China l^econstructs VOL. XXI NO. lO OCTOBER 1972

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Special Issue: Peking •V ^

i > m: j China Reconsinicts

VOL. XXI NO. 10 OCTOBER 1972 PUBLISHED MONTHLY IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, SPANISH, ARABIC AND RUSSIAN BY THE CHINA WELFARE INSTITUTE (SOONG CHING LING, CHAIRMAN)

CONTENTS

CITY PLANNING FOR THE CAPITAL 2

CHANGES I HAVE SEEN IN PEKING

YESTERDAY AND TODAY IN OUR PLANT Wang Yu-tien 7

OUR STREET Wu Teh-shan 9

43 YEARS OF TEACHING Chou Pei-yuan 12

PEKING TO ME Yang Mo 15

EXHIBITION IN PEKING: NEW ART WORKS Ying Tao 17

THE FORMER IMPERIAL PALACE 24

ON THE CAPITAL'S STAGE 26

PEKING INDUSTRY MOVES AHEAD Szu Yuan 30

LANGUAGE CORNER 34

LESSON 4: IN A RESTAURANT LESSON 5: EXCURSION TO FRAGRANT HILL

IN THE NEW SOCIETY: SCHOOLCHILDREN FIGHT A 'YELLOW TIGER' 36

ACROSS THE LAND: SEEKING TREASURE IN THE KUNLUN MOUNTAINS 37

FISH AT DIFFERENT DEPTHS INCREASES PRO COVER PICTURES: DUCTION Heng Hsuan 38 Front: Children In the Pei- hai Park Kindergarten learn GEOGRAPHY OF CHINA: VEGETATION 40 to draw Tien An Men. OUR POSTBAG 44 Inside front: Middle school students do doily broadcast STAMPS OF NEW CHINA: MORE HISTORIC exercises before the Peking REVOLUTIONARY SITES 44 Workers' Stadium.

Bock: Dance of the Korean PHOTO SUPPLEMENT: PEKING nationality in China. Inside bock: Raising fry at Editorial Office: Wai Wen Building, Peking (37), China. a fish farm In Yuyao county, Coble: "CHIRECON" Peking. General Distributor: Chekiang province. GUOZI SHUDIAN, P.O. Box 399, Peking, China. New office and apartment buildings outside Fuhsing Gate in Peking. CITY PLANNING FOR

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THE CAPITAL

rpHE scientifically-arranged new -'- construction, the checkerboard pattern of streets, the green belts and big thoroughfares leading .P^IJ II ••••. fm m^ from the city which were once only lines on the city planners' master plan for Peking, are gradually becoming reality. The total floor space of Peking con struction of all kinds has reached 50 million square meters. This is k BSr.: 2.5 times as much floor space as existed in 1949; since liberation, from the point of view of build •>%ir ings, two and one-half 1949-size Pekings have been built. Apartment blocks being: built on the eastern outskirts of the city. The city layout of old Peking and many of its larger ancient structures, built during eight laboring people lived huddled to centuries as capital of feudal gether. dynasties, are aesthetic expression Kuomintang reactionaries, dur of a high order, a credit to the ing their rule, did nothing about laboring people who built them. industrial and civic construction. On the other hand, such layout Liberation found Peking a semi- and architecture carry heavy over feudal, semi-colonial consumer tones of the feudal era. The vr- city. • 3 magnificent palaces and princes' mansions and their vast courtyards After liberation Industry were a sharp contrast to the huts gradually developed, turning the and cramped courtyards^ where the capital into a producer city. The city planning department began tion of population in Peking itself. Gallery, the huge red star atop the reconstruction and building under One such town is that growing up Military Museum of the Chinese the principle of serving proletarian around the Peking General Petro People's Revolution and the octag politics, production and the work chemical Works. onal tower of the Agricultural ing people. The old city was built around Exhibition Center. the Imperial Palace. The square Layout for Living Housing facing it on the south was once a The ^system of socialist owner forbidding place pervaded with a Along with the development of ship makes it possible to build our feudal atmosphere. Reconstruc production, new residential areas cities in a rational and planned tion completed so far has have been built around the old way. According to plan, Peking thoroughly done away with that city. Deteriorating houses are is expanding in all four directions atmosphere and turned the greatly either being renovated or torn from the old city in the center. enlarged square into a place where down and rebuilt. Since the main direction of the the people hold mass meetings. Each residential area has its own wind is from north and northwest, Flanking the square's two sides now stores, schools, clinics and kinder the new industrial districts are stand the Great Hall of the People gartens. There are also a number located on the east and south so and the Museums of the Chinese of larger centers with big depart as to cut down air pollution in the Revolution and Chinese History In ment stores, hospitals, theaters city. The only exception to this the symmetrical arrangement of and repair and service centers. are the metallurgical plants located traditional Chinese architecture. They are scattered throughout the fairly far west of the city, where The square's broad vista is in city for the convenience of the this industry had existed before keeping with the open-ended working people and to cut down liberation. Only relatively pollu prospects of a developing socialist the burden on the city transport tion-free industries such as manu China. system. facture of clocks, precision instru The old Peking had only a few ments, foodstuffs and clothing Middle-aged and older people in tall structures such as the Tibetan- and special art crafts are located particular remark on the contrast style Buddhist dagoba atop the inside the city. The municipal between present housing and liv island-hill in Peihai Park. Since ing conditions and those before the construction department stipulates liberation and especially since the that any new factory producing liberation. In those days high- big leap forward of 1958, many ranking Kuomintang officials, big harmful waste liquids, residues or tall modern buildings have been capitalists and the former nobility gases must include installations added. A new skyline is formed and officials of the Ching dynasty for recovering and treating them with the clock towers of the had their spacious homes, com and recycling them back into Peking Railway Station, the spire plete with running water, sewers production. of the Television Building, the and sanitary facilities, in the Towns rising in the outlying tower of the Cultural Palace of eastern and western parts of the districts will help prevent unlimit the Nationalities, the golden glaz city. The laboring people lived ed expansion and overconcentra- ed-tile roof of the National Art crowded together in the narrow.

A section of the residential area near the Peking No. 3 Cotton Mill. f ' mi

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Bird s-eye view of Saniibo Avenue. filthy lanes in the northern and The first thing the People's the place of neglected grave southern parts of Peking, where Government did in the area was to mounds, reed-choked ponds and there was no water or sewerage cart away the mountains of rub stinking pools. system. One of the worst slums bish which had accumulated over was the Dragon Beard Ditch and the years. Within a few months Streets and Roads the smaller ditches around it on the ditch had been turned into a The streets of old Peking ran the south. Garbage piled like hills sewer over which a broad avenue mainly in a north-south, east-west was paved. around the place and flies and pattern, but few of them were mosquitoes swarmed everywhere. In the last two decades Peking broad and many were not connect During a heavy rain the stinking has added 20 million square meters ed to others. A far greater number water would overflow the ditches of housing, 1.5 times the dwelling were narrow lanes. The walls of and flood the hut-homes, some of area in old Peking. Neat rows of the old city which divided it from which would simply collapse. apartment buildings have taken the expanding city were an

Purple Bamboo Park created since liberation. obstruction to traffic. Without cars of the rich and the big Turning Peking Green breaking up the traditional officials, but left the paths for the As one looks out over Peking checkerboard pattern, the city has people rough and unfinished. The from the Pavilion of Ten Thousand torn down the old walls, widened big warlord Sung Che-yuan got Springs atop Chingshan Hill, it some of the streets and linked the street-pavers to surface the looks like an ocean of luxuriant them up with new ones. The lane that led to his house right up green. On some streets the larger of these connect to form to his door. No wonder the saying, branches of the trees on either several broad transport channels "Where there are officials there side reach out to touch each other in a i*ound-the-city pattern con are roads." to form a green canopy sheltering centric to the walls of -the old passing vehicles and pedestrians Today Peking has nearly 2,000 palace. These are again linked from the sun. Tree-planting has kilometers of streets (not includ with a dozen new arterials which been going on since liberation. ing lanes). The east-west main radiate from the city district to the Every spring and autumn land thoroughfare, Changan Avenue, outlying areas and highways lead scape gardeners are joined by used to end at the old city walls. ing to other provinces. A complete workers, cadres, students and Since liberation it has been widen communications network is taking other city dwellers in planting ed and leads to Tunghsien county shape. trees around factories, offices, in the east and Shihchingshan in schools and residential areas, and After 800 years as a feudal the west, 40 kilometers long from along the roads, rivers and lakes. capital, Peking had only 214 kilo end to end. About a million are set out every meters of hard-surfaced roads. In the past few years, for safer year. Roads built by feudal emperors traffic, some of the main streets Former imperial gardens, ren and the Kuomintang reactionary have been divided, with the lanes ovated from year to year after government were for the use of the in the center for the faster-moving liberation, are now public parks. ruling class. The western suburbs motor vehicles and those on either New parks, many of which were got their first hard-surfaced road side for bicycles. Sometimes these built on the sites of stagnant in 1906 to take the Empress are separated by belts of trees. ponds, are found in every district Dowager Tsu Hsi on her frequent The number of public transport of the city. pleasure trips to the Summer vehicles has risen from 164 before The people's capital is under Palace. The Kuomintang govern liberation to 2,200, a 13-fold going a great transformation on ment paved asphalt streets for the increase. the road of socialism.

A station for treating the city's waste water built in the suburbs.

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS CHANGES I HAVE SEEN IN PEKING

YESTERDAY AND TODAY IN OUR PLANT

WANG YU-TIEN, bench worker

Wang Yu-tien (second right) with his workmates.

OUR February 7 Rolling Stock new, I have witnessed many TN such a situation, and lacking Plant, located at Changhsin- changes there. safety devices, workers were tien outside Peking, has a glorious frequently injured. Once an old history of revolutionary struggle. It I came to the plant from my home village near Changhsintien. It man lost one arm while operat was built in 1901 as the Changhsin- had many people and little land, and ing a lathe. The foreman rushed tien Railway Plant, mainly to re right up, not to take him to the on top of this, the ruthless exploi pair steam engines and freight hospital but to scream, "Don't tation of the landlords made it al cars. After the liberation the name damage the machine! It doesn't most impossible to get enough to was changed to the present one in live on. In 1942, after begging a matter if an old fellow like you memory of the famous strike which dies, but take care of the machine!" lot of people, my father finally got reached its climax on February 7, somebody to give me a job in the There were dll kinds of rules and 1923. plant. My first impression was that regulations to keep the workers On February 1 of that year, it didn't look like a factory at all do"wn. Going on and off shift we when workers on the Peking- but more like hell on earth. The had to pass through a small gate Hankow railway line had scheduled shops were small and cramped and where we were subjected to a body the inauguration of a general trade the equipment dilapidated. The re search. We worked in teams, each union for their line in the city of pair shop where I was assigned had under a straw boss. These fellows Chengchow, Honan province, the one small drill press, a few broken- would curse a worker or even beat warlord Wu Pei-fu had sent troops down work benches and nothing him if they thought he was not sub and police to occupy the headquar else. Most of the work was done by missive enough. I can still re ters of the new union and drive manual labor. In the forging shop member one such incident. A new out the delegates. In protest, it was even worse: one furnace man in our shop lost the key for workers on the entire line, led by right next to another in a small his tool kit and was looking about the Communist Party, struck on space and the air thick with coal for a piece of scrap to make a new February 4, under slogans demand gas. The shop was simply one big one. One of the bosses found him ing freedom and human rights. On steam kettle in summer. For the at it and insisted that he had been February 7 Wu Pei-fu launched a engine assemblers, on the other planning to open the door of the bloody suppression of the strike, hand, it was a different story. They warehouse to steal something. The which became known as the had to work all year round in the man was sent to the plant guards February 7 Massacre. open because they didn't even have and given a stiff flogging. I myself have been a bench a shed. We had to toil in these Five out of the nine members of worker in the plant for thirty conditions eleven or twelve hours a our family were working at that years. As one who has known it in day, and often overtime on all sorts time but still all our wages put both the old society and in the of pretexts. together were not enough to feed us

OCTOBER 1972 &

4.

