Xiaogang, Anhui

Xiaogang Village (simplified Chinese: 小岗村; traditional Chinese: 小崗村) is a small village in Xiaoxihe (小溪河镇), Fengyang County, Chuzhou, Anhui province in China,[3][2] not far from Nanjing. China's move toward reform has been traced to an agreement among farmers in Xiaogang to secretly subdivide their common farmland in December 1978, after which the production of grain increased dramatically.[4] The village was held up as a model for agricultural reform by China's new leadership after Deng Xiaoping came to power.[5][2]

Xiaogang

小岗村
Da Baogan Commemorative Museum (大包干纪念馆) in Xiaogang Village[1]
Coordinates (Da Baogan Commemorative Museum): 32°49′59″N 117°47′11″E
CountryPeople's Republic of China
ProvinceAnhui
Prefecture-level cityChuzhou
CountyFengyang
TownXiaoxihe
Population
 (2008)[2]
 • Total3,823
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard Time)
Websitewww.cnxiaogang.com

History

During the Great Leap Forward, the Chinese Communist Party made a series of economic reforms, where the most disastrous of them was the collectivization of the administration of private property, specially, the rural lands. Fengyang County, along with much of the rest of the country, experienced a period of famine, due to the inefficiency of the model. A quarter of the country's population died from starvation. In Xiaogang village alone, 67 villagers died of starvation out of a population of 120 between 1958 and 1960.[6]

In December 1978, eighteen of the local farmers, led by Yen Jingchang,[5] met in the largest house in the village. They agreed to break the law at the time by signing a secret agreement to divide the land, a local People's Commune, into family plots. Each plot was to be worked by an individual family who would turn over some of what they grew to the government and the collective whilst at the same time agreeing that they could keep the surplus for themselves. The villagers also agreed that should one of them be caught and sentenced to death that the other villagers would raise their children until they were eighteen years old.[5][6] At the time, the villagers were worried that another famine might strike the village after a particularly bad harvest and more people might die of hunger.[6]

After this secret capitalist reform, Xiaogang village produced a harvest that was larger than the previous five years combined.[5] Per capita income in the village increase from 22 yuan to 400 yuan with grain output increasing to 90,000 kg in 1979.[6] This attracted significant attention from surrounding villages and before long the government in Beijing had found out. The villagers were fortunate in that at the time China had just changed leadership after Mao Zedong had died. The new leadership under Deng Xiaoping was looking for ways to reform China's economy and the discovery of Xiaogang's innovation was held up as a model to other villages across the country. This led to the abandonment of collectivised farming across China and a large increase in agricultural production. The secret signing of the contract in Xiaogang is widely regarded as the beginning of the period of rapid economic growth and industrialisation that mainland China has experienced in the thirty years since.[5][7]

References
  1. 【安徽日报】图片：游客参观凤阳县小岗村大包干纪念馆 [Anhui Daily Photographs: Tourists Visit the Da Baogan Museum in Xiaogang Village, Fengyang County] (in Chinese). Fengyang County People's Government. 1 May 2018. Retrieved 8 July 2018. 日前，游客在凤阳县小岗村大包干纪念馆参观。凤阳县小岗村率先实行联产承包责任制，拉开了中国改革的大幕，40年来取得的深刻变化，吸引了众多游客前来参观。
  2. 小溪河镇 [Xiaoxihe Town] (in Chinese). XZQH.org. 10 September 2009. Retrieved 8 July 2018. 1976年小岗村18户农民率先实行土地联产责任制，成为中国农村改革的先驱。{...}2008年3月，石马、严岗村并入小岗村，辖23个村民小组，有849户、3823人。
  3. 2016年统计用区划代码和城乡划分代码：小溪河镇 [2016 Statistical Area Numbers and Rural-Urban Area Numbers: Xiaoxihe Town]. National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China. 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2018. 341126112206 220 小岗村委会
  4. "Xiaogang Village, Birthplace of Rural Reform, Moves on". China Development Gateway. 2008-12-16. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  5. David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein (January 20, 2012). "The Secret Document That Transformed China". National Public Radio. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
  6. WANG, Ke. "Xiaogang Village, birthplace of rural reform, moves on". China.org.cn. Retrieved September 23, 2018.
  7. Anhui Tour Guide. "Xiaogang Village". China Daily. Retrieved September 23, 2018.

Further reading
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