A card that depicts the celebration of the Great Leap Forward.
The Great Leap Forward was a program launched by Mao in 1958 in which he urged people to make a superhuman effort to increase farm and industrial output. Under this program, Mao created communes in an attempt to make agriculture more efficient.
A commune is a community in which property is held in common, living quarters are shared, and physical needs are provided in exchange for work at assigned jobs. A typical commune included several villages, thousands of acres of land, and up to 25,000 people. It was a mini town in a way, having its own schools, factories, housing and dining halls. Communes had production quotas and mobilized labor brigades to build dams and irrigation systems. “Backyard” industries were set up in rural communes to produce steel and other products.
Despite these efforts, the Great Leap Forward was a failure. Backyard industries produced low-quality, useless goods and the commune system slowed food output. In addition, bad weather and declining food production led to a terrible famine. Between 1959 and 1961 (the years the program operated), up to 30 million Chinese are thought to have starved to death.
To view even more posters and propaganda for the Great Leap Forward, as well as the two forms that the program took, click below. Chineseposters.net: Great Leap Forward