The 6,000-h.p. diesel-hydraulic locomotive being assembled at the February 7 Rolling Stock Plant.

adequately. Soup made of small means of slowdowns. When the the plant was returned to the peo potatoes boiled with elm leaves was boss came around we'd look like we ple. The People's Government our daily fare. When inflation were busy, but as soon as he left showed great concern for us. It caused prices to soar, the workers' we'd stop. sent people to help with our work. families used to go to the plant I still remember clearly the time And I'll never forget those car early in the morning on payday in 1948 when the Kuomintang reac loads of golden millet that were and wait outside the gate. As soon tionaries held up our pay. After brought in as relief. We were as he got his pay the man would waiting two weeks the workers very moved and threw ourselves pass it out through a crack in the began talking about a strike. "We with everything we had into efforts door, so that his family could rush must strike or we'll starve to for the liberation of the whole off and buy food grain before the death," they said. "What have we country. We repaired twice as price rose any higher. An instant's got to lose?" We arranged that many locomotives and freight cars delay might mean that they would when a certain bell rang this would that first year as we had in 1948. be able to buy only half as much. be our signal. At its sound all the Since then our plant has under That's the way it was with all the machines stopped, the boilers were gone tremendous changes. The pres working people in the old society. damped, the workers downed their ent factory buildings are high and Where there is oppression there tools and sat on the ground. Finally spacious. Most of the equipment is is resistance. We Changhsintien the plant authorities were forced to modern, and the old pieces have agree to pay us a portion of our workers never stopped strug been improved through technical wages right away and the rest soon gling against the capitalists and innovation. Every shop has cen afterward. We had won our battle. bosses, not just in the February tral heating for winter. Ventilating 7 strike, but at all other times. Although our plant was Peking's equipment and cold drinks provid Even during the white terror of largest railway repair shop and had ed for us help keep us cool in that period we still went out in the been in existence 48 years, at the summer. middle of the night to paste up rev time of the liberation it was still To meet growing needs in trans olutionary slogans like "Down with repairing only a few locomotives a port, the old plant has been ex the blood-sucking capitalists!" and month. All the main parts were panded and a new branch factory "Oppose the yellow trade unions — imported from abroad. has been built especially for re the running dogs of the Kuomin- In December 1948 Changhsintien pairing freight cars. Total floor tang reactionaries!" We also car was liberated by the P.L.A. led by space is now five times what it was ried on struggle in the shops by the Chinese Communist Party, and before liberation. Today we are

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS repairing twice as many locomo closed doors. Nothing happened. theatricals at the club. There are tives and freight cars as before the Of course, working in this way three kindergartens, a primary cultural revolution and eleven without the masses and with school and a middle school right • times as many as before liberation. out relation to actual conditions at the plant for our children to It should be pointed out that for could not lead to success. attend. Workers are given medical all tasks the plant leaders rely di Then came the cultural revolu treatment free of charge. Those rectly on the workers, on their tion, and we workers broke through who work in high temperatures initiative, and in their work the one obstacle after another to work have regular checkups and receive latter show that they feel they are together with the cadres and tech a subsidy for additional nutrition. the masters pf the plant. nicians. At the end of 1968 we Even more important is the began designing a 6,000-h.p. diesel- change in our political status. There was a "time when we hydraulic locomotive, the first of could do only repair jobs and In the old society the capi this kind to be made in China. The talists called us lowly coolies, but had never made an engine. In 1958 pilot model was completed a year we took the big step and made our now it is we who have the say- and nine months later. Much of the so in our plant. There are spare- first steam locomotive, one of the equipment in it is of a fairly ad time classes for those who want to Chiensheh type, and two 600-h.p. vanced level. During the past year improve their education. Many diesel engines patterned on a model this engine has stood up well from abroad. After that we set up through 10,000 kilometers of trial have been promoted to be cadres, a shop for producing diesel locomo engineers or technicians. They runs. tives, and were going to try making want to always stay close to the one of greater horsepower. This As the amount of work our plant workers, to keep thinking and feel met with opposition from a person turns out continues to rise, so does ing the way they do, so, though in authority promoting Liu Shao- the workers' standard of living. A these people take part in plant ad chi's counter-revolutionary revi residential area with 110,000 square ministration, they also continue to sionist line in our plant. Out of meters of housing has been built. spend a portion of their time in one side of his mouth he said Families who before liberation production. Quite a few workers that this revolutionary pioneering made their homes in dilapidated have joined the Party, the van spirit of the workers was "trying to temples or in lean-tos under the guard of the proletariat. get to heaven in one jump" — that eaves of larger structures now live they wanted to do something all out in fine buildings of brick and tile. The whole plant is working with of their reach. Out of the other During their off hours they can go redoubled efforts to do more for side he asked several technicians to to the library to read magazines our country's railway transport and draw up some designs behind and newspapers or to see films or to serve it better.

ii OUR

I i • • STREET / i i '

WU TEH-SHAN old resident of Peking IV ;•

Wu Teh-Shan helps neighborhood children study after school.

T ASHALAR is a famous old and now, retired in my old age, I ful; the laboring people never had shopping street just outside still live in a lane off this street. money to buy anything there. Chien Men, Peking's "front gate". This area had long been known What lay behind this "prosperity" As a boy many years ago I started as a "prosperous business center". and what its "thriving business" my working life here as an appren Its fancy shops full of imported was in those days was no secret to tice kitchen helper in a restaurant, goods were for the rich and power anyone who knew Peking.

OCTOBER 1972 ' ^ ^ f -# 't .o"'\ ••l^ V^

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A crowd of shoppers on Tashalar Street. A factory for makin? electrical relays set up by housewives in the Tashalar neighborhood.

Eight big lanes running off Ta bit of grain mixed with ground sufficient to feed my family. Later shalar were one huge flesh market acorns, the residue of beans after I was fired altogether on the pre with more than 90 brothels. Ten of oil was extracted and seeds of wild text that 1 was "making trouble" the 50 houses on Paishun (Hundred plants — was often beyond their after 1 had had an argument with Obedience) Lane were brothels in reach, and they had to go hungry. one of the bosses in the restaurant. which some 300 women suffered The rickshaw pullers, cobblers After that I had to go all over the the humiliations of prostitution. and ballad singers who sought to place begging relatives and friends Opium dens and gambling houses make a few coppers on the street to try and find me a job. 1 had my lined Palm Street, West Lane and share of suffering in that man-eat- were never sure where their next Second and Third Langfang lanes. meal was coming from. Some man society. Although signs reading "Opium, families had no other way but to Gambling and Prostitution Forbid go begging. The bodies of those T^ITH the liberation in 1949, Pe- den" were plastered all over the who had died of hunger, cold or ex " king became capital of the streets by the reactionary Kuomin- haustion were frequently found in country. The dirt of the old society tang government, nine out of ten the street. — opium dens, brothels, gambling who frequented the brothels, in houses, debasing pleasure grounds dulged in opium smoking and mah- 1 remember Chao Pi's grand — were quickly cleaned out. A jong gambling were government father, who lived in Houhoyen woman known as Huang Wan Shih, officials, landlords, capitalists or (Along-the-Back-Moat). He was owner of a house of prostitution, members of the Kuomintang secret found dead of starvation beside one who by her buying of young girls service. With the backing of these of the arches in the street, still into slavery had earned for herself men of position and influence, the trying to sustain life by chewing on the deepest popular indignation, local gangsters also contributed a piece of sweet potato peel. A man was punished by law. Bad elements known as Ironhead who lived all their share of crimes against the engaged in unlawful occupations people. alone drowned himself in the moat were rounded up by the govern because he was ill and had no ment for re-education and reform. money to buy medicine. WHILE all these wallowed in After it closed down the brothels pleasure, the laboring people I myself was an apprentice in the the government held rehabilitation living around Tashalar, ground restaurant called Pancake Chou's. 1 classes for the former prostitutes. down by unbelievable poverty and slaved for 12 to 13 hours a day They were helped to understand suffering, had nowhere to turn. As doing household chores for the that the root of their miseries lay inflation sent prices soaring and owner's family and chopping meat in the social system which was now unemployment became more and for filling in the pancakes. The overthrown. They were given more widespread, many families leftovers were my food and my treatment for their diseases and en were reduced to picking over the clothing was nothing but rags. couraged to begin life anew. Those dumps for cinders to burn and bits Beatings and abuse were a matter who had homes were enabled to go of rubbish which they tried to sell. of course. My daily wage was only back to join their families. Many Even their usual staple — called enough to buy half a kilogram of were given jobs. The government "mixed flour" but actually a tiny cornmeal, and this was far from confiscated the property of the

CHIXA RECONSTRUCTS brothels and used the funds as re Congress and is vice-chairman of day around the kitchen stove. In lief for the former prostitutes. the Ta-anlanying residents' com 1958 during the big leap forward mittee, one of many under the the residents of the T'ashalar area A S part of its plan for restoring Tashalar Street residents' commit set up a number of factories them the national economy and de tee. She joined the Communist selves, in which many of the veloping social production, the gov Party after the liberation. women went to work. These now produce machine parts and do sew ernment began to set up factories Today the scene on Tashalar is ing for clothing factories. Since the outside the city. These provided one of real prosperity. There are the way to »a new life not only for cultural revolution, every residents' seven theaters in the vicinity, in group in the area has set up shops the former prostitutes, but also.for cluding the Red Film Theater, the to do things like shoe and bicycle many people who were unemploy New China Film Theater and the ed, without a steady job or had re repairs, and service stations that Red Guard Theater, all recreation for a small fee help other working sorted to unlawful occupations. centers where the laboring people people with laundry, sewing, Take the case of Chen Pao-hua, can see revolutionary Peking mending, and taking apart, wash who lives in Houhoyen. Before Opera, acrobatic performances and ing and remaking of cotton-padded liberation there were seven mem film shows. clothes. Whatever is needed, they bers in her family. Her father and Located in close proximity are find ways to do. One of the women husband pulled rickshaws and carts shops like the Jungchang Cloth put it this way: "We work because by way of work; two other mem Store, the Chien Men Clothing we want to do our part in building bers of the family left home to Store, the Puying Shoe Store, the socialism; it's not like working to wander about as beggars. Three of Tungsheng Hat Store and the No. 1 support our families, as before the the seven died of starvation or ill Department Store. These socialist liberation. Now we do as much as ness, and one has never been heard shops are well stocked with goods of we can." from again. many varieties to serve the people's There is a new relationship be Today four of the present eight everyday needs. Not bureaucrats tween people. We do not see much members of her family have jobs. or capitalists, but the broad masses of the attitude expressed in the old Her husband works in a chemical of the laboring people are their saying "Each sweeps only the snow plant in the eastern suburbs, and customers. The shop assistants, in front of his own door". I could she in a factory in the neighbor trying to serve the people whole go on all day telling about how the hood. Her second daughter is a heartedly, do everything they can people in our street take care of machinist and her third daughter for the customers. Gone is the kind each other and consider it a pleas works in an electrical relay plant. of trickery that used to be practised ure to help others. This is the at Of the younger children, one is in before the liberation, such as in titude to which people are educated university and three are in middle flated prices, short weight, mixing in the new society, and the resi school. Life is good for the whole inferior material in with goods sold dents' committees make it their family. at high-quality prices, and substi business to organize people to give tuting fakes for famous brands. Old help to others who need it. people or children no longer need •j^OW the laboring people in our to worry about being cheated. Grandpa Sun Yu-lung is over 80 street, like those throughout and lives in Yenchia Lane. He the country, take part in managing The shop assistants sometimes worked hard all his life. As he has bring their goods right to the cus state affairs, because, led by the no children or other relatives to Communist Party and Chairman tomers. Last winter in the cold and take care of him he gets a monthly windy weather a dozen young shop Mao, they have become masters of payment from the state, which also assistants brought around pedicarts the country. Take Comrade Kao provides for his clothing and medi Lan, for instance. As secretary of of Chinese cabbage, peddling it cal care. The lane residents' com the Party committee of the Tar from door to door. mittee and people in his courtyard shalar area, he is responsible for take care of him as though he were everything that goes on in our AS the street has changed, so has an elderly member of their own street, and has represented the the social atmosphere. No more family. Some time ago when he Party members of Tashalar at a do we see the well-to-do loafers fell ill, Hsieh Shu-chin, chairman of Municipal Party Congress. He is a with nothing more to do than idle the committee, herself accompanied mason by trade, who made his their hours away taking their pet him to the clinic maintained by the living by doing odd jobs before the birds out for an airing. Labor is Tashalar Street Residents' Com liberation. held as honorable and everybody, mittee. Chao Shu-fen, one of the medical assistants, went to themed with the exception of the aged, the Another example is Tien Tzu- icine shop to get the ingredients weak, sick or disabled, works to ying, who like many poor women for herbal medicine he needed. build socialism. in the old society, did not even have Chiao Kai-hsiang, a member of the a name of her own. In recent years In the past there was little op committee, brewed the medicine, she has been elected a deputy to the portunity for married women to get took it to his home and helped him Peking Hsuanwu District People's regular jobs; they spent the whole while he drank it.

