One year our textile factory organised a grand event to celebrate New Year. For that celebration, the factory specially used a power generator to generate electricity for several hours. People in Songgai had never seen electric lights before. That celebration attracted so many people to come and watch.
—Zhao Guifang, female factory worker in the Songgai pilot zone, born in 1928 in Songgai, Chongqing Province
还有一年为庆祝新年，纺织厂举行过盛大的庆祝活动。纺织厂为了那次庆祝活动，专门用一部发电机发了几小时的电。松溉的老百姓从来没看过电灯，所以那次活动吸引了很多老百姓前来观看。
—赵桂芳，松溉试验区女工，1928年生于重庆松溉
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Women in
the Economy
Under wartime economic hardships such as product scarcity, high inflation and a state-controlled concentration of limited resources in military activities, most people were left on their own to fight for survival. Women, because of their household responsibilities and cultural stigma, mostly relied on the informal economy to feed their families and themselves, such as cropping in their backyards and selling homemade items.
But at the same time, the war and Chongqing’s temporary capital status also created opportunities for women to enter the formal economy, much like World War II’s effects in Europe and the United States. Women entered textile and other factories, which had incredibly harsh conditions and provided a relatively stable source of food, which was much needed for lots of women, especially those from a low economic class who had no alternative way to provide for their families.