Feifei Zhang, Guoxia Wang and Jianming Cai

In: UA Magazine 17 - Strengthening Urban Producers' Organisations

In 1978, China started to dismantle the commune system and the socalled “eating from the same big pot� that existed for decades, i.e. absolute egalitarianism whereby everyone gets the same benefits
irrespective of his/her performance. Village land began to be contracted to peasant families on a 30-year basis in most cases and a system of “household contract responsibility� was introduced that set farm output quotas for each household and linked remuneration to output.