Backyard furnace

{{Short description|Chinese blast furnaces}}

{{use mdy dates|date=December 2022}}

File:Backyard furnace.jpg

{{Infobox Chinese|s=土法炼钢|t=土法煉鋼|p=tǔfǎ liàngāng|l=primitive steelmaking}}

In China, backyard furnaces ({{lang|zh|土法炼钢}}) were large and small blast furnaces used by the people of China during the Great Leap Forward (1958–1962).{{cite book |title=Genocide and the Geographical Imagination |last=Tyner |first=James A. |pages=98–99 |year=2012 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9781442208995 }}{{cite book |title=China's Third Revolution: Tensions in the Transition Towards a Post-Communist China |last=Cook |first=Ian G. |author2=Geoffrey Murray |pages=[https://archive.org/details/chinasthirdrevol0000cook/page/53 53–55] |year=2001 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780700713073 |url=https://archive.org/details/chinasthirdrevol0000cook/page/53 }} These were constructed in the fields and backyards of communes to further the Great Leap Forward's aims of making China the top steel producer in the world. However, most furnaces were only capable of producing pig iron.

The productivity of backyard furnaces was highly variable across China. Many regions experienced a renewed interest in traditional metalworking practices, and successfully produced steel and copper. Nonetheless, backyard furnaces were largely an improvised and undisciplined pursuit in much of the countryside. In 1958, the Communist Party funded the production of dozens of documentaries on metalworking in an attempt to counteract widespread ignorance and further promote the practice.{{Cite journal|last=Qian|first=Ying|date=2020-03-01|title=When Taylorism Met Revolutionary Romanticism: Documentary Cinema in China's Great Leap Forward|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/708075|journal=Critical Inquiry|volume=46|issue=3|pages=578–604|doi=10.1086/708075|s2cid=216374969 |issn=0093-1896}}

Peasants were encouraged to prioritize iron and steel production over agricultural obligations, which may have been a contributing factor in the severity of the Great Chinese Famine.{{Cite web|last=Stanway|first=David|date=May 2, 2012|title=Factbox: A history of China's steel sector|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-steel-factbox/factbox-a-history-of-chinas-steel-sector-idUSBRE84203A20120503|url-status=live|website=Reuters|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210616024621/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-steel-factbox/factbox-a-history-of-chinas-steel-sector-idUSBRE84203A20120503 |archive-date=2021-06-16 }} Where iron ore was unavailable, various steel and iron items were smelted for the intended result of manufacturing steel for more useful creations. The widespread popularity of the practice led to the mass destruction of Shengbao iron cash coins from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.{{Cite web|last=Ashkenazy|first=Gary|date=June 1, 2011|title=Taiping Rebellion Coins Saved from Furnace|url=https://primaltrek.com/blog/2011/06/01/taiping-rebellion-coins/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-03|website=primaltrek.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310094350/http://primaltrek.com:80/blog/2011/06/01/taiping-rebellion-coins/ |archive-date=2013-03-10 }}

Mao Zedong defended backyard furnaces despite the shortcomings, claiming that the practice showed mass enthusiasm, mass creativity, and mass participation in economic development.{{cite web | title=The Great Leap Forward in China (1958): Chairman Mao's Catastrophe - Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières | website=europe-solidaire.org | date=2020-07-29 | url=https://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article41640 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729083839/https://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article41640 | archive-date=2020-07-29 | url-status=dead | access-date=2021-04-05}}