Source 1: Anon (1958) A Great Leap Commune Canteen Celebrates National Day
Communal Canteens
Communal canteens were rolled out as a way to control food supplies, disrupt the family unit, increase surveillance and forge a collectivist mentality. All food supplies went to canteens and individuals were not allowed to either store their own food or cook for themselves. Due to mismanagement of supplies, the communal canteens were a contributing factor to the great famine.
Anon
Everyday Life in Maoist China
https://everydaylifeinmaoistchina.org/2017/09/04/a-great-leap-commune-canteen-celebrates-national-day-in-1958/
1958
Source 2: Zhang Ruji (1958) Go all out and aim high, The East leaps forward, the west is worried (Propaganda Poster)
Great Leap Forward
The propaganda poster contains the slogan : 'greater, faster, better,cheaper' used to underpin the Great Leap Forward's main goal of increased production. Typical of the idealism and metaphorical imagery at the time, the masses are seen steering a boat to victory whilst Taiwan is shown in the bottom right corner as a shipwreck.
Zhang Ruji
Renmin Meishu Chubanshe
chineseposters.net
1958
Source 3: Anon (1958) Everyone a solider, protect the mother country (Propaganda Poster)
People's militia
This poster was used to disseminate Mao's campaign to establish people's militias. Everyone able bodied was encouraged to undergo military training. Whilst the practice was voluntary, it was estimated that by the end of 1958 over 200,000,000 people were on the militia rolls.
Anon
Baidu
https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/209895189.html
Source 4 : Mass Poetry
Mass Poetry During the Great Leap Forward
Selection of mass poems collected by Chen:
In Heaven there is no Jade Emperor. Nor is there a Dragon King in the sea.
I am the Jade Emperor,
I am the Dragon King. Hoy, you Three Sacred Mountains and Five Holy Peaks, Make way!
Here I come.
We worship no god, nor temples build, Chairman Mao's love is greater manifold. Gods we destroy, and temples tear down,
Better than gods we worship the One Man. Mountains may shake, earth may quake but we dare not forget what the Chairman said.
Each year our farm production grows,
Grains and cotton pile up mountain high, Hurrah! Eat the grains, but don't forget the sower,
The Communist Party's our dear Ma and Pa.
Two full baskets I carry on a pole,
How their weight makes the pole bend; But my dear wife, you come and see, I'm carrying a mountain at each end.
Anon.
Chen, S. H. (1960) 'Multiplicity in Uniformity: Poetry and the Great Leap Forward'. The China Quarterly (3), 1-15
JSTOR
Source 5: Peng Dehuai (Photograph)
The purge of Peng Dehuai.
Peng Dehuai was one of the few high-ranking Communist Party officials to voice his misgivings about the Great Leap Forward. Mao purged him from the party and during the Cultural Revolution he endured public humiliation and torture as this photograph attests to. Peng was exonerated by the Chinese Communist party in 1978 after his death.
Anon.
Wikimedia Commons
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b8/Peng_4.jpg
1966
Source 6: Anon (1958-1961) Chiang Kai- Shek airdrops supplies to the mainland (Photograph)
Chiang Kai-Shek during the Great Leap Forward.
Whilst Taiwan was portrayed as an economic backwater by the CCP during the Great Leap Forward, Chiang Kai-Shek refuted this during the Great Famine by airdropping grain supplies to mainland China. Aware the nation was in crisis, Chiang also hatched plans to invade the mainland but these never came to fruition, mainly due to a lack of US support. Taiwan would soon begin to focus its energies on economic development rather than the hope of a Nationalist reunification.
Anon.
Huaxia Jingwei Network
http://www.huaxia.com/thpl/jwgc/2011/05/2421321.html