OCTOBER 1972 11 Aunt Li, mother of an army man There are many like Grandpa My wife is head of the residents' who lives in the same courtyard, Sun in our neighborhood who, group in our lane. Our son-in-law made it a point to cook the kind of though alone in their old age, enjoy is a salesman at the grocery and our food he needed, millet porridge and a happy life. daughter works at the bicycle park soft noodle soup. When his cotton ing ground. Our granddaughter, padded clothing and bedding need TVOW about myself. Immediately now grown, is a worker in a ma washing, she and Aunt Chen, an * after liberation the government chinery plant. With my pension of other neighbor, and others take placed me as a cook in the dining 43 yuan a month, which is 70 per them apart and do it for him. While room of a government office. Edu cent of my original wage, and the he was» ill Yu Ya-ping and Liu cated by the Communist Party, I wages of the three of them, the Lien-ying, two junior high, school became a Party member in 1956. I family income amounts to a little girls, took it upon themselves to could have retired on pension at 60, over 200 yuan a month. Food, wash his clothes. Others who could but stayed on and retired when I clothing and articles of daily use not give a hand said, "If you won't turned 65 in 1970. Even though I are not expensive, and prices stay let me do the washing, at least use am retired, the leading comrades in the same, so we live very well my soap." the place where I used to work without having to spend much. We Surrounded by such warmth. come to visit me to see how I am put money in the bank every Grandpa Sun never tires of saying, and whether I have any problems. month. "It's the Party and Chairman Mao The life of my family today is The fact is, in the years under I have to thank for such happiness! like eating sugarcane — sweet in the People's Government the Though I have no family my class every section. We are six — my whole of Peking has changed and sisters and brothers look after me. wife and myself, our daughter and our street has changed beyond They're even closer than kinfolk." son-in-law and two grandchildren. recognition.

43 YEARS OF TEACHING

CHOU PEI-YUAN educator and physicist

Chou Pei-yuan (left) discusses questions in the reform of teaching with Peking University teachers and students.

T CAME to Peking from south by fighting between the warlords politics. I had no contact with the China to study in 1919.. Ten year in and year out. Like many masses. I labored under the de years later I began teaching in other young intellectuals with just lusion that China could be saved Tslnghua University. Today I oc and patriotic feelings, I was con by training qualified personnel who cupy a leading position at Peking cerned for my country, where dis would develop industry. University. I have been in educa tress and suffering were seen on But when they came up against tion work in this city of ancient every side, and, like them, I could ruthless reality all my illusions of culture for 43 years, but only in sea no way out for it. I longed saving China through education the last 23 years has my work for to see China strong and prosperous, and science burst like soap bubbles the country and the people been but I thought, wrongly, that she one after another. meaningful. was backward because her educa In the 1930s in Peking there As a young man I saw how im tion, science and industry were were four government-financed perialism subjected my country to backward. So I shut myself up in universities, two missionary uni every kind of humiliation, how the my study and buried myself in versities and several private col masses of the people struggled for teaching and scientific research. I leges, each with from a few hun a bare existence in a land ravaged would have nothing to do with dred to a thousand students. A

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS 4

i'-'. ... The main building of the Peking Institute of Iron and Steel Technology.

student's annual tuition, room and began in Peking, and soon after ferent as I was to politics, I did board was equivalent to what three wards the Chinese Communist not understand that the people's or four urban workers made in a Party was born. From then on the revolution always has to go through whole year. This was in a govern Party gave the people leadership in a long hard struggle and face many ment university, and in a private carrying on their struggle against setbacks before it succeeds. From university the cost was at least the reactionary forces. But, indif- the dim future of my students, I double. These were schools for the rich. The working people could not even fill their stomachs or cover Students at Tsinghua University chosen from their bodies with rags, how could among the workers, peasants and soldiers. they think of sending their chil dren to a university? Even those who went to college did not know whether they would find a job after graduation. Only a small number of my students had no worries about future employ ment because their families had connections or pull with the reac tionary government. The rest were always in fear for their future, so they could not devote themselves I to their studies with an easy mind.

In the two decades from 1929 to 1949 I taught a good number of students, but only a very few were able to make any contribution to society. In poor and backward China, with practically no industry or scientific research, they had no way of putting their knowledge and talents to use.

TN 1919 when I was still a student the May 4th Movement directed against imperialism and feudalism

OCTOBER 1972 saw only that the road I had chosen education. To meet the needs of monthly subsidy for miscellaneous of saving China through education socialist revolution and construc expenses. Worker-students who and science was really a blind alley. tion, in addition to re-orienting the had been on the job for five years It could not save the old China existing institutes of higher educa or more receive their full wage which was going from bad to tion, the state has built many new during their period of schooling. worse. And with imperialism colleges which are closely oriented They are thus able to give full at stretching its claws into China and to the needs of industry, such as tention to their studies, both the Chiang Kai-shek's reactionary rule the Peking Institute of. Iron and study of Marxism-Leninism and causing social unrest everywhere, I Steel Technology and the Peking Mao Tsetung Thought, and re found iit hard to maintain a quiet Chemical Engineering Institute. search in the cultural and scientific environment for my teaching and fields. research. In the 20 years from 1927 to 1947 the country produced a total of In the past students came to Even as I was groping for an only 185,000 college graduates. In school purely to gain book knowl answer in my deeply troubled the past 23 years the higher in edge. The old educational system mind, the People's Liberation Army stitutes in Peking alone have train kept them shut up in the school led by the Communist Party was ed 330,000 specialized personnel rooms and kept them cut off from advancing from victory to victory. who are playing an important part proletarian politics, from the work The liberation of north China was in industry, agriculture, culture and ers and peasants and from pro close at hand. education, science and technology ductive labor. Our revolution in education is changing aU that. In I had always been inclined to and medicine. Some of them have wards the Communist Party. In taken part in such important work addition to lectures and laboratory experiments, the students and my student days three of my close as the production of synthetic crys friends were Party members. From teachers frequently go to factories talline insulin and the launching of outside the school to carry on study them and the writings of the Amer China's first earth satellite. ican reporter Edgar Snow and and teaching amid practical real ities. The school itself runs more others, I had learned about the Long March and other heroic strug T> EKING University, where I am than a dozen factories and shops gles carried on by the Communist now, has a history of 74 years. for manufacturing medicine, high Party. These stories had aroused A revolution in education was polymers, radios and other prod ucts, as weU as an experimental my respect and admiration, but I begun during the cultural revolu was not sure that revolution led by tion. Although the work is still farm. the Party could overthrow the going on, through constantly sum In the liberal arts, the old Chiang Kai-shek regime, which ming up experience and making scholastic method of teaching has seemed so formidable. improvements, we have already been thoroughly discarded. Teach achieved some good results. ers and students take society as Facts educated me. People's rev their classroom and go to factories, olutionary war has immense power, First, we understand more clear mines, rural areas and army units and the moment of its victory vvas ly the meaning of the principle that to conduct social investigations and drawing near. On January 31, "education must serve proletarian politics and be combined with pro learn from the workers, peasants 1949, with my heart full of hope and soldiers. This has improved ductive labor" as taught by Chair I bicycled through the cold aU the their ability to analyze and solve man Mao. Guided by it, we aim way from Tsinghua to Chien Men problems. Economics students have at training workers with both so Gate to welcome the People's studied industrial economics at the Liberation Army troops as they cialist consciousness and culture, Taching oilfield and agricultural entered the city. From that day, who are weU developed morally, economics at the Tachai brigade. a new life began for me. I began intellectually and physically. In After absorbing this living experi finding the answer to the question the past two years we have chosen ence they have taken their find that had been troubling my mind a great many students from among ings and raised them to the theoret for twenty years: the way to save the workers and peasants. Besides ical level. China is the socialist road pointed having deep proletarian feeling for out by Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao and the Communist When I see the advantages en Party, these students have had a joyed by the young people of today, and when I see their energy, ideals TN the past 23 years, under the lot of practical experience in class struggle and production. They and purposefulness, I cannot help •*- leadership of Chairman Mao and but note the contrast with my own the Communist Party, semi-colonial know that they are studying in order to be successors to carry on experience in my youth and that and semi-feudal China has been of my students in the old society. transformed into a new China with the cause of the proletariat, that a great deal of work for the revolu Indeed, when the social system initial prosperity. Gone forever changes, when the system of man tion awaits them on graduation. are the days- when the Chinese exploiting man and man oppressing nation could be bullied by impe Therefore they are eager to learn man is overthrown, when the pros rialism. The hope of my youthful and confident that they can do it. pects for our socialist China are dreams is being realized. Their tuition, room and board becoming ever brighter, the road The Party and the People's Gov and medical care are paid by the ahead for the young people be ernment give great attention to government, and they receive a comes ever broader.

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS 14 YANG MO, writer

Yang Mo at her home in the western suburbs. pEKING. Here I lived in my in the writings of the 18th-century it. To free myself from the bonds childhood and early youth, European authors advocating bour of my family, after much hesitation here I have worked since the lib geois democracy, and also by the and mental struggle, I finally ran eration, and now, in the bosom of anti-feudal ideas' spread by the away from home. I went to a vil its splendors I spend my later May 4th Movement in China. I lage in Hsiangho county, Hopei years. refused. They tried to force me province, where a schoolmate help to obey by threatening to stop my ed me to get a temporary position In my memory the old Peking is tuition, but still I refused. Finally as a primary school teacher. This like a place covered with festering I broke with my family. job lasted only a few months, and sores, disaster-ridden, and my own prospects in it were dim and un I took this course because, on the when the original teacher came certain. The only heritage the old one hand, I still clung to my ideal back I had to go. All I could do was Peking left me was pain, indigna of what my life should be. I was watch the newspaper want-ads for tion and despair. not willing to become the plaything family tutors. I ran all over the of a rich man. On the other hand, place asking people to help me find I was born into the family of an I had the warning of the tragedies work. In that society, where we intellectual of the upper strata. In of two of my companions. One was used to say "graduation means my early years my father was a my schoolmate Yu Wen, who, like unemployment", even university professor and president of a private myself, loved literature and writ graduates had a hard time getting university. When I was 12 the uni ing. We often read foreign classics a job, let alone a person like me versity was closed down and my together and talked of our dreams who had not even finished junior father lost his job. He became de for the future. Carrying out the middle school. I did get a few po spondent and went into a decline. wishes of her parents, she had be sitions as primary school teacher, Life became harder and harder for come a concubine of a Kuomintang my family. assistant in a bookshop and family officer. The life of pleasure-seeking tutor, but none of them lasted long. Ever since I had been a little girl and luxury destroyed her as a per I was always out of a job and down son. The other was my cousin, who I had liked to read and had devel to my last cent. When I was sick was also well-grounded in litera oped a deep love for literature. In I didn't have the money to go to ture. She and I had often read and my teens I dreamed of writing. I the doctor. In such circumstances hoped to help save our deep-suf written poetry together and shared the happiness of our dreams for a I didn't dare to think of trying to fering motherland through litera write. ture. My dreams were shattered by bright future. She had been de the cold realities of life. ceived by a man who took her away and later sold her into a house of One day as the summer vacation JUST when Ifelt Icould no longer prostitution. When her parents re struggle to keep from drown was approaching, my parents sent deemed her and brought her home, ing in this sea of bitterness that for me to come home from the Hot she felt so humiliated and crushed Springs Middle School in Peking was the old society, I found new in mind and body that she com hope in the revolution led by the where I was boarding. They had mitted suicide. found me a rich man, they said, and Communist Party. In 1935 ^the wanted me to marry him as soon December 9 patriotic student move as possible. I had already been I GRIEVED over the sad end of ment began in the ancient city of much influenced by the idea of in my two companions, but I did Peking. Masses of young intellec dividual emancipation as expressed not understand the social reason for tuals, unwilling to put up with

