The Famine of 1942

The story begins with the autumn drought of 1941. Mazhuang’s fields yielded nothing, and the villagers began digging up roots and gnawing on bark. In the spring of 1942, locusts swept through, leaving not a blade of grass on the land. The county government tightened its demands for grain, and the villagers began fleeing famine. Old Ma’s family joined the stream of refugees heading toward Shaanxi. Along the way, they encountered bandits, Japanese air raids, and epidemics, and witnessed parents selling their children and desperate people trading children to eat. Mr. Bai set up a soup kitchen in the village, only to attract defeated soldiers who came to seize the food. After reporter Chen’s article was suppressed, he returned to the disaster zone with a small amount of relief grain and encountered Old Ma’s family... In the end, the survivors reached Shaanxi, only to discover that life was just as hard in a foreign land. Staying alive remained a daily struggle.