every time I read about this I'm always impressed by 1960s Chinese childrens' (and adults) ability to effectively hunt extremely tiny birds. especially by just yeeting rocks at them
they're small targets that move incredibly fast and those kids were just doming them with deadly accurate aim. built different
The Four Pests campaign (Chinese: 除四害; pinyin: Chú Sì Hài) was one of the first campaigns of the Great Leap Forward in Maoist China from 1958 to 1962. Authorities targeted four "pests" for elimination: rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows.
The extermination of sparrows – also known as the Eliminate Sparrows campaign – resulted in severe ecological imbalance, and was one of the causes of the Great Chinese Famine which lasted from 1959 to 1961, with an estimated death toll due to starvation ranging in the tens of millions (15 to 55 million).[note 1] In 1960, the campaign against sparrows ended, and bed bugs replaced them as an official target.
Millions of sparrows were killed.[37] While the campaign was meant to increase yields, concurrent droughts and floods as well as the lacking sparrow population decreased rice yields.[38][39] The extermination of sparrows upset the ecological balance, which subsequently resulted in surging locust and insect populations that destroyed crops due to a lack of a natural predator.[40][41]
With no sparrows to eat them, locust populations ballooned, swarming the country and compounding the ecological problems already caused by the Great Leap Forward, including widespread deforestation and misuse of poisons and pesticides.[39] Although sparrows were removed from the Four Pests in 1960, the disruption of ecological balance, combined with errors in food distribution policies and the exaggeration of crop production figures, led to the Great Chinese Famine.[42][43][44][45] According to a 2025 study, the anti-sparrow campaign accounted for a nearly 20 percent drop in crop production, leading to the deaths of two million people.[46]
By the end of the Four Pests campaign, the Eurasian tree sparrow was practically extinct from China, which afterwards imported 250,000 Eurasian tree sparrows from the Soviet Union to recover its population.[46][47]
This is always the problem with runaway states. Small stupid by individuals can lead to hardships. Big stupid by unanswerable states leads to catastrophe and atrocity. And this wasn't even the only way Mao made the famine worse.
It's extra bad because the Soviets had already experienced similar problems under Stalin decades prior and their advisors were pushing China to avoid them, although in a way China probably reasonably found subordinating and condescending. That brought about the Sino Soviet split. While that might not have been one of the biggest factors, it definitely didn't help. Ironically, while Mao failed to learn from Stalin's mistakes, future leaders reversed course on a lot of Stalinist and Maoist policies. China became an industrial world power. I guess we'll see where it goes from here.
In 1955, farmers reported that sparrows were damaging crops. When Mao Zedong, then Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, received these reports, he said sparrows were harmful pest birds and should be eliminated.[1][2] In the second half of 1955, while organizing the drafting of the Agricultural Development Outline (i.e., the Seventeen Articles on Agriculture), Mao Zedong decided that sparrows, rats, flies, and mosquitoes were "Four Pests" to be removed.[3][4] In January 1956, after discussion by the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party and formal adoption by the Supreme State Conference, the expanded version of the Draft Outline was adopted. Article 27 of the Draft Outline stipulated that starting from 1956, rats, sparrows, flies, and mosquitoes should be more or less eliminated in all possible locations within 5, 7, or 12 years, respectively.[3][4][5][2] Sparrows were suspected of consuming approximately 2 kg (4 pounds) of grain per sparrow per year.[6]
In the autumn of 1956, a group of biologists, including Zhu Xi, a Chinese pioneer in cell biology, objected publicly to classifying sparrows as pests and eliminating them, but their objections were ineffective.[3][4][5] On January 18, 1957, the Beijing Daily published an article by Zhou Jianren, then Vice Minister of Education, titled "Sparrows are Clearly Pest Birds", concluding that "there is no doubt sparrows are pest birds" and "pest birds should be eradicated without hesitation", proposing:
Society has changed, but some of the old ways of thinking and viewpoints still remain. In the past, many people saw themselves as subservient subjects of nature, afraid to even consider transforming it, let alone see themselves as masters of nature... The concept of equilibrium has also hindered people's determination to transform nature... Equilibrium only emphasizes the static aspect, ignoring the fact that biological history is a process... (Belief in) equilibrium instills a fear that nature would descend into chaos if it lost its balance.[3][2]
every time I read about this I'm always impressed by 1960s Chinese childrens' (and adults) ability to effectively hunt extremely tiny birds. especially by just yeeting rocks at them
they're small targets that move incredibly fast and those kids were just doming them with deadly accurate aim. built different
Simply by making the entire country hostile, many sparrows simply died of exhaustion from having to flee all the time.
oh shit, that's true. probably easier to pancake a bird that hasn't slept in a week because its nest keeps getting destroyed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_campaign
This is always the problem with runaway states. Small stupid by individuals can lead to hardships. Big stupid by unanswerable states leads to catastrophe and atrocity. And this wasn't even the only way Mao made the famine worse.
It's extra bad because the Soviets had already experienced similar problems under Stalin decades prior and their advisors were pushing China to avoid them, although in a way China probably reasonably found subordinating and condescending. That brought about the Sino Soviet split. While that might not have been one of the biggest factors, it definitely didn't help. Ironically, while Mao failed to learn from Stalin's mistakes, future leaders reversed course on a lot of Stalinist and Maoist policies. China became an industrial world power. I guess we'll see where it goes from here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliminate_Sparrows_campaign#Origin
where did my grapes go? where did my stonefruit go? birds. they'll eat everything before it even ripens.
bird netting is commonly sold in garden and hardware stores as a result.
the great helmsman did what he could but the bourgeois birds have won and captured the state. how else can you explain the migratory bird act?
Those sparrows know what they did.
They got replaced by bedbugs? Why wasnt that one on the top 4 before? Did a sparrow kill his mom or dog?
I thought this was a political compass at first, and it made no sense.
So it is a political compass meme...