after liberate (in 1949) food in China was very short, therefore planned economy issued
coupon book started right after liberate
everybody has certain amount of food every month
we all had coupon books
seller would document and sign after each trade
you can clearly see how much you spent
after I left school, I had to go to coupon shop to apply for food coupon
took the coupon book with me to apply for that
people need to apply for the that
no one would just give it to you without application
each province and cities has their own plan for food
national coupon is used when you has a business trip
you need national food coupon in order to go to other places
use local food coupon in exchange of national food coupon
food coupon were used for buying supplies
why did we need it at that time
because the government is relatively short of food
so everyone had certain amount of food
given certain amount of food coupon
two types of food coupon were used
local food coupon and national food coupon
local food coupon can only be used locally
national food coupon can be used everywhere in the country
not only buying rice requires food coupon
all food-related things need food coupon
for example, eating fritters in the morning
therefore it was more difficult for people to work in other places
It's more difficult to get outside of local area
you cannot get outside without national food coupon
you were not able to work outside
no business would hire you in that case
people can only be in one place
what about students
I remember a high school student got about 30 kilograms food coupon per month
food was enough to eat
people who live in the cities sometimes eat something else
so they had more food coupon left
those who live in the rural area did not have any food coupon
because they grew their own food
If they want to come out of the countryside
it will be more difficult
they need to have some food coupons in order to get out
they trade their own food with urban people’s coupon
such as rice, vegetables, eggs
they can go to the cities after exchange
I trade many food coupon with them
for chickens and eggs
I had a lot of free time back then
school was not as strict as nowadays
there was no GaoKao (Higher Education Entrance Examination)
no one really studied hard
we had a lot of free times
although there was food coupon during planned economy
people still need to wait in lines in order to get things
At that time, the streets were so crowd
you have to wait in every places
such as buying meet
people need to come the night before to wait
it’s impossible to stay awake all night
so we will bring basket or brick to line up in advance
then come back at 4 o'clock in the next morning to buy meat
At this time, my brother and I must help the family to do this kind of things
every family need to buy meat
I got bully sometimes
when adult see little kids like me buying meat
although we use the same food coupon
they gave me a lot of fat when I bought a pound of pork
they didn’t gave me lean meat
however my mom only eats lean meat
so it’s not fair for us
I will be mad if the seller gave me fat meat
I insisted that they gave me lean meat
otherwise I will fight with them
soy sauce ,oil and alcohol were in bulk
not like nowadays in bottle or can
soy sauce is daily needs
we use rope to tie a glass bottle and bring it to buy soy sauce
same as buy oil
use buckets or bottles
there were very few plastic products
everyone uses glass bottles
take a glass bottle to buy soy sauce
like i did
people always saw me went to buy soy sauce
so they gave me a nick name called soy sauce boy
in my family, my dad was doing aquatic business
we had plenty of seafood
we don’t even want to eat it anymore
I remember once my parent ask me to eat shrimp
I really don’t like it
so they said if I eat one, they would give me 20 cents
my sister is still judging me about this today
when we were young, my sister wad the leader of buying food in our family
she carry basket and brick to wait in line
not like today we buy everything online
so fast and convenient shopping online now
all the food coupon you see in home was my mother-in-law’s
people bought back food coupon to home every once a while
these were saved bit by bit by her
not from me
how could I save that much food coupon
Esta8995
FoodCouponCaption.docx
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