OCTOBER 1972 Japanese imperialist aggression and Soon after the liberation I took me to write, revise and publish my oppression at the hands of the reac part in some very meaningful social first novel. tionary Kuomintang, held rallies work with the municipal Women's Federation: in coordination with On the eve of National Day 1965 and demonstrations before Tien An 1 had the honor to join friends from Men. the People's Government, helping former prostitutes, enabling them all over the world at the state ban I was then living in a little hostel to live as human beings again. quet presided over by Premier near Peking University where I had Chou En-lai in celebration of the got to^know some Communists and Problems long unsolved in the 16th anniversary of the founding of old society became possible to solve progressive young people. They the People's Republic. As I came under the socialist system of the taught me the truths of Marxism- out of the Great Hall of the People New China. This realization touch Leninism, and helped me to under and stood on the marble steps gaz ed me deeply, and called to mind stand that by merely trying myself ing at the grandeur of Tien An Men the tragic death of my cousin. Had to be pure and good and struggling Gate glowing in the reflection of a she lived in the new society she myriad of lights, a flood of memo individually I would accomplish would never have died with her nothing; that the idea of individual ries welled up within me. Before heart full of the bitterness of me seemed to appear throngs of emancipation was nothing but an having been wronged; she would illusion unless the whole of Chinese young men and women in dusty have led the full life that the mil clothes passionately addressing society were liberated. This was lions of women in China live today. crowds at Tien An Men and shout what started me on the revolution ary road. ing slogans urging them to join the TT WAS in Peking, in 1950, that battle to save the motherland from After the Japanese invasion, I 1 began to take up writing, imperialist aggression. left Peking and went to the anti- my dream of many years. During Today, I thought, our country Japanese base area in north China the war 1 had written some has stood up and is gradually be and joined in the armed struggle short stories, but under the cir coming strong and prosperous of the army and people there cumstances it was difficult to write under the leadership of Chairman against the aggressors. Participat a novel. After 1 settled down in Mao and the Communist Party. ing in this struggle with the masses, the city, the Party made it possible I felt like a drop of water which for me to devote my time to writ And 1, an intellectual who had been deprived of a chance to finish had finally found its way to the ing. 1 wrote the preliminary draft school or get a steady job, who mighty ocean to be united with it. for my first novel during a long illness in 1950-51. If it had been would have sunk into nothingness In 1949 Peking was finally liber in the old society, being unable to in the old society, am today given ated and I returned to her em work, I would have lost my job if such honor by the Party and the brace after 12 years' absence. What I'd had one, but here 1 was writing people for my small contribution to I have seen with my own eyes since a novel. In the new society unem the revolution. The profound dif then, the new life of Peking, has ployment is not a problem, even ference between the two systems warmed and strengthened my heart when we are ill, our livelihood is and their treatment of intellectuals so that now I love Peking more guaranteed and we are given free made an impression on me that each day. medical care. This is what enabled filled my heart for long, long after. What 1 felt, though rising from The People's Liberation Army is warmlywelcomed as it enters the city on January 31, 1949. my own personal experience, is part of the tempo of the times. The facts are that with the downfall of Chiang Kai-shek's regime and Jill * the birth of the socialist New .. T China, the social position and role of intellectuals have changed im mensely. The number of middle school, college and university students is much greater than be fore the liberation. Young people have a good opportunity to get an education, and there is no longer the problem of unemployment after graduation as in the old society. Three of my four children are uni versity graduates and one is a high school graduate. All of them are working in the service of the people. (Continued on p. 36)

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS NEW ART WORKS YING TAG

"P OLITICAL significance and na- tional style were two prom inent characteristics of the 300 works displayed in the National Art Exhibition held recently in Peking. The exhibition included traditional- style paintings, oils, graphic art, New Year pictures, posters, picture stories, gouaches and papercuts MiliMt .=SJi selected from thousands of pieces submitted by the provinces, munic ipalities and autonomous regions. The two-month show, which was held in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the publication of Chairman Mao's Talks at the Yenan wmm.- Forum on Literature and Art, at tracted over 500,000 viewers. The display covers a wide range of subject matter. A number of works portray the activities of Chairman Mao, the great leader of the Chinese people, during various The exhibition was held in (he National Art Gallery. periods of the revolution. "Day break", an oil painting showing him at the National Institute of the Peas graduates maturing in the vast workers. Chin Chien-ming and Yao ant Movement in the 1920s, sug countryside, a young girl of a Yu-chi, collaborated to produce the gests that his revolutionary efforts minority nationality being sent off traditional-style painting "New of those early years were the morn to college, and a family thrilling to Look", a bird's-eye view of their ing star, which was followed by the their first sight of a train steaming own factory. They are extremely light of dawn. Others, also oils, through their border region. In successful at using the Chinese such as "Chairman Mao Inspects spiring indeed is the march of the traditional form to re-create the the Fushun Coal Mine" and "Chair times as reflected in these works. pulsating energy of modern pro man Mao Is of One Heart with duction. In line and color as well Us" reflect, through different as Amateurs to the Fore as composition this work is fresh pects of life, the people's love for More than half the exhibits are and unusual. their leader and his deep feeling for by amateurs — workers, peasants, "I Am a Seagull", an oil painting the people. They strike a respon P.L.A. men, shop assistants, med by P.L.A. man Pan Chia-chun, sive chord in the viewers. ical workers, teachers and shows a P.L.A. telephone lines- students. These artists, taking as Even more works, in a variety of woman inspecting wires in midair their subject things they are most styles and moods, depict China's during a storm. The artist knew familiar with and which impress socialist construction in all its vigor only the rudiments of drawing and them most, raise these to the level and grandeur. Often this is done had never painted with oils, but of art and present them in emo through portraying heroic figures what he had seen in real life so tion-filled brush strokes. of workers, peasants and soldiers at moved him that he developed a their posts: workers making every In "Motive Force", an oil paint deep urge to put it on canvas. With minute count in production, peas ing, locomotive driver Kung help from others, because he was ants "rearranging" mountains and Chung-li expresses his understand familiar with the hardships and rivers, P.L.A. soldiers guarding the ing that in order to do a good job heroism of the linesmen's life, he frontiers. We see "barefoot doctors" of work, workers must study rev was able to express their spirit. The bringing medical care to the poor olutionary theory, as the railway- background of wind and rain and lower-middle peasants, school men are doing in the painting. Two heightens the effect.

OCTOBER 1972 Pnintings from the

Notionol 7(rt

Exhibition

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Chairman Mao Is of One Heart with Us (oil) by Chin Wen-mei :. ;,:-r; ^V'V- • -r ^-v ,4^ .• ^•'/-•" ./ii -^i^'- ,

r •."' =•••• 1-• --i-•....A "^-'v•«.'.• -vT-i

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: .y/ i/ 4.5 Patrol (colored woodcut) by Tseng Chao-hsin

As early as 1958 in the big leap place art in the service of the rev in throwing off the yoke of slavery forward, the peasants of Huhsien olution, providing them with ideo and moving to socialism to advise county, Shensi province, began to logical guidance as well as time off on that aspect. A creative group paint as a move towards taking for short training courses. was formed with professional and over the ideological and cultural amateur artists of the Yi, Tibetan fields in the countryside. In their Collective Creation and Han nationalities. With their spare time, to commend outstand Quite a number of the exhibits themes clearly in mind, they dis ing deeds and criticize un-socialist are the work of professionals and cussed the conception and composi conduct, they drew posters to be amateurs working together, or of tion of each woodcut projected in put up in the fields and at work young artists and veterans. Others the series. Artists most suited to sites or made paintings on the walls have been revised or improved handling certain themes were as along the village streets. Among after suggestions from the masses. signed to do sketches illustrating the amateur painters were Party Such cooperation helps the artists them. These were then passed secretaries, production team lead overcome their weak points by around for opinions and improved ers, accountants, ordinary com learning from others' strong points, on the basis of collective discussion. mune members, militia men and not just technically, but also politi The final product is a series of ten women and country school teach cally and in life experience. It is a woodcuts far superior in ideological ers. After 14 years, they have a good way to make full use of col content and artistic effect than the corps of close to 500 amateurs. Be first three pictures. The series was lective wisdom. tween them they have created some among the works attracting the 38,000 works that serve to spur This method was used in the most comment at the exhibition. revolution and production. creation of the woodcut series Last year the county's Kuang- "Slaves Who Made History". Three Unity of Politics and Art woodcuts on this theme had origi ming commune had an excellent Since the proletarian cultural nally been made by art workers in cotton crop. In "Cotton Harvest", revolution began both professional Szechuan province's Liangshan Yi done in New Year picture style, Li and amateur artists have been Autonomous Chou. In conception Feng-Ian, a woman commune making critical examinations of the and composition these were rather member, has captured the scene of revisionist line in literature and art simple, and the technical execu women striving to outdo each other and studying the works of Marx, tion was rough. After seeing them, at picking cotton and of the cart- Engels, Lenin and Stalin and the several experienced artists from and wagon-loads of cotton on the writings of Chairman Mao. This way to the state purchasing station. Chungking went to the Liangshan has helped them understand better Mountains to work with the local This lively representation of the that there is no such thing as art artists. Together they made more countryside since the peasants for art's sake or,art that stands visits and investigations among the began to learn from Tachai is one above classes. Proletarian litera of the most warmly acclaimed Yi people. ture and art, as Lenin said, are cogs pieces at the exhibition. At the same time the Party com and wheels in the whole revolu Party organizations at different mittee of the autonomous chou sent tionary machine, and must serve levels did everything they could to cadres who were most familiar the proletarian cause. In their encourage and help the amateurs with the Yi people's class struggle creation, therefore, the artists tried

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS to do as Chairman Mao says, to go close to the people and productive spent six months in a shipyard into the thick of life, to live among labor.* where, living and working with the workers, peasants and soldiers shipbuilders, they learned to speak and try to think and feel as they The woodcuts "Patrol" by P.L.A. man Tseng Chao-hsin and "Fishing their language and share their do, and thus to remold their own thoughts and feelings. With a outlook on life. The result has been Family" by Ou Huan-chang, picture the life of island fishing deeper understanding of the work art works which are good both ers' desire to make their country ideologically and artistically. folk in crisp lines and pleasantly bright colors. Smelting high- strong, they produced a series of "Educating the Next Generation", quality steel and tempering the paintings that depict the inner a painting *in traditional style by younger generation is the double world of the Chinese working class Kang Tso-tien, a teacher in Shansi theme of the oil painting "Temper — their proud sense of responsi province, shows a peasant woman ing Steel", by art worker Chang bility and enthusiasm for produc telling a classroom of children Hung-wen and Liu Jung-jen, a tion. about her bitter experience in the worker. The intensity of the pro Many artists are experimenting old society and her happiness duction scene is captured in the ex with new ways of expression in today. From his own observa pression of taut concentration on order to make technique better tions as a rural school teacher, the faces of the steel makers, old serve revolutionary political con the painter has portrayed with ex and young. tent. In "New Miner", Yang Chih- traordinary vividness the figure of kuang has departed from the usual the peasant woman filled with love To portray the fast-changing for the new society, Chairman Mao realities of today, veteran tradi technique of traditional-style por traiture and incorporated the and the Communist Party, the tional-style painters Kuan Shan- western use of light and shade to roomful of children made aware of yueh, Chien Sung-yen and Wang their good fortune and the young Ching-huai have travelled to bring out the young woman's hap piness at her new job. In "Another teachers listening attentively to the factories, communes, forest areas, Bumper Year", artists Ku Pan and talk. seaports and the water country of east China. They found fresh con Pan Hung-hai deftly combine the "Woman Committee Member", ceptions and moods which they are forms of expression of oil painting an oil by the young artist Tang conveying to the brush with new and the New Year picture in a por Hsiao-ming, is the portrait of a found power. Some notable re trait of a rural accountant weighing young woman cadre, just back from sults are "Oil City in the South", up a bumper crop of grain. Her a fact-finding trip to a work site, "Land of Fish and Rice" and look of satisfaction and the feeling telling her ideas to other leaders. "Dawn in the Forest". of sunny well-being that infuses The picture captures the essence of the painting are a tribute to the the type of grass-roots leader that Artists from the Shanghai Academy of Traditional Painting successive good harvests over the is today maturing in revolutionary last decade and the collective struggle — a sincere, hardworking •This painting was reproduced on the economy that has made them and unpretentious cadre who stays cover of China Reconstructs No. 3, 1972. possible.

