This is the second article in a two-part series by William W. Hodes '66 on life in Communist Chins. Mr. Hodes and his family spent the years between 1955 and 1960 in Peking, the capital of Chins. the city. Flat-top peddi-cabs also transport everything from cabbages to cast iron to live and squawking chickens. Nursery schools even have "school buses," converted peddi-cabs which are actually just big boxes on wheels with a driver peddling away in front.
When the Chinese go about cleaning up a city, they go at it with a vengeance. Flies used to be so numerous in Packing that you couldn't eat a piece of watermelon in the street without brushing them off between bites. A campaign was organized in which everyone took part. Even grade school in matchboxes and counted. The result: Peking is now free of flies.
A few years later the government proclaimed a national campaign to exterminate sparrows, one of the "four pests," (they eat many times their weight in grain each day) and Peking did its part in a one-day all-out effort. Early in the morning, the whole population started making noise and shooing sparrows. Every-where in the city, the sight of a single sparrow on a rooftop or in a tree was the signal for a tumult of shout, gongs and tin cans.
As the day wore on, sparrows began to drop with exhaustion, unable to fly away even when someone came right up to them to wring their necks. One or two areas in the parks were deliberately left "quiet," and here an army of BB-gunners lay in ambush for the resting sparrow. Some of our British comrades demurred, of course, but the campaign saved many tons of grain for the Peking area.
Another campaign was aimed at the spitting in public that was very common all over China. Young Pioneers (Socialist "boy scouts") took to the streets with megaphones and leaflets, explaining the health problems created by spitting, and lecturing passers-by who were caught in the act. At the height of the campaign, the Pioneers went around with pieces of chalk, drawing circles around the spit and labelling them with the date and the culprit's name.
It is impossible to write an up-to-date account of life in China: a new campaign may be launched while you type your notes. The only thing that remains sure is that the vitality never changes, the energy of the people is never peaked. No matter what they set their hands to-- Killing sparrows or winning a swimming race--the Chinese put their entire strength into it. For every task, there are 1000 volunteers.
This is what makes China so fascinating to all and so frightening to some