From: lix@BUCRSB.BU.EDU
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: More info on cannibalism and famine in China (III of my own)
Date: 23 Aug 92 00:35:27 GMT

Thank Sherry Yang for typing excerpts from Jung Chang's book. So some
ones did write:-)

>Sichuan, any one know her there? for example lix also from
>Sichuan?) in Britain. Needless to say the book is fantastic in

Yeah, I am from Sichuan, but I did not have the honor to know this GaoGan's
daughter :-( If I have chance I'll be glad to read her book. But from the
excerpts, I guess many stories about society may come from what she heard
rather than what she experienced. You know, a daughter of a director of
provincial propaganda department could hardly know much about real society -
of course, there may be exceptions. In order to prove myself, now nitpicking
mode on:-)

>In Changdu, the monthly food ration for each adult was reduced
>to 19 pounds of rice, a third of an ounce of cooking oil, and
>3.5 ounces of meat, when there was any.

This was not correct, or not accurate. The grain ration was 21 Jing a month
for each adult in Chengdu. However, during the most difficult period, it
was required that each CCP member must donate 2 Jing, so in fact they got
only 19 Jing. Non CCP member could voluntarily donate 2 Jing also.

There was no ration of a third of an ounce of cooking oil. There was only
a very short period when no edible oil at all. In the most time of the
famine, the ration of edible oil kept 100 grams to 250 grams per month
per person, much better than meat's supply.

Cadres, if lucky enough in rank, had some special favor. From administration
level 13-17, they had something like one Jing soybean per month, from level
13 up, additional half Jing of pork per month. Did the author mention this?
I am not aware whether there was more detailed rules of ranks higher than
the level 13. (There must be some edible oil also, I forgot)

Intellectuals at that time got some special favor also. There was a "Plus 7
rule", I don't know how official it was. By it, if you are technique level-6,
you can get one Jing soybean and half Jing of pork as those administration
level-13. I bet level-1 professor like Ke Zhao in ChuanDa had better supply,
but I am not aware what was that.

Students had better supply in grain ration -- 27 Jing a month for high school
students. College students got even higher, but the supply for meat and oil
was the same as adults.

**** Edema and Chlorella: quotation *****
Many people were afflicted by edema,
a condition in which fluid accumulates under the skin because of
malnutrition. The patient turns yellow and swells up. The most
popular remedy was eating chlorella, which was supposed to be
rich in protein. Chlorella fed on human urine, so people stopped
going to the toilet and peed into spittoons instead, then dropped the
chlorella seeds in; they grew into something looking like green
fish roe in a couple of days, and were scooped out of the
urine, washed, and cooked with rice. They were truly disgusting to
eat, but did reduce the swelling.
**** End of quotation *****

The author's father was apparently cheated by lower cadres. So far as I
know, nobody eated Chlorella (see my last installment). It is interesting
to know how the leader of our school reported to the above:-)

The thing really worked for reducing edema was a medicine called "Kang
(like in JianKanhg, health) Fu (like in HuiFu) San (one of four means of
Chinese medicines)". It was made of fine rice chaff, grounded soybean powder.
If one got edema, by doctor's prescription, he could get this "medicine".

On interesting thing is the instruction of this "medicine", it was originally
for "curing malnutrition edema", but the word "malnutrition" was carefully
covered by ink. Because of my curiousity, I washed out the ink and knew
what was it:-) :-)

In a period, no oil, no meat, even no vegetable. A great invention in ChengDu
was "Soybean sauce fried salt". This was not from government but people's
invention. It was really delicious -- once for a while, everybody had a
small bottle of "Soybean sauce fried salt" in my class.

Residents in ChengDu, with rations, could barely survive. More micerable
were those without FuKou and rations. A rather pretty lady who was about 20
at that time, from a town, had to beg in the east suburb (where many factories
are located) after sunset. Usually she could get a meal of yam or porridge
from one of workers. Of course she needed to do something as return. She
survived and finally found a temporary work in a collective workshop.

Beggars were not allowed at that time. They could be seen only in early
morning and in evening. Even we were all hungry, when students met them,
frequently we still gave up a part of our lunch we brang in the morning.

Prostitution was widely rumorred at that time. A KeZhang in my father's Danwei
was caught red hand for sleeping with a prostitute. He was fired from the
Party and lost his KeZhang position, but not his job. Besides this I did
not know much details, except stories, you know, among highschool kids:-)
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