Tempering Steel (oil) by Chang Hung-wen and Liu Jung-jen

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OCTOBER 1972 by Kang Tso-tien. Educating the Next Generation (Chinese traditional style)

Dawn in the Forest (Chinese traditional style) Pointings from the

Notionol Art Exhibition

by Wang Ching-huai

/

A New Channel Winds Through the Mountains (Chinese traditional style) by Chen Chung-yi The Former Imperial Paldce

Bird's-eye view of the former Imperial Palace.

'T'HE Imperial Palace, located paintings, precious jewels and other and a moat 52 meters wide. At each ^ some distance behind Tien An objects of art in its museum. of the four corners of the wall Men at the center of Peking, is the stands a tower with a multi-eaved, Residence of 24 emperors of the largest and most complete—of multi-ridged roof covered with Ming (1368-1644) and Ching (1644- China's existing ancient palaces. yellow glazed tiles. Close to 10,000 visitors a day from 1911) dynasties, the palace was all parts of the country and the begun in 1406 and expanded over Architectural Masterpiece world go through its grounds to the centuries. The grounds cover The palace, a harmonious assem view the palatial halls, some with an area of 720,000 square meters, blage of many groups of buildings, the original furnishings, and the and the buildings total more than brings together all the best charac priceless collections of ancient 9,000 rooms. The entire palace is teristics of ancient Chinese archi bronzes, pottery and porcelain, surrounded by walls 10 meters high tecture: majesty of style, flawless

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS \ .•'•^

carved with dragon, phoenix and m cloud designs. At regular intervals along the base of the balustrades are marble waterspouts carved in the shape of dragons' heads. During a heavy rain the terraces are a l1ulA>Ai^L " •' '••'-i^iiLlU^ ;' magnificent sight with the thou sands of dragons spouting water. Tai Ho Tien, nine storeys high •-V-^-X-rrf'r'.V,->-:-£.- Tlrr:- ''^ir-Jf and covering an area of 2,300 square meters, is China's biggest existing palatial hall constructed of wood. It presents an outstanding example of the brilliant color for b. .->. - -; ;w-!=----rdi:-r-H.:-sfe: v^:; c: *- which Chinese architecture is noted. Contrasts which are striking yet harmonious are found in the bright yellow of the glazed-tile roof viewed against a blue sky, in the elaborately painted beams, the gold chain-pattern decoration on the door panels and the vermilion columns set atop the gleaming white terrace.

In the center of the hall is the throne mounted on a two-meter- high platform and decorated with openwork carving. It is flanked by six columns entwined with dragons painted in gold. High above the throne is a coffered ceiling with gilded designs of dragons playing m (Continued on p. 28)

In the museum's Hall of Pottery and Porcelain arc displayed some of the finest specimens from every age.

The throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

construction, fine coordination of gate, Tai Ho Men, guarded by a the part and the whole. pair of bronze lions. The main entrance to the palace Behind Tai Ho Men are the three proper is the imposing Meridian principal halls of the outer palace, Gate. Passing through the 8-meter- Tai Ho Tien (Hall of Supreme Har high, 35-meter-deep archway, one mony), Chung Ho Tien (HaU of comes out into a vast courtyard. A Complete Harmony) and Pao Ho waterway in the shape of an arc Tien (Hall of Preserving Harmony). crosses the width of the court The halls stand on three-tiered yard and is spanned by five terraces of white marble seven bridges of white marble. At the far meters high. Each tier is surround end of the courtyard is the next ed by a white marble balustrade

OCTOBER 1972 Mongolian dance: "Women Militia on the Grassland" ON THE CAPITAL'S STAGE — New Son^s and Dances on the Life of China's Minority Nationalities

Accompanists for an Uighur dance Uighur dance: "Jolly Sinktang Herdsmen'

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i Tibetan dance: "Emancipated Serfs Sing of Their New Life'

Korean dance: "The Yenpien People Love Chairman Mao"

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J I with vermilion walls and gateways three principal halls in the outer TKe Former Impqriql Palace of glazed tile. The palatial halls palace were a man named Kuai Fu inside are furnished with sump and four other carpenters. tuous furniture, exquisitely carved Timber for the palace was (Continued jrom p. 25) or inlaid with precious stones, and all kinds of costly ornaments. Amid brought from the virgin forests in the north. About the workmen with pearls. For its intricate art this cheerless luxury lived hun sent to fell the timber and trans work this hall has been called the dreds of imperial concubines and port it, the Ming Chronicles say, "gold imperial throne hall". It is their thousands of attendants. the place where the emjDerors pro "One thousand men went into the Most important of these halls is mountains and five hundred re claimed their accession and held the Yang Hsin Tien, or Hall of turned." The stone blocks were important ceremonies. Mental Cultivation, where after quarried in the mountains of Fang- For a grand ceremony, the kilo 1723 the Ching emperors held pri shan county several scores of kilo meter-long "imperial road" leading vate audiences, read memorials and meters southwest of Peking. One from Tien An Men to Tai Ho Tien reports and made official replies. block often weighed over five tons. was lined with imperial insignias, There is a throne in the center To transport them, every half kilo flags and banners. Civilian and room. In the eastern chamber are meter along the way wells were military officials knelt in rows in two thrones, one behind the other. dug, and water drawn from them Tai Ho Tien's vast courtyard, which The first was for the emperor. was poured over the roads to could accommodate as many as From the second, behind a screen freeze. The stones were moved on 90,000 people. When the emperor because women were not supposed flat-bottomed boats pulled over the ascended the throne, gongs and to be seen, the Empress Dowager ice. The 16-meter-long, 200-ton chimes of jade set up in the gaUery Tzu Hsi actually ruled the country stone slab carved with cloud and were sounded amidst the smoke of from 1861 to the last days of the dragon designs that is part of the incense rising from the bronze feudal monarchy. This was the hall staircase at the back of Pao Ho Tien cranes and tortoises and other cen where many of the real decisions is one of those brought by such sers and tripods on the terrace. The of the tyrannical regime were monumental labor. Countless work aura of immense majesty created made, including those that sold out men died or were injured in the by the imposing architecture was the country. From this hall were course of the work. meant to keep the "son of heaven's" issued the imperial edicts authoriz subjects in awe of him and his ing the signing of a series of une The completed palace was closely tyrannical rule. qual treaties which foreign im guarded. Ordinary citizens were perialist powers forced upon China forbidden even to come near the Behind Tai Ho Tien is the square after the Opium War of 1840 to re walls and look at it, hence the name and somewhat smaller hall, Chung duce her to a semi-colony. "The Forbidden City". Inside, the Ho Tien, where the emperors re emperors and their families lived a hearsed for the ceremonies, and life of idleness, extravagance and Built by the People further back is the Pao Ho Tien, the debauchery, dressing themselves in hall where candidates for the rank The history of the construction silks and satins and eating delica of scholar took the imperial exami of the Imperial Palace is one cies of every kind off dishes of gold, nations. fraught with the blood, sweat and silver and jade. The Empress Dow ager Tzu Hsi's every meal con These three big halls are flanked tears of the working people. sisted of more than 100 dishes; its by towers, wing gates and walls ar Nanking had been the capital of cost was enough for a day's food ranged symmetrically on both east the first Ming emperor and his (three meals) for 5,000 peasants. and west. Beyond the walls on grandson who succeeded him. In During a famine in the first year of either side are more halls also in the early 15th century the Prince the reign of Emperor Kuang Hsu, symmetrical arrangement. With the of Yen, a son of the first Ming em second to the last of the Ching principal buildings, these form one peror, who had been garrisoning rulers, 1,300,000 peasants in the of the palace's architectural group Peking, drove away his nephew, north starved to death, yet expend ings. usurped the throne and made Pe itures for Kuang Hsu's wedding Proceeding north from Pao Ho king the capital. In 1406 he ordered could have bought 600 million jin the construction of the palace. A Tien one enters the inner palace, of rice, enough to feed 3 million where the Ming and Ching em hundred thousand artisans and a peasants for a whole year. perors lived and conducted their million workmen toiled for 14 years on the principal and some of the This money was wrung from the daily activities of rule and where auxiliary buildings, but only a people. Imperial taxes during the the empresses had their state bed handful of the names of the car reign of Kuang Hsu amounted to chamber. penters, bricklayers and stonema 280 million taels of silver a year. On the east and west of the main sons are to be found in the histori The emperor was the country's line of buildings of the inner palace cal records. One chronicle records biggest landlord, collecting rents are 12 courtyards, six on each side, that the original architects of the from 4 million mu of land.

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS tion took place in the Hall of Men After liberation the People's tal Cultivation. The former em Government appropriated a large peror continued to live on in the sum of money for extensive res palace for 13 years more, under the toration. Great efforts were made protection of the reactionary war lord forces who soon assumed con to collect cultural and art objects trol of the government. and, after painstaking research in order to identify and catalogue During the rule of the Chiang them, they were put on display. Kai-shek reactionaries following 1927, the Imperial Palace was left Today the former Imperial Palace to neglect and fell into disrepair. is a center for the study of ancient The grounds became overgrown history and art which provides a with weeds and piled with moun significant look into the class strug tains of rubbish. gles of the past.

The 200-ton carved stone slab in the staircase behind the Hall of Preserving Harmony.

The east chamber in the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Witness to People's Struggle At the rear of the Forbidden City is Chingshan Hill, the imperial park thickly covered with trees and bushes. Near its base is a leaning locust tree. The legend beside it reads: "The place where Chu Yu- chien (Emperor Chung Chen) com mitted suicide." Chung Chen was the last emperor of the Ming dynasty. In the final days of his rule, exorbitant taxes had so impoverished the people that everywhere peasants rose in rebellion. One such rebellion, led by Li Tzu-cheng under the standard "tax exemption and equal distribution of land", began in 1628. With a disciplined peasant army supported by the people, in 1644 he stormed into Peking and occupied the palace. Emperor Chung Chen fled to Chingshan and hanged him self from the locust tree. Li Tzu- cheng set up a peasants' regime in Wu Ying "Tien (HaU of Military Eminence) but soon the govern ment of the country was seized by the Manchus who came down from the northeast. The peasant uprisings did not cease. Arrowheads shot from the bows of uprising peasants who broke into the palace in 1813 can still be seen on a side gate and a column outside the wall of the Hall of Mental Cultivation. The Ching dynasty was over thrown by the Revolution of 1911 led by the Chinese bourgeoisie. Signing of the mandate of abdica

OCTOBER 1972 PEKING INDUSTRY MOVES AHEAD

SZU YUAN

Testing a technical innovation at the Peking No. 1 Machine Tool Plant

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS M V

• O 3>

Refining installations at the Peking General Petrochemical Plant.

