What is the Great Leap Forward?

Directions: Answer the Questions below (in your packet) by reading the secondary sources below.

In 1958, Mao started the Great Leap Program that was meant to make China more money quickly. What was Mao’s goal for China according to this video? Who did he want to compete with?
Describe what a commune is? How did they start? Explain the people of China’s reaction to this new program.
With the idea of communes of 25,000 people; describe what a typical day was like for adults and children. (Think: labor, food, health)
Explain how did China’s competition with the Western world and US was connected to the Great Leap Forward. Why was steel so important?
Although steel was very important to Mao and making money for China; the government also wanted to focus on farming. What does the expression “The corn will grow higher if desired” mean for China?
Competition in the communes began to make Mao and the government happy. Soon the government officials began to inflate (or make up) how much grain was grown in the communes and the state would then come to collect the grain to sell and feed the people in the cities. An example is a commune would report raising 10 tons but only grow 5 tons (this is inflation).
What happened to the peasants because of these fake numbers?
Was the Great Leap Forward an economical success (make money for China)? Was it good for the people of China? Explain.
Because of the Great Leap Forward program’s bad farming ideas and weather conditions (drought and floods) from 1958 to 1960, China had one of the worst famines ever. In 1958, there was a lot of grain grown in China, but not enough peasants to pick it. Then in 1959, a chemical was used to get rid of birds that ate locusts (insects that eat crops). What happened to that food supply?
The famine in China from 1958 to 1960 was created by at least three things. List them in the order you think is the most important.

Secondary Source: Movie Clip - The Great Leap Forward or Play Below

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