"A kindergarten teacher reports that the hardest part of her job was watching her pupils die of starvation. A pediatrician says much the same about her patients."
As it happens, my brother-in-law came into town today. At dinner, he asked my wife what it was like growing up in China during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution (she was born in 1951). She told him the hardest part was the hunger. Once she was caught digging up and eating a sweet potato from a field. Her teacher punished her by putting here on an even more reduced ration. This was only supposed to be for a few days, but the teacher forgot and she had reduced rations for the rest of the semester. It was only because a staff member asked about the punishment at the beginning of the next semester that the standard ration was reinstated.
As it happens, my brother-in-law came into town today. At dinner, he asked my wife what it was like growing up in China during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution (she was born in 1951). She told him the hardest part was the hunger. Once she was caught digging up and eating a sweet potato from a field. Her teacher punished her by putting here on an even more reduced ration. This was only supposed to be for a few days, but the teacher forgot and she had reduced rations for the rest of the semester. It was only because a staff member asked about the punishment at the beginning of the next semester that the standard ration was reinstated.
She was just a small girl with ponytails.