Among the forest of factories on pair shop left over from the Kuo- become its main products, so the the eastern outskirts of Peking mintang days — about 70 workers name was changed to the present is the big and modern General In operating 40 pieces of rundown one. Today it has over 7,000 ternal Combustion Engine Plant. equipment in less than 2,000 workers, 3,500 pieces of machinery Diesel and gasoline engines from square meters of shop space. After and equipment and 150,000 square its production lines supply the auto liberation the People's Government meters of shop space. and tractor plants in Peking, Tien turned it into a farm machinery The quick growth of this plant tsin, Kaifeng of Honan province plant which in 1956-58 put out an is typical of the industrial develop and some other places. improved two-wheeled double- ment of Peking as a whole. Capital Peking started manufacturing share animal-drawn plow widely of a number of feudal dynasties, diesel and gasoline engines only in used in the country. In 1960 the Peking was long known for its the last decade. The General In plant began to experiment with splendid palaces and other ancient ternal Combustion Engine Plant manufacture of diesel and gasoline architecture, its scenic spots and was begun out of an ordnance re engines. By 1965 these items had art crafts such as ivory and jade

OCTOBER 1972 carving and cloisonne. But under cities, can the people's political times that for 1965, the year be neither feudalism nor bureaucrat- power be consolidated." He called fore the cultural revolution, and 93 capitalism and imperialism could it for socialist industrialization. Im times that for 1949. manufacture its own machines, mediately after liberation the chemicals, steel or cotton yarn. working class and other people of Today, after 20 years of con Most consumer goods were import the capital began work on this task, struction, Peking is a producer city ed, or made in Tientsin and Shang with leadership from Chairman with factories and mines on its eastern, southern and western hai. At the time of liberation in Mao and the Communist Party. outskirts producing steel, coal, 1949 ipodern industry accounted power, machinery, instruments, for only 20 percent of the total Following a period of economic rehabilitation, the foundation for chemicals, textiles and other light value of the city's industrial and Peking's industrialization was laid industrial goods. handicraft production. The ma with construction done during the jority of these were small factories First Five-Year Plan (1953-57). In Self-Reliance operating on outdated technology. 1958, inspired by the Party's Gen Only a few had more than 100 These achievements are the re eral Line for Socialist Construction sult of carrying out Chairman workers. Old Peking was a typical to "go all out, aim high and Mao's revolutionary line in in consumer city. achieve greater, faster, better and dustry. Specifically, it means the more economical results in build policies of "maintaining independ From Consumer to Producer ing socialism", the working class and the masses of the people ence and keeping the initiative in our own hands and relying on our On the eve of liberation Chair achieved a big leap forward in in man Mao said, "Only when produc dustry and agriculture. Peking own efforts", making steel the key tion in the cities is restored and link in industrial development, and constructed a number of backbone simultaneously developing small, developed, when consumer cities enterprises. In the machine build medium and large enterprises. are transformed into producer ing industry, modern factories were set up or enlarged to manu "Maintaining independence and

Assembly shop at the Peking facture steam turbines, electric keeping the initiative in our own Sewing Machine Factory. motors, optical instruments, elec hands and relying on our own tronic instruments and meters, efforts" means carrying out social telecommunications apparatus, ma ist production and construction by chine tools and boilers. In the relying chiefly on the initiative metallurgical field, there were the and creativity of the working class new Peking Steel Works, the Spe and the broad masses of the peo cial Steel Works and a steel plant ple. In actual practice it means for the Shihchingshan Iron and following a line which Chairman Steel Company as well as a number Mao has always advocated, that of of small plants making iron and "having faith in the masses and steel. In chemicals emphasis was relying on them" and "freely laid on production of such basics arousing the masses and launching as caustic soda, carbide and syn mass movements in a big way". thetic ammonia. Liu Shao-chi tried in every way to sabotage the following of this line. The proletarian cultural revolu During the cultural revolution tion further propelled the develop workers in industry criticized and ment of the social productive repudiated Liu's revisionist line forces. In the last few years marked and went on to make greater increases were made in Peking's progress. production of iron ore, steel, ma chine tools, electric generators, A model of self-reliance and hard diesel and gasoline engines, motor work is the construction, entirely vehicles, radio and semiconductor by China's own efforts, of the Pe components, medicine, paper, cot king General Petrochemical Plant. ton yarn and fabrics, woollen The plant's first-stage construction goods and other consumer prod — three major refining installa ucts. Quality and labor produc tions processing 2,500,000 tons of tivity, too, rose. Efforts toward crude oil annually — took less than greater variety of light industrial a year. This was possible because products resulted in more than 300 more than a hundred construction new items in the past year, includ units and factories in the city ing goat-hair polyester blend and worked in close cooperation, and ultra-high-pressure xenon lamps. because they got help from several The capital's total value of in hundred more factories in different dustrial output for 1971 was 2.6 parts of the country. Now the plant

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS has completed 15 refining and ress. Production of machine tools supply itself with both raw and chemical installations turning out for 1971 was 4 times that for finished ore. As a result, its 1971 gasoline, kerosene, diesel oil, lubri- 1965, the year before the cul production of pig iron, steel and • cants, synthetic rubber, polystyrene tural revolution, and many of rolled steel registered record highs. and acetone.* these were large, high-precision Capital Steel is today among products. New items turned out China's important steel producers. Broadly-based movements for for the first time during the cul technical innovation throughout tural revolution include large min Neighborhood Industry the city in the last three years have ing equipment, rolling mills for yielded 50,0,00 innovations, proof processing medium steel plate, Proceeding from the actual situa that when Chairman Mao's revolu large forging equipment, large tion in China, Chairman Mao work tionary line is followed the worker thermo-electric generating equip ed out a series of policies around masses are able to translate their ment and motor vehicles. the idea of "walking on two legs" strength and wisdom into fruitful — simultaneous development of results. small and medium as well as large Steel enterprises, simultaneous develop The No. 1 Machine Tool Plant is ment of both national and local a modern enterprise built up during Chairman Mao said that steel enterprises and simultaneous use of the First Five-Year Plan, turning should be the key link in in modern and improvised methods out 2,400 milling machines a year. dustrialization, as it is the basis for of production. Before the cultural revolution, the expansion of all other in under the influence of Liu Shao- dustries. Working in line with this By acting on these policies, the chi's revisionist line, the factory policy, Peking has now set up a Peking industrial departments was run by a small number of spe number of enterprises covering brought the masses' initiative into cialists and management personnel operations from mining to rolling. full play and accelerated socialist and little attention was paid to It has also developed a nonferrous industrialization. bringing the workers' initiative into metals industry. An important result are the play. For a long time production Peking's steel industry has had fell short of the designed capacity. hundreds of small factories run by its ups and downs. Before the cul city neighborhoods and the county- In 1969 innovations by ordinary tural revolution Liu Shao-chi and or commune-run enterprises on workers enabled the plant's output his agents in this field concentrat the outskirts. Though small and to exceed designed capacity for the ed only on erecting blast and steel lacking in modern equipment, these first time. The workers went right furnaces. Though iron resources factories play a vital role in pro on to propose an over-all technical were available nearby, they did ducing parts for the big factories reform aimed to double output. little about mines because, taldng and manufacture consumer goods The plant's revolutionary commit longer to build and to go into and even some products for ex tee backed the proposal and in operation, these would take longer port. novation groups composed of to bring a return on investment — The city neighborhood industries workers, leaders and technicians that is, bring profits. Therefore the steel industry did not develop were started by housewives in the were formed in all shops and sec big leap forward of 1958. At first tions. as fast as it should have. During the cultural revolution the capital's doing only things like sewing, weaving, embroidering, pasting In the past two years the work metallurgical workers rejected this cardboard boxes and binding books, ers, while continuing to rebuild revisionist line and shifted the em these factories are now turning out existing equipment, made more phasis to mine construction in farm machinery, chemical fertiliz special-purpose equipment and ex order to guarantee the supply of ers, cement, chemicals, radio and tended the use of improved cutting raw material. tools and techniques of high-speed semiconductor components, electro cutting. They also began milling Because of this lack of emphasis mechanical apparatus and process many faces or drilling many holes on mine construction, the Capital ed rare metals. Iron and Steel Company, formerly in a single operation, and widely The Tachailu Medical Instrument known as the Shihchingshan Iron adopted such technologies as Factory began as a shop making and Steel Company, had to get powder metallurgy and precision water buckets and later moved on casting. The result — productive its ore from distant provinces, to manufacture blood-pressure capacity in the major shops doubl both when it produced only gauges. Last year its workers built ed, tripled or increased several- iron before 1958, and even after 18 pieces of equipment and went expansion with a steel plant and fold. Output of milling machines into the production of miniature rolling mill in that year. In 1969, shot up to more than 5,000 for 1970 bearings. with help from other units, the and 6,200 for 1971. company began construction of its With the growth of neighborhood Peking's machine-building in own mine and ore dressing plant. industry, almost all of Peking's dustry as a whole made rapid prog- With these, which went into opera residents who have the ability to tion last year, and a number of work are enabled to participate in smaller mines nearby, also opened productive labor and contribute to »For the story of the petrochemical plant see China Reconstructs No. 3, 1972. in 1971, the company has begun to the building of socialism.

OCTOBER 1972 33 •>Cf" WSmSi •fl I -V /V LANGUAGE CORNER

Lesson 4 ^ & it Zai F^gumir In a RcstanranI:

A: il;L t in jfiji — ir- Zh^ ydu ren ma? xlhdngshi jiddn tang, zai ydo yi be! pijiu. Here is someone? tomato (and) egg soup, also want one glass beer. B: B itJL Ei& "WK,•^zr tfr /Cfc •t •t Zbir de kiren yijing chiwdn le. Qfag Nin chl mifan, hdishi chl mdntou? Here guest already eating finished. Please You eat rice, or eat steamed roll? A: zu6 ba. Wd yao yi wan mifdn, yigd mdntou. Yigdng sit. I want one bowl rice, one steamed roll. Altogether A: 4'Ji t It? •ft ^3 ^ Jbitian you sh^nme c^l? Qing jiteh&'o dudshao qidn? Today have what dishes? Please recommend how much money?

Aj^ •if" B: •-€j jiy^g hao ba. Yfgdng yi kual yi mdo lid. several kinds (of) good dishes. Altogether one yuan one j'lao six. B: M 4-sk 't ®, 4-5!fc 1^? Nin xihuan chl yu, halsbi xihuan chl r6u? Translation You like (to) eat fish, or like (to) eat meat? A: Is anyone sitting here? 4"^ ^ M. 9 ^ I^>r :f^:y ^ B: The customer who was sitting here has already finished eating. Jintian you hdngsbao yu, ydu rdupidnr chao Please sit down. Today have braised fish, have meat slices fried (with) A: What do you have today? Please recommend some good dishes. B: Would you like fish or meat? Today we have braised fish, sliced ^ ^T, pork fried with cucumbers, fried prawns, and tomatoes fried with hudnggua, hdi ydu zhd dd xia, xlhdngshi chao eggs cucumbers, also have fried big shrimp, tomatoes fried (with) I've heard your pork in rice f^ur is quite good, do you have any? Yes, but it's not done yet, you'll have to wait awhile. jldan,... Never mind, I'll wait. I'll have pork in rice flour, sliced pork eggs,... fried with cucumbers, egg and tomato soup, and a glass of beer. Will you have rice or steamed rolls? A: '/r-il iiJL 6^ •if, I'll have a bowl ofrice and a steamed roll. How much altogether? Tingsbud nlmen zhdr de mifdnrdu hdn hao, Altogether one yuan one jiao and six fen. (I) hear tell you here rice-flour meat quite good. t '^1 Notes ydu mifdnrdu ma? 1. The aspect particle le T. Putting T after a verb indicates have (you) rice-flour meat? the completion of the action. E.g.: Wo mai le yi jl^ d^yl T— bought an overcoat); Zhfer de k^ren yijing chlw^ le B: MrB,, <>ifc :&A.e.a:''t£T(This customer has already finished eating). Ydu, kdshi hdi meiydu zhengshu, nin ddi The negative forms of such sentences are made by placing mdi ji Have, but still has not steamed done. you must or meiydu jJt# before the verb, in which case the aspect particle T must not be put after the verb. E.g.: W6 mdi(ydu) mai ddyl 4i,it deng yihuir. (. ^ (I have not bought an overcoat); ZhSr de kdren mdi wait awhile. (ydu) chlwdn it;L ( ^ ) (The customer here has not finished eating). A: ^ f 4i.^ — 2. Complement of result. An additional element following a Meiguanxi, wd ddng yihuir ba. Wd yao yige verb or an adjective is called the "complement". A complement No matter, I wait awhile. I want one which tells the result of an action is called a complement of result. E.g.: the chl (eat) in is an action, wdn Z (finish) a complement ^ ^ Jf » of result which expresses the result achieved by the action. The shu mlfdnrdu, yige rdupidnr chao hudnggua, yige jft(done) in is also a complement of result. Such verb-complement rice-flour meat, one meat slices fried (with) cucumbers. one constructions showing result may be followed by an object or the aspect

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS 34 particle T. E.g.: W6 chlwSn fSn le tt T (I have finished eating), Exercise where tg. (food) is the object. The negative form uses iit(^). E.g.: W6 meiyou chlwdn :S. K £ 44 (I have not finished eating). Translate the following sentences into Chinese: 3. Questions using Alternative questions are formed 1. I have bought fish, not meat. by using hdishi i£^(or) to join two possible answers. E.g.: Nin 2. I have already finished eating. xihuan chi yu, Mishi xihuan chl rdu? ? 3. The steamed rolls are not done yet, you'll have to wait awhile. (Would you like fish or meat?) (Answers to exercise on p. 39)

