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Episode 337: The Secret Document That Transformed China

Yen Jingchang was one of the signers of the secret document.
Jacob Goldstein
/
NPR
Yen Jingchang was one of the signers of the secret document.

Note: Today's show is a re-run. It originally ran in January 2012.

In 1978, a group of farmers in a Chinese village called Xiaogang wrote a secret contract and hid it in the roof of a mud hut.

They were afraid the document might get them executed. Instead, it wound up completely transforming the Chinese economy.

On today's show, we travel to Xiaogang, and hear the farmers' story.

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