Great Sparrow campaign 1957

The Great Sparrow Campaign (打麻雀运动) was part of Mao Zedong’s Four Pests Campaign (除四害运动). A part of the Great Leap Forward (大跃进) from 1958-1962, the goal of the Four Pests Campaign was to get rid of rats, flies, mosquitoes, and extermination of the latter upset the ecological balance, and enabled crop-eating insects to proliferate. The masses of China were mobilized to eradicate the birds, and citizens took to banging pots and pans or beating drums to scare the birds from landing, forcing the