Art of the Party: Farmers and Tractors

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The painting, “Farmers and Tractors” was created by Li Qi in 1950, inspired from China's agricultural mechanization.

China’s agricultural production was significantly damaged due to a long period of war in the 1940s.

After the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the central government attempted to restore the agricultural sector.

Most farmers in China ploughed and sowed land using cattle at that time.

To improve the efficiency, China spent more than 400 million yuan ($62 million) to import 28,000 tractors.

The government spent a large amount of money but importing equipment was not a sustainable solution for a country with limited financial resources.

China prioritized industrial development in the First Five-Year Plan from 1953 to 1957.

One of the key projects in the Five-Year Plan was to build the nation's first farming tractor plant in order to produce the machines within the country.

In late 1955, builders from across the country traveled to Luoyang in central China’s Henan Province to support the construction.

Meanwhile, technicians worked day and night to develop tractor designs, experimented with production options, and worked to resolve technical issues.

On July 20, 1958, the first caterpillar tractor rolled off the assembly line in China and was branded “Dongfanghong," which means “the East is Red."

Since then, China's agricultural mechanization has been improving and the annual grain output has grown steadily.

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