Overseas Chinese sent to Guangdong with a land reform work team in 1951
A peasant bound on his knees before armed militia and assembled villagers during a land reform struggle session in rural Guangdong.
he had never seen anyone executed. When the militia shot the village head, she drew her borrowed gun and shot him too.1
Sheng Chong grew up in Malaya. Singapore jailed her as a communist and expelled her to China in 1950.
In March 1951 she joined a land reform work team in Guangdong. She knew nothing about the countryside.
Her team walked into Tunli, a village of 160 people. She lived with A Lan, a poor widow.
Before each struggle meeting, the team found victims to speak. They stirred up their hatred and coached them in what to say.
The village head stood on a stage with his hands tied. Several hundred people watched. Two militiamen shot him.
She shot him in the back as he lay on the ground. The crowd cheered. Some spat on the body.
Fifty years later she still called land reform correct, wise and crucial.
“I'm sure he was already dead, but I was so outraged I just had to do it.”
Land reform did not only kill. It taught ordinary people to kill, and to be proud of it.