Lenin's Kisses by Lianke Yan

Author:Lianke, Yan [Lianke, Yan]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Published: 2012-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 3: FURTHER READING—THE YEAR OF THE GREAT PLUNDER

1) The Year of the Great Plunder. The Great Plunder is a historical term for what has also been referred to as the Iron Smelting Disaster.

After the Great Leap Forward, which began in the wuxu year, 1958, thoroughly swept through the Balou region like a tornado, the Great Iron Smelting Campaign resulted in all of the trees on the mountain being cut down and the fields being burned to the ground. As a result, the mountain range was left completely barren. By winter of the following year, everything was dry and without snow, and the next summer there was only a single drizzle, followed by a hundred-day drought. That autumn, however, it rained continuously, resulting in a historic locust plague. In Balou, locusts are called grasshoppers. These “grasshoppers” had flown in from outside the mountain, blanketing the sky and obscuring the sun. From miles away, you could hear the stormlike sound.

The sky was completely blanketed by the grasshoppers, and the bean fields were left barren.

The sesame fields were also left barren.

The golden blossoms of the rape plants disappeared.

By evening, after the grasshoppers had flown over, the sun was dark red. The dying grasshoppers covered the village streets like a red veil.

Mao Zhi was in the process of smelting steel when she gave birth to her daughter. Because her beautiful and whole-bodied daughter was born during the transition from autumn to winter, and since ju bloom in autumn and mei bloom in winter, Mao Zhi named her daughter Jumei, after the terms for chrysanthemums and plums. That evening, Mao Zhi walked out of the house carrying her daughter, and saw the grasshopper plague. She immediately put Jumei down and shouted into the village of Liven,

“There is an autumn tragedy, which means that next winter there won’t be enough to eat, and each family will have to economize. . . .”

“There is an autumn tragedy, which means we need to set aside food for the winter, to prepare for the possibility of a famine. . . .”

In the end, that is how things turned out, and a year of famine resulted.

Autumn was almost over, and winter was about to arrive. It was bitterly cold in the mountains, and even the water at the bottom of the wells was frozen solid. The new bark on the tung-oil and willow trees that had grown after the steel- and iron-smelting campaigns was also frozen solid. The villagers who went to the commune to shop at the market all hurried home and exclaimed, God! This has truly been an act of God. Not only are our wheat fields lying fallow, but wheat throughout the region beyond the Balou mountains has also failed to sprout. After another couple of weeks, a villager hurried back from the market, and as soon as he reentered the village he told everyone, with a look of terror on his face, This is disastrous! Even in the commune, no one has any grain to eat.

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