sheng Yuan encountered temporary problems, but Xian Guan Sheng still told the staff: “I believe that under the leadership of the Communist Party and the People’s Government, as long as the labor and management sincere solidarity, together, there is no difficulty that can not be overcome.” Unfortunately, such “self-confidence” is actually a lack of understanding of the nature of the Chinese Communist Party.
Xian Guangsheng was criticized
The story of Xian Guangsheng, as told by Mr. Huang Qinghui, the founder of the Chaozhou pastry “Wife Cake” in Shanghai, is described in an overseas article signed by Wang Yafar.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Guangdong was an economically backward and impoverished place, and after Sin made his fortune in Shanghai, his friends and relatives from his hometown came to him, seeking work and food, looking for work. But the food industry has a low season and a high season, during the New Year holidays, business is busy, the company needs to add staff, usually business is slow, you need to cut back. From the business point of view, this is purely legitimate. However, because of the hardship of rural Life, many workers were reluctant to leave during the off-season. When there was no work to do, he stopped paying wages, and when there was work, the company would use them officially.
In this way, at the beginning of the “Five Against” campaign, the working group sent by the Chinese Communist Party mobilized the workers to struggle, complaining of their “exploitation” and criticizing Xian Guangsheng, accusing him of committing the “Five Poisons”.
A decisive leap
On April 21, 1952, two days after being surrounded by workers in his office, Xian Guangsheng jumped from the upper floor of Guangsheng Garden and died in Nanjing. on the road. He was 64 years old when he leapt to his death, unwilling to be humiliated.
After Sin’s suicide, all of his branches were nationalized by the Communist government and were no longer connected to each other. After the Chinese Communist Party’s reform and opening up, Guan Sheng Yuan everywhere called themselves “old” and there was even a dispute over the brand. A national brand that was once the pride of the nation was thus completely destroyed by the Chinese Communist Party.
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