Lesson 5 f, # Of Y6iilan Xiangshan Exeursion to Fragrant Will

We finished breakfast at nine a.m. and set out by bus. The bus ^ \ A ride took about an hour and a half, and when we got to the park it Zudtian xingqiri, tianql h£n hao. Wd he wd was already past ten. There were many sightseers that day and there Yesterday (was) Sunday, weather very good. I and my was a great bustle at the gate. We rested awhile and then began to climb the hill. We got to i the top around twelve. In autumn the leaves on Hsiangshan are all hiren, h^i qu Xiangshan Gongyudn wdnrle yi tlan. red and the scenery is quite nice. wife, child went Fragrant Hill Park (and) played a day. We spent over an hour on the hill, took many pictures and when we A. (4+) "tZ -ftS., ^ got home it was already past five. Shtogwu jiu dian (zh5ng) wdmen chlwan zaof^, jiu Morning nine (o'clock) we finished eating breakfast, then Notes 1. Examples of telling time in Chinese: 4- T, A4 AT 1:00 A ( ¥i ) zu6 die chufa le. Qiche dhyue zdule yige bhn 1:05 A Cgah i± (past)) sit bus set out. Bus about went one (and a) half 1:15 JL ( ^ ) or —A— kfe Ji) (quarter) 1:30 A.s.-t-(^) or s>] + A ^(#) T. 1:45 AE9-i-i ( ^ ) or —, chi 1 (lack) —J") ^.A xiaoshi, dao gdngyudn de shihou yijlng shi dIandu5 (zhdng) le. 1:50 .A,jL-t ( :&• ) or hours, arrive park time already ten more (o'clock). 2. Time words as adverbs. A time word used as an adverb may be put at the beginning of the sentence or before the word or phrase it HA, ^ I; /- #<- fa no qualifies. E.g.: Sh^gwu jiu dIan (zhSng), wdmen chlwdn zaofdn, jlii Zh£ tlan, ydulan de ren hSn du5, gdngyudn menkdur zu6 Che chufa le ( ^1" ) » (We This day, sightseeing people very many, park gate finished breakfast at nine a.m. and set out by bus); Wdmen xldivu ^vu dIan (zhong) huldao jiall ( ^ ) ejJ'15^S (We got home ^l«l. at five). feichang rdnho. 3. Time words as complements. A time word may be placed extraordinarily bustling. after a verb to indicate the duration of the action. E.g.: Qiche ddyue zdule yige bdn xiaoshi Bf (The bus ride took Atn —AJl, M- about an hour and a half). ^ Women xiuxlle yihuir, jiu kaishi pd shan. 4. The successive verb form. The successive verb form is one We rested awhile, then began (to) climb hill. way to use two successive verbs or verbal constructions with the same subject in a sentence. The characteristic of this form is that no con Ait -f-AW «']T ^ IS. ftA., junction or preposition is needed between the verbs. E.g.: Shdng>vu Ddyue shidr dlan(zhong) daole shan ding. Qlutlan, jiu dIan (zhong), wdmen jld zud che chufa le < ^ )» About twelve (o'clock) arrived hill top. Autumn, (We set out by bus at nine a.m.); Wd hd wd dirdn, hdizi qd ^ 1, JK-A Xiangshan Gdngyudn wdnrle yl tlan Xiangshan de shuyd d5a hdng le, fengjing hgn hao. —A. (My wife and child and I went to Hsiangshan Park and enjoyed Fragrant Hill tree leaves all red, scenery very good. ourselves for the day). 5. The structural particle defi^. In Chinese an element qualify A iJLl —4" P ^ ing a noun is placed before the noun it qualifies and the two are often Women zdl shanshang wdnrle yige duo xiaoshi, hdi connected by the structural particle 65. E.g.: Xiangshan de shdyd ^ Oi 65 We at hill on played one (and) more hours, also (the leaves on Hsiangshan), where Xiangshan is the element qualifying the noun. Also: ydulan de rdn 65 a (sightseers); MT f 5'] ^ sm, zhdr de kdren itJL65^A (the customer here). zhaole h£n du5 xldng, dao jia de shihou, yijlng (took) very many pictures, arrive home time, already Exercises I. Fill in the appropriate verbs in the following successive verb A A f T. form sentences (.t, Jx,, ik, sb ^ ^ ) i wu dian du5 le. 1. fefll -ii-a T—;R.o five more. 2. ^ To 3. ta t^To Translation II. Translate the following sentences into Chinese: • 1. We went to HsiaJigshan Park yesterday. Yesterday was Sunday and the weather was quite nice. My wife 2. We eat breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and child and I went to Hsiangshan Park to enjoy ourselves for the 3. We enjoyed oinselves in the park all day Sunday. day. (Answers to exercises on p. 39)

OCTOBER 1972 35 In the New Society (Continued from p. 16) pEKING, symbol of the New China, crucible of the revolution, 3cl)oo(chU

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS Seekinii tare in tlie Kunlun Monntdins JJSIHU People's Commune on the outskirts of the city of Hengyang in Hunan province is a fish, vegetable and pig-producing commune. Located at Ftsh the junction of the Hsiang, Cheng and Lei rivers, in the past decade it has made great efforts to improve its fish ponds and increase the water area for fish ^ of raising. Through scientific experimentation it has succeeded in rearing different kinds of fish at dif ferent depths of the same pond. As a result, fish ' JMtterent production has gone up rapidly. In 1971 the total output of fresh fish ran to 1.18 million jin, an average of 950 jin per mu of pond. For the regular supply of fresh fish which it maintains to the State Market Depths in Hengyang, the commune has become known as the market's "live fish storehouse".

I Imreases Creating Conditions Although fish culture has been an important occupation in this area for a long time, before libera \ Production tion production could not develop. In the time of the Kuomintang most of the fish ponds were controlled by the landlords. Less than a quarter of the water HENG HSUAN area was used for fish raising. The annual catch was only 36,800 jin, an average of 131 jin per mu. After liberation, peasants in the area tried to improve their method and wanted to rear fish at different depths. The small scale of individual economic production and lack of funds, however, made it impossible even to buy fry of the varieties needed, to say nothing of experimenting with, raising them. In 1953 after Chairman Mao issued a call to develop the mutual- aid and cooperative movement, the peasants set up agricultural cooperatives one after another with great enthusiasm. The formation of people's communes in 1958 opened up still broader vistas for the develop ment of fish production. Taking advantage of the commune's ability to organize labor power within a broader scope, the people undertook large-scale capital construction. Small ponds became big ones; shallow ponds, deep ones; fresh water began to run through stagnant pools. Pits and low-lying areas were transformed into fish ponds. A former moat called the "Peihao" after many years of neglect was filled with sludge so that the fish in it often died. One winter, despite the severe cold, the commune members removed more than 400,000 buckets of sludge in two months. Output of fish in it rose to over one thousand jin per mu. A site called Yenwuping, once a garbage dump over grown with brambles, through ten years of hard work <•> — iiftB— is now a place of fish ponds, shady fruit trees, lush green vegetable plots and crisscrossing irrigation channels. As a result of carrying out Chairman Mao's policy of self-reliance and hard work, the com mune's fish-breeding area has expanded from 300 mu to 1,225 mu.

Fart of the pond area of the Hsihu commune.

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS r nf The commune members have i •• v«''- undertaken a number of water conservation works to overcome waterlogging and drought and aid in developing fish production. In five years they have set up a total of 6,650 meters of flood-prevention dykes, and 25 kilometers of chan nels, as well as some pumping sta tions. These guarantee that 95 per cent of the fish ponds can carry on production even in case of drought or excessive rain. The commune's Chiensheh brigade installed a pump with a 40-kilowatt electric motor on the bank of the river to send water up to a 30-mu pond in the mountains which, lacking sufficient water, formerly could not be used for fish.

Commune members haul in the net. Experiments Bring Results The commune has organized its fish grew fastest, and increased the members to carry on experimenta in many areas, and the cadres and number of these within the limita tion with methods to further raise commune members are kept busy tions of the above factors. production and trained 120 of its receiving a steady flow of visitors who come to learn from them. people as technicians. Their first Several kinds of fish in one pond actually benefit one another. For achievement, with the help of the I jin = 0.5 kg. (or 1.1 lb.) provincial and municipal aquatic example, as active swimmers the 15 inu = 1 hectare (6 mu = l acre) products departments, has been to Chinese ide stimulate the other fish produce their own fry through arti to swim more vigorously, thus ficial methods of propagation. increasing their appetite. The With experience, the fish-breed Chinese ide lives on water plants, Answers to Language but does not eat them clean. The ers have come to understand the Corner Exercises: left-overs, dropping to the bottom habits of the various species of fish, Lesson 4 - and this has enabled them to go of the pond, rot and consume the 1. in for raising a number of kinds oxygen in the water. But it just so happens that carp and the tiao- 2. of fish at different levels of one pond. The key to this, they say, is tzu fish (xenocytris aigengea) like 3. understanding the relationship be to eat this kind of left-over. An •f' — other example: Zooplankton which tween the different breeds of fish, Lesson 5 grow naturally in the water com and the relationship between the I. 1. -fe T — fish and the amount of water, the pete with the silver carp for their favorite food, algae, but the big- water temperature and available head fish, who eat zooplankton, food. reared in the same pond can keep Though various kinds of fish live the zooplankton down, leaving the 3. in the same water, their habits are algae for the silver carp. To different. Some live near the sur n. 1. face, others at the middle or lower Such combined utilization of food To depths. Some thrive on algae, some resources and full use of water 2. on zooplankton, while still others space by raising different breeds at feed on water plants or other food. several levels greatly increased the In the course of repeated hauls of commune's fish production. 3. fish and re-stocking with fry, the The methods used at the Hsihu fish breeders came to know which commune are now being introduced

OCTOBER 1972 VEGETATION

^ HINA has almost 30,000 species come farmland. Natural forests are Temperate deciduous broadleaf ^ of higher plants, almost every preserved only in the mountains. forest region: The broadleaf trees kind of vegetation that is found in These forests contain over 2,000 in this area, sometimes called the the northern hemisphere. Owing species of trees, of which the summer-green forest area, grow to the varying degrees of influence greater number are excellent thick foliage in summer and lose of the ocean monsoons, as one timber. their leaves in winter. This region travels from southeast to north has many broadleaf forests similar Cold-temperate deciduous needle- west, one passes through first the to those in western Europe, north leaf forest region: The thick humid, then the semi-arid and east Asia, northern Japan, the needle-leaf forests distributed over finally the arid chmate belts and Korean peninsula and eastern the Greater Khingan Mountains in three corresponding regions of veg North America. northernmost China give them the etation: forest, grassland and des name "sea of trees". In addition The mountains of northeast ert. Cultivated fields account for to the light-loving larch, which is China are covered with mixed only 11 percent of China's land highly resistant to cold, the area forests of elm, maple, linden, ash area. Vast areas of natural vegeta also has such evergreen needle- and birch, as well as the straight- tion remain, which can be opened leaf types as spruce and pine. These trunked Korean pine. Some of the up, utilized and transformed in ac trees are particularly suited to the halls of the Imperial Palace in Pe cordance with local conditions. severe cold because the small area king are made from the strong of their needle-leaves reduces wood of the latter. In the moun Regions of Humid Forests water loss by transpiration to a tains of north China and on the Within the various regions of this very low level during the winter Liaotung and Shantung peninsulas type are found cold-temperate, when water is unobtainable from there are various kinds of oak temperate, subtropical and tropical the frozen soil. These are hardwood forests and mixed forests of oak forest vegetation. In general, these trees, excellent material for boats, and Chinese pine. The native oaks are regions of very old civilization carts, musical instruments and were at one time economically,im and they are densely populated, so paper. This region is one of China's portant since their leaves provided the plains and low hills have be most important timber bases. food for silkworms which produced

SHENYANG

HUHEHOT PEKING

LEGEND

HUMID FOREST REGIONS: 1. Cold-temperate deciduous needle- ^SHANGHAI leaf forest region 2. Temperate deciduous broadlesif iCp.NGKINQ forest region I i ilUiw/ 3. Subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest region SOUTH CHINA SKA islands 4. Tropical rain-forest region

SEMI-ARID GRASSLAND REGIONS: CHINA'S ^KWANGCKOW 5. Temperate grassland region 6. Alpine meadow-grassland region

VEGETATION ARID DESERT REGIONS: 7. Temperate desert region 8. Alpine desert region

40 CHINA RECONSTRUCTS the local "wild silk". This is China's main region for deciduous fruit trees. Apples, pears, peaches, • iK V dates, persimmons and grapes as well as walnuts and chestnuts are widely cultivated. The plains are •• •' -•». - given over to farming, and this is an important area for producing - .r wheat, cotton and miscellaneous grain crops. , Subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest region: The vast subtropical region has a rich variety of vegeta tion. Szechuan province alone has almost 10,000 species of higher plants. Forests of trees of the oval- shaped-leaf type, green the year- f." round, are found on the hillsides and in the valleys of this region. Forests in southern mountains. Here are found the largest subtrop ical forests in the world at this latitude. Those parts of Africa, southwest Asia and Central America at the same latitude, having a dry climate, are mostly desert or grassland. This region contains some species not now found in other parts of the world. Many plants which were widely distributed over the globe during the Cretaceous period (58 million years ago) are now almost non-existent as a result of the ac tion of the glaciers of the Quater nary period. Parts of China's sub tropical region, however, were not completely covered by the glaciers,

Azaleas in the Omei Mountains in the southwest.

