On 24 November, eighteen of the local farmers, heads of families, met in that mud-brick farmhouse at the far end of the village to sign a secret agreement to divide the land of the local people’s commune into family plots. For one of the farmers, Yan Jinchang, ‘it was just heart-breaking. If we didn’t do so, we would starve to death. If we did, we’d take a risk. Eventually we chose to go down this road. Even with the threat of prison or death, we divided the land. To end starvation.’
