Chinese Farmers Testimony

Peasant: No, we can’t afford to buy the salt.

Photographer: Is there any salt?
Peasant: No, we can’t afford to buy the salt.
Photographer: What did you sell to exchange for two jin( a unit of weight. 1 jin = 1/2 kilogram) of kerosene yesterday, as you have mentioned just now?
Peasant: I sold a cock for ten yuan weighted two jin and a half.
Photographer: How much did you spend to buy two jin of kerosene?
Peasant: It’s two yuan five jiao for a jin of kerosene. It cost five yuan.
Photographer: Then, five yuan left?
Peasant: I bought two jin of white spirit except two jin of kerosene. It’s two yuan for one jin.
Photographer: One yuan left at last. Didn’t you buy any salt?
Peasant: Eh. But no money left after that.
摄影师：盐都没有吗？
农民：盐都吃不起，没钱。
摄影师：你刚才说你昨天卖了什么换了两斤油？
农民：卖了个鸡。卖了个鸡二斤卖了十块钱。
摄影师：买了两斤油花了多少钱？
农民：煤油两块五一斤，花了五块钱。

Mother feeding

Mother feeding

The peasant’s words:

"My husband has a construction job in Beijing but has earned nothing for the whole year but debt to the Contractor for his accommodation and meals. He has not a single penny to make a call to me. He has fallen ill and needs money to start his way home. I have no money, either...."

The poor rural mothers in scholar 's eyes: In the Chinese rural area, there is a special group of people - mothers in poverty. Many of them live in extreme poverty, don't have enough food, and can't receive any social welfare, such as essential education and health care. A large number of them are illiterate and poor in health. More than half of them are suffering from women's diseases, according to the official Chinese report. For their children and family, they endure all these pains and are suffering all the economic difficulties and hard labor.

农民的话：
“我丈夫在北京建筑队找了个活，但是一年了一分钱都没有挣到，还欠了工头一笔食宿费。他连给我打电话的钱都没有。他病了想回家。可是我也没有钱寄给他……”

学者眼中的农村母亲们：“在中国农村，有一个特殊的群体－贫困的母亲们。她们很多人都生活在极度的贫困中，食物匮乏，也没有什么社会保障，像什么必须的教育及医疗保障都没有。她们很多人都是文盲，身体也不好。根据官方报道，一半以上的农村妇女都患有妇科病。为了她们的子女和家庭，她们正忍受各种病痛、贫困和劳作的沉重压力。”

The childhood on father’s back

The childhood on father’s back
In China, a greater part of population lives in the rural area. The root and the sentiment of Chinese people are also there. But, the poorest place is the rural area, too. For the people who live in the mountainous area, they are ploughing and weeding with their face towards the loess and their back under the sun. They live and multiply there as always without complaining about or signing for what life has granted them. They just live like this day after day, year after year and generation after generation.
父亲背上的童年
中国大部分的人口在农村。中国人的根在农村，中国人的情也在农村，最贫困的也是农村。山里人面朝黄土背朝天，默默在耕作，声息繁衍，不知道埋怨什么，也不知叹息什么，日复一日，年复一年，世世代代如此。

Father 父亲

Father 父亲

“Either rises or falls the dynasty, suffering still are the common people” , wrote Zhang Yanghao, a verse writer in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), in his “Hillside Goat: Reminiscence at the Tong Pass”. The Chinese peasants are the world’s largest group of laborers. For thousands of years, they have been surviving on the same lowest social stratum, suffering from time to time the droughts and floods, social unrest, tyranny, disasters of war, and banditry – the varied sorts of natural and social hazards. They are a group still struggling to merely survive. The dramatic changes of China today have attracted the world’s attention, so more aptly should have the plight of the Chinese peasants behind these dramatic changes. They deserve a general human sympathy.

