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Born in pre-1949 - Han Linxiu, 67
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Program Code: 090934613095006
Han Linxiu, 67, has been at the rural coalface of China’s economic reforms for decades. She began cultivating the land when she was 16.
“I was a farmer for 16 years, and we worked so hard,” she recalls. “From 1962 to 1978, we often worked from 4:30am to very late night, snapping to the ringing bell of our production team. We used to say that we worked from when the bird sings until the ghost screams.”
Han and her parents belonged to one of the seven production teams in Jingting Village in Hongqiao Town in suburban Shanghai. Until 1984, the teams were the basic units of the people’s commune system. Farmers like Han earned work credits based on their work hours and output, and collected food based on their credits.
“You could really just make a basic living back then,” Han recalls.
In 1978, just before China adopted its one-child policy, Han was promoted to work in the village’s office for women’s issue.
“A new idea always takes time to gain understanding,” Han explains. “It was very difficult at first. People would shut doors in my face and accuse me of being ‘the woman who wouldn’t let others give birth.’ Gradually, perceptions changed.”
She left that post in 1982 and became the village’s Party secretary for four years. Then, as rural reforms widened, she was promoted to work in a rural enterprise under the town’s control.
The focus of the planned economy was changing to allow more market-oriented policies. Faced with meager supplies of food, clothes and housing, the government began to allow rural enterprises to produce goods outside of central control and sell them in the market through third-industry companies. Some of these companies still exist today.
“Our first experiment was a department store, and the biggest problem was to find merchandise,” Han recalls. “It was at a time when coupons were still used and everything was in short supply. We had to use all means we could find to secure goods.”
She still remembers organizing a trip to Xiamen, a coastal city in Fujian Province, where the team bought 25 Sanyo color TV sets — a big risk at the time since each set cost more than 1,000 yuan (US$163) and the average rural wage was about 100 yuan a month.
“The third companies were just starting, and there were no precedents for us to follow,” Han says. “We just did our best with what we had.”
In the late 1980s under a new government policy, the town’s company became collectively owned. To create jobs in rural areas, large amounts of farmland were turned over to construction of factories and buildings.
In the ensuing years, all the farmers from Jingting Village’s original seven production teams had become urban residents. Cement paved their fields.
“Many farmers became factory workers or went to the collectively owned companies, and most people were happy,” Han says. “It was much less work than being a farmer.”
She retired in 2001, when construction of the Jingting Neighborhood began. By 2003, all 2,000 villagers moved into new accommodation, and Han went to work in the neighborhood office for elderly affairs.
Her bright office is on the second floor of the community center. She is proud of the facilities.
“Look at this center. It has eight activity rooms providing tea, table tennis, snooker, cards and many other leisure pastimes — all free!” she says.
The center’s rooms are filled with elderly people, many of whom were once farmers like Han.
“When I was young, I always knew I would grow old in my village,” she says. “Now I just want to do all I can to help senior citizens have a fulfilling life.”
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