The events of that year and that month

Author: Yuan Yiqiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: The story of this book originates from a real historical event. The nationwide campaign to eradicate sparrows, backyard steel furnaces, and high-yield wheat fields producing 130,000 jin per mu transport us to an era that is both familiar and unfamiliar. In 1958, the Dawn Wood Products Factory accepted over forty rightist university students who had been expelled from school. From then on, their fate became closely tied to the factory. To quickly shake off the rightist label, they threw themselves into labor with great enthusiasm, utilizing their expertise to modernize the factory's outdated equipment. Through their actions, they earned the respect and recognition of the workers. The Great Leap Forward, the Lushan Conference, the Three Years of Natural Disasters, the Economic Adjustment, and the Cultural Revolution— the political winds shifting, the fortunes of the rightists rose and fell. They had become inseparably linked to the Dawn Wood Products Factory and its workers, bound by blood and solidarity. Through the relentless efforts of these students and workers, the small factory gradually grew and expanded. The workers also cared for and even protected the students from further persecution in their own ways. During the chaotic phase of the Cultural Revolution, when the factory director, the party secretary, and the rightist students were indiscriminately dragged onto the stage for public criticism, the workers stood up for them. The book depicts the development history of a large state-owned enterprise. At the same time, it is also a microcosm of an era. Looking back at the history of that time, the political fluctuations have seemed insignificant. What remains etched in memory is sincerity—the sincerity of belief and the genuine bonds between people.