A MENU FOR CHANGE
When driving into Xiaogang, a first-time visitor could easily miss a restaurant near the entrance of the village in Fengyang county, Chuzhou, Anhui province.
Its owner Yan Jinchang is a fit, healthy and sprightly 77-year-old. Years in farming fields helped build his strong body. Some customers may visit just for the food but others want a taste of history.
“As long as they’re willing to listen, I am always happy to tell when I’m not that busy preparing the food,” Yan said, cheerfully.
The night of Nov 24, 1978, forever changed Xiaogang. A bold decision Yan and his fellow villagers made would alter the development path of the Chinese countryside.
Eighteen villagers, including Yan, secretly squeezed into a thatched cabin with earthen walls. They were confused and hesitant. However, once a flame appeared in their hearts, it could not be extinguished.
“We just didn’t want to starve any longer,” Yan said.
Until 1978 Xiaogang was hit by national setbacks — first by a long famine and the “cultural revolution” (1966-76). And that year a devastating drought struck.
But farmers were bonded by the collectivized farming policy. No matter how much they grew, they could only rely on the rationing system. Many local farmers thus fled to cities to beg for food.
Yan said: “How could people be encouraged to work harder if it didn’t matter at all?”
The 18 men put their thumb prints on an agreement, which devolved production responsibility of farming fields to households.
They would independently cultivate the lands, and individually keep some surplus after handing in a quota.
This system was seen as taboo in China for decades and the villagers were all prepared to go to prison.
In the agreement, they wrote: “If that happens to anyone of us the others promise to raise our children until they are 18.”
Xiaogang villagers’ efficiency brought a harvest the next spring: 65.5 tons of grain were produced in the village, four times the average annual yield during the “cultural revolution”.
Yan and his fellows did not face prison. In a wave of change sweeping across China, versions of the Xiaogang pact mushroomed elsewhere in Anhui.
In 1982, adoption of household contract responsibility system became national policy. Farmland was still Stateowned, but farmers were able to contract the farmland on a household basis.
Xiaogang was thus hailed as the origin of China’s reform and opening-up in the countryside. The paper with 18 thumb prints is now held by the National Museum of China as a key historical document.
“As long as they’re willing to listen, I am always happy to tell (our history) when I’m not that busy preparing the food.” YAN JINCHANG
The thatched cabin where the agreement was signed is one of the few places in Xiaogang enabling us to still see what the village looked like 42 years ago. Last year, it was even named a key cultural heritage site under national-level protection, a title bestowed on sites of the greatest significance in Chinese history.
And a new exhibition hall marking the 18 villagers’ brave move in 1978 also opened in 2014 to remind people of the immense change.
These sites become hot spots for people to admire the pioneering spirit of Xiaogang. Last year this village with 4,200 residents received 1.1 million visits, the authority of Xiaogang said.
There were only four tables when Yan first opened the restaurant in 2008. But there are 23 now, and he has reserved room to put in another 10. Last year he earned 300,000 yuan ($43,800) from this diner. Yan’s family once cultivated about 5 acres of land. However, all the land has been permanently rented for others to grow fruit and develop industry. The energetic man is also a manager of a pomegranate plantation.
“I’m a farmer,” he said. “And the experience growing grains has told me: happiness can only fall upon us when we work really hard no matter how time changes. No fruit will harvest if we get lazy.”
Li Jinzhu, head of Xiaogang, understands the importance of farming to ensure food security. Though the household contract responsibility system greatly encouraged farmers over past decades, the separate plots with different conditions also brought challenges for agricultural machinery and massive plantations.
Consequently, he launched a program to transform the lands with upgraded facilities.
Last year 90% of about 865 acres of farming land in Xiaogang was improved to “high-standard fields”, which requires square shapes as well as well-equipped irrigation and road systems.
The fields also offer a new attraction for tourists to take photos and upload to online social media.
Tourists also have given a new face to tradition.
For example, Fengyang Flower Drum used to be a ballad widely sung by those who fled from Xiaogang and other nearby villages in days gone by to beg for food in cities. Deng Fanlan, 75, was one of the beggars in the 1960s. Her family’s life hugely improved after adoption of the household contract responsibility system.
“Some old melody remains, but we’ve changed the lyrics,” said Deng, now a city-level inheritor of intangible cultural heritage.
“There are so many changes that can continuously inspire our new works”.
Deng and several other family members composed a band. They were hired by a tourism development company in Xiaogang and regularly perform the ballad near the remaining thatched shelter. They earn more than 3,000 yuan a month.
Industry also plays a role in making Xiaogang villagers rich.
In 2018, a 1,235-acre industrial park opened in the village, attracting dozens of enterprises.
The collectively-owned companies in Xiaogang combined to offer an 11 million-yuan income to the village last year, Li said. Every resident in Xiaogang received an annual bonus of 520 yuan.