The Lesser Khingan Mountains in northeast China, an important source of timber. Banana harvest in Kwangtung province in the south.

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• A • Iliiy V . -y'T *• , ~ and became "sanctuaries" for some likes the cold-temperate climate of China's northeast and the plant forms from past geological there. The mountains of the south eastern portion of the Inner eras. west are indeed a big natural Mongolian plateau are a vast garden, with brightly colored aza One of these is the gingko tree. prairie covered mainly with peren leas, primroses and many varieties nial grasses. These grasses have It was widely distributed over the of camellia, including a large flam long, thin blades which are wooly earth during the Cretaceous period, ing red kind which has been and curl toward the midrib, which but today only fossils of it are to famous since ancient times. helps prevent excessive loss of be found in many parts of the moisture. Some plants on the world. This tree still flourishes in Agriculturally, this region is southwest China. The oldest ones grasslands have deep roots to take China's major rice-producing area. up moisture far down in the soil. date back about a thousand years. This area's goat grass and legumi Its wood is used for carving, Tropical rain-forest region: Pre nous forage plants are quite high in making blocks for printing and cipitation is 1,200 to 2,200 mm. an nutritional value, making it China's building. The seeds are edible and nually in the southern parts of main livestock-raising region. as an ingredient in cough medicine Kwangtung, Fukien, Taiwan and serves to loosen congestion in the Yunnan provinces and the Kwangsi In the warm and hot seasons, chest. Its leaves are also used in Chuang Autonomous Region, in when the grass is green and a medicine. southernmost China. In well-shel variety of flowers are in bloom the tered valleys one can find thick grasslands look like a multi-colored The metasequoia tree native to evergreen broadleaf rain-forests carpet. The main domestic ani the Szechuan-Hupeh border is an with a wide variety of trees of dif mals here are sheep, cattle and other remnant from the Cretaceous ferent heights, some up to 40 horses. The cattle and horses from period. Very adaptable, it grows meters. The massive trunks are Sanho in the Hulunbuir region well in both north and south China, supported by buttress-like roots are fine breeds famous throughout where it is now being planted. taller than a man and entwined the country. with thick vines. Lovely ferns and The cathaya tree, growing A number of places in this region widely over the globe during the brilliant orchids flourish on some of the trees. have been turned into agricultural Tertiary period (one million years areas. Many state farms which go ago), was discovered in the moun In the tropical bays one can find in for both crop-raising and stock tains of southern Szechuan and "ocean forests" of red-wooded breeding have been established on northern Kwangsi in 1957. mangroves growing out of the the great grasslands of the north Various kinds of commercial water. Some species throw out a east. Their main crops are soya forests also thrive in the subtrop tangle of prop roots in the shape of beans, sorghum and sugar beets. ical region. Moso bamboo covers arches from their base which en Irrigation from the Yellow River some mountains like a green sea. able them to stand up to strong has turned the Hotao area at the Planted to tea shrubs, many tracts wind and waves. Other species top of its Great Bend in Inner of red soil which were wasteland have air-roots which project above the mud and through tiny holes Mongolia and Ningsia into a before liberation have become lux granary north of the Great Wall. uriant plantations. On some slopes supply the submerged roots with On this densely-populated part of are grown the tea oil tree, the air. A number of them produce the loess plateau, over the past seeds of which are pressed to pro viviparous seeds which germinate thousand years most of the grass vide one of the main edible oils in while still attached to the tree, so lands have been turned into farm the south, tung-oil and lacquer that when they drop they readily trees, whose products make excel take root in the shifting mud. land. lent wood finishes, and the tallow In this region one can also find Alpine meadow-grassland region: tree, whose seeds are used to evergreen orchards of tropical The east-central arid southern por make synthetic oils. China fir and fruits, the banana, lichee, longan, tions of the Chinghai-Tibet plateau horsetail pine, which provide mango and betel palm, as well as are 4,000 meters above sea level, timber for building, are distributed plantations of industrial crops such and have no summer. The melting throughout this region. In recent as rubber, coconut, coffee, cacao, of glaciers produces many marshes years airplanes have been used to pepper and oil palm. There are and lakes, and meadows with seed large areas to pine trees, a also fields of pineapple, sugar cane lush grass and lovely flowers. The very effective method of afforesta and sisal hemp. The provinces of sunny slopes of the mountains pro tion. Kwangtung and Taiwan are big vide ample grazing grounds. Yaks, The 4,000-meter-high mountains producers of sugar cane and cam Tibetan goats and sheep are the of western Szechuan province and phor. Taiwan is the world's largest main domestic animals there. The southwest China, both located producer of camphor. valleys of the plateau grow such within this region, contain various cold-resistant crops as turnips and spring barley. Since liberation types of forests. The shoots and Regions of Semi-arid Grassland leaves of a kind of wild bamboo buckwheat, winter barley and growing in these mountains is the Temperate grassland region: winter wheat have been success chief food of the Giant Panda, who With a semi-arid climate, the plains fully raised in some places.

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS 42 Regions of Arid Desert

Temperate desert region: Sin- kiang, Kansu and the Tsaidam Basin in Chinghai province are in the temperate zone. The sandy deserts and areas of gravelly gobi there contain a poor variety of plants. The growth is sparse and there are stiietches where there is no vegetation at all. Among the few plants that grow in the sandy deserts of this region Trees on the edge of the Taklamakan desert, Sinkiang. are saxaul shrubs, which can be used as fuel and building material, wormwood which holds the sand in This reduces transpiration. Some and the other like those of the place, and sparsely-scattered tama have roots over ten meters long for willow. Both make excellent fod risk. On the gobi patches there are absorbing deep-down moisture. In der for camels and goats. This tree ephedra and calligonum. All the those desert places where under is the main source of timber in the above-mentioned except the latter ground water is near the surface, desert. make excellent camel fodder. The Euphrates poplars are found. This The vast grasslands and meadows leaves of some of these plants are species has two different kinds of on the lower slopes of the high vestigial, their function having leaves growing on the same tree, mountains are good grazing been taken over by green branches. one shaped like those of the poplar grounds. There are timber forests on the upper slopes. The melting of the perpetual ice and snow on The Hulunbuir grasslands in the northeast. the peaks irrigates the oases in the deserts below. They are where China's best long-staple cotton is grown. The basins in this region specialize in raising fruit such as grapes, watermelons and Hami mel ons. Because of the strong sun light and the great difference in day and night temperatures — favorable for concentrating sugar — the fruits are extraordinarily sweet.

Alpine desert region: The north west corner of Tibet, standing at 5,000 meters above sea level, has even sparser vegetation and of P<,' -» If" •• ..a fewer varieties. Only short, small shrubs are found here. Some of these are creepers, others are cush ion plants, forms adapted to re sisting wind and cold and preserv ing moisture. The melting snow on the peaks forms beautiful blue lakes. Some of the lake shores and riverbanks are rimmed with a growth of the shrub Myriearia, closely allied to the tamarisk and sometimes called the false tama risk, which is resistant to cold and drought. In summer its green leaves and red flowers against the white snow-topped mountains and blue of the lakes is one of the out standingly beautiful sights of the north Tibet plateau.

OCTOBER 1972 also of air pollution have been discussed the soldier faced with difficulties on the in my club, and of course, these problems battlefield, and give him patience to en are a danger to health. But it is really dure hardships and not be afraid of death encouraging that there is a clue to one of which is inevitable. It is heroic for a man IR POSTBAG the problems. to die for the sake of his homeland. M.B. Z.K. St. Andre, Mauritius Algiers, Algeria

Learn from the Heroes People's Well-being New Relations One of the best things I read in your Through reading your articles, we have Your "Party and government are leading magazine was written by Comrade Chih come to see that in China, all social and your people in building socialism. They Shun-yi, his memoirs of the national hero national wealth belong to the working are taking care of the life of the masses. Tung Tsun-jui. His life was one of people, to the workers and peasants and They concentrate the efforts of the unyielding and firm resistance and sacri intellectuals. A radical transformation, masses to ensure the stability of the peo- fice. On reading the life of this hero my both economic and political, seems to have pie's life and raise their living standard eyes were filled with tears, and a strong given rise to completely new relations and morale. As Chairman Mao has point feeling for that hero who gave his life between individuals, and between the ed out, "We pay close attention to the for his homeland flowed over me. citizens and the state. well-being of the masses, from the If every one of us Arabs has that firm S.G.V. problems of land and labor to those of ness, courage and love for his homeland, Santiago, Chile fuel, rice, cooking oil and salt. ... All no exploiter will exist any more in our such problems concerning the well-being home. of the masses should be placed on cur T.A.A.T. Unity and Mutual Support agenda." I have seen the way the Peo Aden, People's Democrat ple's Government has continually applied In the past 23 years the Chinese Com ic Republic of Yemeii the teachings of Chairman Mao since the munist Party, the Party whose deeds are founding of the New China in 1949. the same as their words, has led the In the story of the fighter Chi Hung- Chinese people in building the people's A.A.K.H. chang, who sacrificed himself for the socialist republic. The Chinese people Wasut, Iraq resistance against the detestable imperial ism, I was impressed by what he said also are fighting shoulder to shoulder with when he saw his wife worrying painfully the peoples of the world who support each Preventing Pollution about him. He said, "Don't be sad. Every other in their heroic endeavor to achieve man has to die. ... But a soldier should peace and prosperity. I am impressed to know how the indus die on the battlefield fighting the Japa trial waste water serves agriculture. Many nese invaders." His words are filled with times this problem of water pollution and meaning. They are a great example for People's Democratic Republic of Yemen

More Historic Revolutionary Sites

jp OUR more regular stamps featuring and the Yenho River Bridge in the fore Stamp 3, 1 fen, site of the First National historic sites of the Chinese revolution ground. Yenan was the center of the Congress of the Chinese Communist Party have been issued by the Ministry of Com north Shensi province revolutionary base held on July 1, 1921 in Shanghai. Orange- munications of the People's Republic of red, yellow, chocolate and grey-blue. China, following on seven stamps on the from which, between 1936 and 1948, Chair same theme issued in September 1971. (See man Mao led the Chinese people in wag Stamp 4, 8 fen, Tien An Men Gate in China Reconstructs April 1972.) ing the War of Resistance Against Japa Peking where Chairman Mao solemnly nese Aggression and the War of Liberation. proclaimed the founding of the Peo Stamp 1, 4 fen, the cave in the Date Green, deep bluish green, light blue, yellow Garden at Yenan where Chairman Mao ple's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. lived from 1943 to 1946. Yellow-brown, and red. Vermilion, rose-red, orange, blue and light yellow. light yellow, deep bluish green and grey. The above two stamps were issued on Stamp 2, 20 fen, bird's-eye view of December 20, 1971. The following two All the stamps are photogravured and Yenan with Pagoda Hill in the distance were issued on March 25, 1972: measure 26X31 mm. Perf. llj.

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