Sichuan China houyimin011, Sichuan China houyimin005

Sichuan China houyimin011, Sichuan China houyimin005
The peasant’s words: Sichuan China
We pay to the Buddha for blessing. In 1970’s the temple here was destroyed in the campaign of Break Through Four Olds. Now the villagers have put up the shed where they burn joss sticks. Lacking money, we haven’t had the Buddha statue until now. I’m thinking about collecting herbs in the mountain and sold them in the market. In this way I can accumulate enough money to invite a Buddha statue in several months.
农民的话：
我们祈求菩萨的保佑。七十年代这里的庙被破“ 四旧”毁了。乡亲们在这里搭建了这个棚子，来这里烧香。由于没钱，到现在也请不起佛像供。我想等我上山采药，拿到集市上去卖，过几个月把钱凑齐了，去请一尊菩萨来供。

The Yong Shepard

The Yong Shepard

Photographer: Why don't you go to school?

Boy: My grandpa doesn't allow me to.

Photographer: Why?

Boy: I have to look after these sheep.

Photographer: Do you want to go to school?

Boy: Yes, I do.

放羊儿
摄影师：为什么不上学？
放羊儿：爷爷不让去。
摄影师：为什么爷爷不让去？
放羊儿：要放羊。
摄影师：你想不想去上学？
放羊儿：想。

中年男子

中年男子
A middle-aged man

A peasant with a job in town

A peasant with a job in town

The peasants’ words:
The youngsters in the family leave home to seek the living, which brings home the source of income. But life is still hard.
农民的话
家里年轻人可以出去打工了，这多少有了一些经济来源，但是生活依然很艰辛。

展览说明 17

In the afternoon of the New Year's Eve, 2003, I was taking photos on a cropland in Fushou Village, Huaiyuan Town, Chongqing City, Sichuan Province. I was just about to leave as it was getting dark when a disabled peasant came to me as she saw I was taking photos there. With bleeding nose, she kept sobbing out something but I could only hear her cry—the cry from the bottom of her heart. She told me that she had been beaten by some officials from the local land administration office. On hearing her story, I suggested to visit her family and tried to know more of her story. Her house covered an area of about 40 m2 and its interior was very dark indeed. There was a sty in one of the rooms and besides it was laid a small bed. She told me it was her daughter’s bed. It was too dark to take any photos, as I had no flashlight with me. After returning to the hostel, I decided to go back to her house with flashlight. Upon my second visit, her daughter—Wang Sha, a middle-school student in Huaiyuan Township, Chongqing City, Sichuan Province—had come home from school. She was fourteen years old. No sooner after she saw me did she burst into tears for which she had good reasons. She had to pay the school RMB700 a year and the total annual income of her family was RMB1000. The RMB1000 was from her father’s selling sand after digging the riverbed. They wanted to raise more pigs so they built a small sty besides the road. But as it turned out, her mother was beaten to nose bleeding by some officials from the local land administration office and the sty was demolished. I asked them how much money was needed to build a sty. The mother told me it would cost her RMB50, while weeping. I advised them not to quarrel with the officials because the farmers were in a disadvantaged position. I gave them 100 yuan and suggested that they find another place to build a sty. I really hoped that I could give the little girl the money she needed for school. But I did not have much money. I wanted to help more children to go to school through my work.

2003年圣诞节的下午,我在四川省崇庆市怀远镇福寿村1组遇到一个农民，她被国土局的人打得流鼻血了，她看到我在地里拍摄就来找我，她是个残废，在我的面前也说不清楚话，我只能够听到她的哭，从心底里发出的声音。本来天要黑了，我已经准备回去，但是我要去她家看一下，听她说是怎么回事情，他们家有40平方米，黑黑的，有一个房间里有一个猪圈，旁边有一个小床铺，她说是女儿住的地方，很黑……，我没有带闪光灯，没有办法拍摄。回到住的地方，我还想去，就拿了灯又去，这时间她女儿已经回来了(四川省崇庆市怀远镇中学初中二年级王沙)，14岁，好乖的一个孩子，她看到我就哭，因为她上学一年要700元，家里一年的收入是1000元，是父亲在河道里挖沙卖的钱，他们家想多喂养几个猪，就在路旁边修了一个小猪圈，妈妈就被国土局的人打得流鼻血了，猪圈也破坏了，我问猪圈价值多少钱，妈妈说50，哭不停，我劝告她们，不要生气，生气坏了身体是自己吃亏，我叫他们不要同政府的人吵架，要吃亏，我给了她们100元钱，让她们换一个地方修个猪圈，我真是希望可以给这个小女孩子上学的钱，但是我的身上没有，希望我的工作可以让更多孩子上学……

