Great sparrow campaign 4041070 214695281 2008-05-24T21:00:35Z PeR 67023 /* Revived campaign */ shorter way of writing the wikilink [[image: Tree_Sparrow_August_2007_Osaka_Japan.jpg|thumb|right|250px|At the direction of [[Mao Zedong|Chairman Mao]], sparrows were killed by the peasants, causing a major [[ecological]] imbalance in the environment]] The '''Great sparrow campaign''' ({{zh-s|打麻雀运动}}) also known as the '''Kill a sparrow campaign''' (消灭麻雀运动), and officially, the '''Four Pests campaign'''<!--need hanzi--> was one of the first actions taken in the [[Great Leap Forward]] from 1958 to 1962. The four pests to be eliminated were [[rat]]s, [[fly|flies]], [[mosquito]]es, and [[sparrow]]s. ==Campaign== The campaign was initiated<!--Which month/year?--> by [[Mao Zedong]], the first [[President of the People's Republic of China]]. Sparrows were included on the list because they ate [[grain]] seeds, causing disruption to agriculture. It was decided that all the peasants in [[China]] should bang pots and pans and run around to make the sparrows fly away in fear. Sparrow nests were torn down, eggs were broken, their nestlings were also killed.<ref name="Shapiro">Shapiro, Judith Rae. Crosby, Worster, Alfred W. [2001] (2001). Mao's War Against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521786800.</ref> Initially, the campaign did improve the harvest. By April 1960 the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Science]] found that sparrows ate insects more than seeds. Mao declared "forget it" (算啦, suan la), and ordered the end of the campaign against sparrows.<ref name="Shapiro" /> By this time, however, it was too late. With no sparrows to eat them, [[locust]] populations ballooned, swarming the country and compounding the problems already caused by the [[Great Leap Forward]] and adverse weather conditions, leading to the [[the Great Chinese Famine|famine]]. From [[1959]] to [[1961]], an estimated 38 million people died of starvation.<ref>Chang and Halliday, 2005</ref> ==Revived campaign== In June 19, 1998, a poster was spotted at [[Southwest Agricultural University]] in [[Chongqing]], "Get rid of the Four Pests". 95% of households were ordered to get rid of the same pests. Except this time, [[cockroach]]es were substituted for sparrows.<ref name="Shapiro" /> A similar campaign was spotted in the spring of 1998 in [[Beijing]]. This time, people did not respond to either of these campaign style approaches.<ref name="Shapiro" /> ==Popular culture== * [[Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun]], a [[post-rock]] album based on the event by the group [[Red Sparowes]]. ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== *[[PBS]] series "''The Peoples' Century -- 1949: The Great Leap''" *''[[Mao: The Unknown Story]]'' by [[Jung Chang]] and [[Jon Halliday]] *[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3371659.stm China follows Mao with mass cull (BBC)] ==See also== * [[List of campaigns of the Communist Party of China]] [[Category:Campaigns of the Communist Party of China]] [[pl:Kampania walki z czterema plagami]] [[ru:Уничтожение воробьёв]] [[vi:Chiến dịch diệt chim sẻ]]