What happens
A Chinese farmer from the plains of Sichuan recounts how drought, war, floods and locusts repeatedly destroy his family's crops, forcing them into hunger and debt. Turned away by moneylenders and bound to landlords who take half their harvest, the family struggles to survive. Their experiences are set against an explanation of China's land problems, including overcrowding, poor transport, and the need for irrigation, dams and reforestation. The episode is part of The Pacific Story, a National Broadcasting Company series, and was first broadcast on March 11, 1945.
The plains of Sichuan (Tichuan), China, during and after wartime upheaval
Characters: Wang, Lu, Wei, Lu Xiang
Listen for: The narrator's account of repeated crop losses from drought, floods and locusts, and the farm family's search for loans.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.