Substance Definition

       When you are in a movie theater, maybe you want to buy a cup of popcorn in this happy time, but my father never had the opportunity to this kind of treat. He was always strict with money and never wasted food because my father grew up in an unusual decade which was well known as the Great Leap Forward. Sixty years ago, after the Communist Party won the civil war, the Chinese government wanted to raise the standard of living and the level of steel production quickly. The government wanted China’s economy to catch up England and America in fifteen years. As a result, most of the men were organized to help produce steel, and most of the women worked on farms for the people’s communes. At the same time, people could not have private property or food, but the government’s food supply was limited. Therefore many people were feeling ravenously hungry. On the other hand, people had no freedom in choosing jobs. As a result, this campaign had a profound influence on my grandparents’ family.

        One of the effects was my grandmother’s first child passed away in the Great Leap Forward campaign because my grandmother and the baby had poor diet at that time. My grandmother had to work very hard at the farm even though she was pregnant. In addition, she needed to eat nutritional food, but the food assigned to each family was not sufficient. Although my grandparents wanted to plant some crops for themselves, the policy didn’t allow people to have their own crops or land. Thus, my grandmother didn’t have enough breast milk to feed her baby when the baby was born. After two months, the baby passed away from malnutrition. My grandparents dropped in deep sadness and felt helpless.

Another effect was my grandfather could not do his favorite activity during the Great Leap Forward campaign. My grandfather began to learn how to play Chinese traditional music when he was five. He had great talent in it, so when he grew up, he used to play gongs and drums in people’s weddings or funerals as a job. During this special period, the government needed all the men to join the steel production campaign. There were no exceptions. In addition, every family needed to donate their metal to the people’s communes for steel production. At that time, my grandfather had to give up his musical instrument which was his life, so he could not continue to play the music which can share the happiness or sadness with people in the activity. On the other hand, he had to do the job he did not like, and it made him depressed for a long time.

Finally, this history let my grandparents changed their mind about food and money. They always considered wasting food shameful and didn’t spend money on fancy clothing. In my memory, they always ate the food from last leftovers and saved money. In our generation, it is difficult to understand their actions and most people don’t know what it means to be hungry. For example, I asked for a new bike when I was fifteen, but my grandmother insisted on letting me to use the old style one from my older cousin. My grandmother didn’t even waste a penny in her life, but she liked to donate money to the organization which could help people who suffered from disasters. She told her subsequent generation to respect food and money and help people. As a result, my father likes to donate money when he heard some people affected by great fire and flood.

Today, when I read the history of the Great Leap Forward, I know how it influenced my grandparents’ life. I feel lucky that right now we live in a peaceful decade, we have enough food, we can go to school, and we have the opportunities to choose jobs that they could not do in that period. Although I didn’t ask what they thought about the government during the Great Leap Forward campaign, they never blamed the government, never gave up the hope and forever trusted the Communist Party. I think they were the very loyal people in this country.