To the city for a job

To the city for a job
All the young men have gone out to earn their living. The aged, the weak, the sick and the disabled have been left over to cope with the cadres of the village and the town.”
能走的少壮都出去谋生路了，剩下的老弱病残与乡镇干部应付着、撕扯着。

Sichuan China houyimin011, Sichuan China houyimin005

Sichuan China houyimin011, Sichuan China houyimin005
The peasant’s words: Sichuan China
We pay to the Buddha for blessing. In 1970’s the temple here was destroyed in the campaign of Break Through Four Olds. Now the villagers have put up the shed where they burn joss sticks. Lacking money, we haven’t had the Buddha statue until now. I’m thinking about collecting herbs in the mountain and sold them in the market. In this way I can accumulate enough money to invite a Buddha statue in several months.
农民的话：
我们祈求菩萨的保佑。七十年代这里的庙被破“ 四旧”毁了。乡亲们在这里搭建了这个棚子，来这里烧香。由于没钱，到现在也请不起佛像供。我想等我上山采药，拿到集市上去卖，过几个月把钱凑齐了，去请一尊菩萨来供。

展览说明 12

"The fees handed in by peasants to substitute labor and the agriculture project construction funds were appropriated to pay for the debt and distribute salaries, which resulted in the aging of water conservancy project. You can come to our village and have a look. The irrigation ditches have been silted up, water and air have been seriously polluted, rubbishes have been piled up, most beneficial insets and aniamls like snakes, frogs and birds have disappeared and forests and plants have been completed felled...

All the young men have gone to earn their living. The aged, the weak, the sick and the disabled have been left over to cope and deal with the cadres of the village and the town."

A dinner took to the field

A dinner took to the field
The peasants' words:
Usually we have the sweet potato porridge for breakfast and seldom do we eat the pure rice porridge. The dishes are usually dried turnips made by ourselves.
For lunch, perhaps you will not believe me; we usually eat the porridge left from breakfast. And the fried green vegetables we eat rarely.
For supper, usually we cook a pot of thick porridge and get it out when it isn't thoroughly cooked. That is the so-called rice, which we call sweet potato rice. If we are lucky enough, we could have meat, but actually we seldom have such good luck.
It is said that some people who get rich first can give others a hand, but how could that be possible！
农民的话：
早饭吃粥，一般是红薯粥，偶尔才喝白米粥。菜一般是萝卜干，自家做的酸菜。
中午来说，你们不信，很多时候吃早上存下来的粥，好的时候炒青菜。
晚饭好一点，煮一锅稠的红薯粥，在还不是很烂的时候捞起来，算是吃饭，我们叫红薯饭。好的时候有点肉，这种情况不多。
说是一部分人先富起来了，会带动其他人一起富，但是大家有没有想过，这怎么可能呢？

How many forms of fees and taxes should peasants pay?

How many forms of fees and taxes should peasants pay?

1. agriculture tax

2. agriculture and forestry

3. charge for public accumulation funds

4. land occupation fee

5. land-contracting fee

6. militia training fee

7. road construction fee

8. attached education fee

9. labor serving for military fee

10. social anti-disaster fee

11. animal husbandry tax

12. fruit tax

13. vegetable tax

14. tobacco tax

15. accumulation funds

16. public welfare funds

17. movie fee

18. family-planning fee

19. children's immunization fee

20. women's gynecologic cheek-up fee

21. pig feeding tax

23. fee for school construction funds

24. fee for subscribing newspapers and magazines

25. cooperative medical treatment fee

26. forest-felling approvement fee

27. fowl immunization fee

28. industrial and commercial administration fee

29. production administration fee

30. individual administration fee

31. price-regulating fee

32. dam-protecting fee

33. exhaust-discharging fee

The peasant selling dead fish

The peasant selling dead fish
The peasant’s words:
We should be very careful on buying food, clothes or other essential articles. Otherwise we would have no money to pay the tuition of our children. No money!
农民的话：
我们舍不得吃，舍不得穿，舍不得乱花一分钱，不然孩子上学怎么办！没钱啊！

