20230403_121518

Niu Youlan, a wealthy landlord in Shanxi Province. He received good ed in Beijing where he was exposed to new progressive ideas. He became a CCP summarizer & helped CCP financially. He also sent his son to Tsinghua Univ. (China’s MIT) where he joined the CCP. Everything seemed fine until CCP’s Land Reform campaign after it took power in 1949.Now Niu became the enemy of the state for simply being a landowner. All his pro-CCP good deeds were forgotten. His property was confiscated & redistributed to poor peasants. He was denounced in a struggle session (public trial), presided over by no other than his own son, now a prominent CCP official. The family name Niu in Chinese character means ox. A  metal wire was pulled through Niu’s nose by the angry mass. He was paraded through the village w/ his son pulling the rope attached to the wire. The father died a few days later.In the land reform movement from 1950-53, millions of landowners were executed. Land was distributed to peasants--for a couple of years then returned to the state in the form of communes. Less than 10 years after that, the Great Famine.