The Dark Period When the Chinese Started Eating Insects

chinese cuisine, one of the most interesting cuisines in the world stands out as. Known for its unique style, this cuisine carries various traces of the history, traditions and cultures of different regions. The biggest of these is Great Chinese Famine known as one of the greatest tragedies in world history.

In this period, people are trying to survive. anything you can think of had to consume. Let’s take a closer look at one of the darkest periods in human history in China.

Until 1949, China had a largely agrarian economy.

Chinese President Mao Zedong; country as soon as he came to power from a poor society to the world’s largest economy He wanted to make it one of the countries that had For this reason, ‘Great Leap ForwardHe started an industrialization-oriented program that he called ‘, which would cost the lives of millions of people.

About the population of China at that time 80% lived in rural areas. The new government first stripped these people of their lands in order to accelerate the industrialization program. Then ‘Leave your vineyard, your garden; Come and work in the mines and factories.” Millions of people who had to obey this order had to migrate to the cities.

A small population remained in the countryside, and the state divided these people into small groups and started growing crops.

The officials, who wanted to show that the implemented policies were quite successful and who wanted to help Chairman Mao, expressed that the production in agriculture has increased. exaggerated reports started to prepare. In reality, agricultural production fell drastically.

As a result of the false reports, more agricultural products were sent to the cities, leaving less for the farmers themselves. On top of all this, like planting plants closer together and deeper wrong farming ideas things started to get out of hand slowly.

Implemented wrong agricultural policies greatly reduced productivity and efficiency.

In this situation, the government continued to act as if the policies it implemented had no effect and continued its wrong policies. The most crucial of these policies and what caused famine to take on a whole new dimension. ‘Four Pests Campaign’was.

The Mao administration thought that the sparrows were damaging the fields. He started a campaign to kill sparrows. However, if the sparrows were causing any damage to the crops, they were doubly protecting the fields as they ate the insects. The authorities and the public, who are not aware of this, killed nearly a billion sparrows is estimated.

After the sparrows were killed, the other animals that ate the crops had no enemies.

As such, insects such as grasshoppers began to invade the fields. On top of all these problems, in 1959, China’s The southern part is flooded, the northern part is by drought. started to struggle.

The government, aware of the fact that it will not be able to recover the situation after the events, they are facing famine made public.

There was no longer even enough food for humans to survive.

Due to the theft of food stocks, the government took drastic measures and millions of people had to leave the cities in search of food. But food was also difficult to find in rural areas, and millions of people died of starvation.

One of the most dire consequences of the famine was that humans began to eat insects. Humans use all means, including mice, snakes, and insects, to find food. they began to eat all kinds of wildlife.

This situation also caused the spread of epidemic diseases among people.

So, for the Chinese, eating insects had become a necessity for survival.

In 1960, Mao Zedong changed his agricultural policies, giving more freedom to the peasants. It raised the price of agricultural products and allowed peasants to freely sell their produce. These policies an increase in agricultural production caused, and food stocks were rebuilt.

This famine experienced between 1958 and 1962 left deep wounds on the Chinese people. About 45 million people It is presumed that he died of starvation and disease. After this disaster, which was a turning point in China’s history, the country’s policies were completely changed, but eating insects became a culture.