展览说明 22

The peasants' words:
I am 83 years old, my sons and daughters now have their own families and live separately. I myself have 3 mu of field to till.
Photographer, tell me how many years I still have in my life, 2 years? or even less? You can just tell me the truth. I won't be angry.
I haven't seen the electricity light for decades, because I cannot afford the wire. Photographer, don’t take my photo. I have no money to pay you.
农民的话：
我83岁了，儿女们都成家分过了。我一个人种3亩地。照相的，你说我还能活几年？活不活得过两年？你说，我不会生气。几十年了，我没见过点灯，我没有钱牵电线。照相得，你不要照，我没钱。

A Basket of Eggs

A Basket of Eggs
The peasants’ words:
Rice was sold 0.72 yuan per jin (half a kilo) in 1981, and now it's 0.73 yuan. In 1981 the yield per mu was 1000 jin or so, but the input has been increased greatly. The leaf tobacco was sold 4 yuan per jin in 1981, and now even the best one can only be sold for 5 yuan. Egg was sold for 2.5 yuan per jin in 1981, and now its price has decreased to 2.2 yuan. (Note: In 1981 one dollar could be exchanged for  3 yuan or more, but now for 8 yuan or more).
农民的话：
81年大米卖七角二分钱一斤，现在卖七角三分钱一斤。81年一亩地收800斤，现在一亩地收1000斤左右。但投入增加了很多。81年烟叶4块钱一斤。现在最好的烟叶才卖五毛钱一斤。81年鸡蛋卖两块五毛钱一斤，现在鸡蛋两块两毛钱一斤就能买到。（注：81年1美元兑换3元多人民币，现在1美元可兑换8元多人民币）

展览说明 31

The peasants’ words:
We brought the fake pesticide Luan Chongke from the means of production supply station in the town last year, and 37 families of cotton peasants had their 1800 mu field no yield. We can do nothing but have a tearful face. Some families have been even reduced to poverty and ruin.
农民的话：
我们村去年买了镇上生资供应站出售的“卵虫克”假农药，37户棉农1800亩棉田全部绝收。我们只能以泪洗面，有的家已经倾家荡产。

Peasants selling eggs

Peasants selling eggs

An Old Peasant with Chinese Medicine

An Old Peasant with Chinese Medicine

The Peasant: I have been sick for some years. I spent 2,000 yuan on my disease the year before last year. I am in heavy debt. I have no more money for the medicine. It still hurts....

The unlicensed country doctor: There is no clinic in the village. The folks have to walk 20 km to see the doctor at the township clinic. For minor illnesses, they just leave them. The peasants lead a hard life. Most of them are malnourished, but they are driven under heavy labor. Their living depends on the mercy of the weather. Most sick peasants who come to buy medicine could afford ten cents or so. It would take them months to recover from a cold.

We have an ironical local saying, "Here, if you get minor illness, lie down; if you get serious illness, hold on; if you could not hold on, go to hell"..

The peasants’ words:

The peasants’ words:

“Our school house is very simple and crude. The teaching facilities are old and shabby. The only place in our school we can have activities is a muddy filed, which is made smooth by the students in their laboring classes. Tens of students live in the same shabby dormitary with only ome big bed available which is the only place they can sleep on. Al l the students have steam rice for meal which is made by putting the rice and water into a lunch-box for steaming. The rice is taken from their family. All they eat for meal is this kind of steam rice with some chinese sauerkraut or salted vegetables. Only one or two students from not so poor families could afford ten fen to buy some fresh vegetables.”

