The scenic Lake Honghu was the centerpiece of a revolutionary Chinese opera: "The Red Guards of Lake Honghu" which was based on a true story about the and its struggle with the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War.
Role in Chinese communist history
The region was important in Chinese history and the history of Communist Party of China in that during the Chinese Civil War in the pre-World War II era, the city and nearby regions including the lake were part of an important communist stronghold called Hunan-Western Hubei Soviet under the reign of future communist Field Marshal He Long for most of the time in its existence. Hunan-Western Hubei Soviet was actually a collection of several isolated communist bases linked together by areas with strong communist guerrilla activities and Honghu Soviet was the largest among all communist bases consisting Hunan-Western Hubei Soviet. The communist stronghold survived until 1934 when it was finally crushed by the joint forces of Chiang Kai-shek and various allied with Chiang.
A synopsis of this story which happened on Lake Honghu:
Market Economy in the 1950s
In 1954, Yangtze River had a huge flood that only occurred once a century, and in order to save major cities including Wuhan, Honghu was designated as the flooded area, resulting in nearly a million local residents becoming refugees after the entire county was flooded. As the flood subsided and refugees returned to begin rebuilding, another political disaster struck the county that was already devastated by the flood: on May 5, 1955, Mao Zedong personally claimed that the time was critical for collectivization, and ordered the immediate start of collectivization, which must be completed within three years.
The local communist party secretary Mr. Li Jinyu who had just assigned to the area in 1955 and witnessed the devastation first hand, strongly opposed Mao's foolish policy and openly claimed that there must be pre-requisit conditions that must be met before collectivization and Honghu had not met any of them. Instead, Mr. Li Jinyu successfully convinced his colleagues to adopt a totally different economic policy that was completely against Mao's wish, market economy , which immediately proved to be a great success: not only the county was fully recovered from the total devastation within a year, the average industrial annual growth was 17.7% and average agricultural annual growth was 11.3%. In the era where most Chinese peasants were only able to eat meat once a year during the Chinese new year, the local peasantry students at all schools in Honghu county were guaranteed a meal of chicken, a meal of fish, and a meal of meat every week. However, the good time would not last long and Li and Mr. Li Jinyu and his colleagues, as well as the local population would later pay a heavy price for going against Mao Zedong's will. Mr. Li Jinyu was obviously keenly aware this and asked local populace to be prepared by stocking grains and other foods at their homes.
Honghu during the Great Leap Forward
In accordance with Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward, the communist party apparatus at prefecture level issued order on July 4, 1958 to produce forty thousand tons of steel, thirty-six thousand tons of iron, and over half a million people were mobilized for this effort. Another three thousand were mobilized to logging in order to meet the fuel demand of making steel and iron. Honghu, a county belong to the prefecture could be no exception and Mr. Li Jinyu 's own son, Mr. Li Shutang , a student at the time, was among those mobilized. After witnessing the furnance hastily built at his son's school, which was completely useless but still functioned due to the political reason, Mr. Li Jinyu only muttered one sentence:"This is a joke!", but he and his colleagues were powerless to stop the foolish policy that was issued by the Chinese paramount leader Mao Zedong. Once his son Li Shutang excitedly told him that there average yield of a single hactre of rice reached 100 tons, Mr. Li Jinyu angrily shut his son up by telling the truth: that was the total production of twenty hactres of rice put into one, the propaganda had lied.
The consequence of Mao's distratrous policy soon appeared: since June, 1959, according to official records of the Chinese government, the death of local prefecture numbered 115,844 in 1960, which was more than the double of the average annual death of 50,000. The price at Honghu county sky rocketed and the number of people becoming ill due to starvation drastically increased. Mr. Li Jinyu and his colleague decided to save the local population totaling more than half a million from starvation, which ultimately would doom their fates.
Honghu in the Great Chinese Famine
Massive death in the local Jingzhou prefecture forced the local cadres at prefecture level to gather as much grains as possible, and Honghu county, the only county in the prefecture without death caused by starvation, became their only target. The local communist party secretary of Jingzhou prefecture, Mr. Xue Tan , asked Mr. Li Jinyu to only leave 13.5 kg of grains of monthly rations for each resident of Honghu, and give out the rest. Mr. Li Jinyu refused, argued that it would at least take 15 kg of monthly ration to prevent death resulting from starvation. After much arguments without any satisfactory result, Mr. Li Jinyu decided to go against his superior's order and allow the local populace to have enough to eat. As a result, in an era all other counties suffered tens of thousands death resulting from starvation, Honghu county did not loose a single person to starvation, and the local population of Honghu county actually increased by 15.52‰ .
Honghu county during Cultural Revolution
Mr. Li Jinyu and his colleagues soon paid their price for saving the local population. Even before the Cultural Revolution, the local cadres were persecuted. In October, 1964, the communist apparatus at the Jingzhou prefecture level decided that the communist organization of Honghu county was completely "rotten" and Mr. Li Jinyu and his colleagues were struggled in public trials in front of ten thousand people. In April, 1965, the charge became much more serious, the local communists of Honghu county headed by Mr. Li Jinyu was accused of being reestablishing capitalism. In February, 1966, the local communists of Honghu county were accused of establishing independent kingdoms, forming reactionary anti-communism revisionist group, a serious political crime that was punishable by death. Finally, in 1966, a total of 341 cadres of Honghu county, or 90% of the county administrators and local communists in charge, including communist party scretary Mr. Li Jinyu , first deputy communist party scretary Mr. Xu Wei , deputy communist party scretaries Han Yaohui , Ma Xiangkui , and Gu Chengqi were all arrested and sent directly to labor camps without trials or any other legal proceedings, and everyone received at least ten years jail terms, with Mr. Li Jinyu had the longest, a fifteen-year term. The persecution had such devastation on those suffered that many, including the former deputy communist party scretary Mr. Xu Wei refused to be interviewed about the experience, even in the 2000s, more than three decades later. The subject remain a taboo in official documents by the Chinese government until this day, but those local populace who survived the massive famine thanks to what Mr. Li Jinyu had done would remember him. After Mr. Li Jinyu had passed away on October 8, 2002, many of those who had experienced the famine went to his funeral to honor him, including many who could not go but insisted on being carried to the funeral.
Noteworthy people born in Honghu
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