农民的话：

“我们学校校舍非常简陋，教学设施也很破旧。全校唯一的活动场所师一块学生们用劳动课平整出来的泥地。几十个学生同住一间简陋的宿舍。睡觉时，大家往仅有的一张大床上一躺就是了。学生们都吃蒸饭，米各自从家里带来一些放进一个饭盒里配上水，待蒸熟后拌上一些酸菜或咸菜就是一顿饭了。个别条件好些的也时花上一角几分钱买些青菜。”

The peasants’ words:

“Our schools charge extremely high on students. The tuition for one symester of a primary school is 400-500 yuan, of a secondary school is 700-800 yuan. The tuition accounts for half of the total income for each family.
Students’ meals are made by school cooks with the material students bought from their family every week. The vegetable dishes in the school stay uchanged for a whole year. The lunch includes a bowl of red rice and a spoon of Chinese cabbage soup. Every day, there are nly two meals served in the school for the supper is ignored. The standard for each meal is restricted to 4 fen. Meat is too lucturous to be available for us. In wvery sports meeting, due to malnutrition, there always be some students get faint shortly after they begin to run .”

农民的话：

“我们这里，学校收费很重。没学期小学收费是400－500元，初中是700－800元，平均每家要交的学费占总收入的二分之一。
在我们村中心小学，饭是每个学生每星期 从家里拿来交到学校食堂，由食堂师傅做的。菜一年四季只有一个，是素的。午饭是一碗米饭，一勺白菜汤。一天两顿饭，不吃早点。每顿饭的标准是四分钱。要吃肉，不可能。由于营养不良，每次开运动会，跑不多远就会有人晕倒。”

Blind Grandma

Blind Grandma
Blind grandma and her three sons didn’t have any farmland now. All through those years tilling had been unprofitable at all, so they quitted their farmland and returned it to the authority. Her sons then went out to find jobs. Since 2005 when Chinese central government canceled the agricultural tax, farmers could get some benefit from tilling, so blind grandma and her sons wanted their farmland back. But the authority controlled the farmlands and they rented the land out by 200 yuan each year.
In fact, the rent from the farmland did not summit to the central government at all. Although the authority had hundreds of Mu of farmland in their hand, they refused to return the farmland to the peasants. There are five people in blind grandma’s family but none of them had any farmland, so everything they ate should be bought with money. How badly they want to get their farmland back! It was supposed to belong to them!
She wanted the farmland so eagerly that she even asked me: “Can we get back our farmland after you have finished shooting?” I don’t know how to answer her, so I have to say: “I am not sure.”
瞎婆婆说：她和三个儿子现在连一分土地都没有了，因为前些年种地没有收入，所以儿子就都外出打工去了，把土地全部交给了队里，现在国家开始不收税了，种地有收入了，他们就想要回来自己的土地，但是现在这些土地在队长的手上，都每年一亩200元租给了别人，这些钱也很少上交，国家就根本没有得到钱，队长们现在手上有几百亩土地可以出租，但是他们就是不把这些土地还给农民，说是农民当时是自己不要了土地，瞎婆婆家里五口人，现在没有 一分土地，现在连菜都要买来吃，她多么希望队里可以把本来就应该是她们的土地还给她们呀！
她几次问我：“你拍摄了这个东西后，我们可以有土地种吗？”在这个时候，我不知道应该怎么来回答她 ，我说：“我说不好”

童年

童年
Childhood

She shares a room with pigs.

She shares a room with pigs.
她跟猪住在一起。

A Peasant's Rubber Shoes

A Peasant's Rubber Shoes

The photographer: How long have you been wearing these shoes?
The Peasant: I bought them last year。
The photographer: For how much did you get them?
Peasant: 11 yuan. (1US$ for 8 RMB yuan)
Photographer: Most people here wear this kind of shoes? It seems to me that at least 80% peasants here wear this, rubber-soled shoes used in army.
Peasant: Yeah.
摄影师：你这双鞋穿多久了？
农民：我去年买的。
摄影师：好多钱买的？
农民：11块钱。
摄影师：是不是这里人大多都穿这鞋？ 我发现这里百分之八十的人都穿这种解放鞋。
农民：是。