There is a sign on the wall of the company restaurant that reads: The educated youth era is over, please don't jump the queue again.

This is an interesting warning. It uses the pun meaning of the word "cutting in line" to remind everyone to consciously abide by the morality of the public, maintain the order of the public, consciously queue up and not cut in line.

it is not difficult for people who know the history of China in the 196s and 197s to understand that "educated youth jumping the queue" was a topic that was often mentioned when people in the city and even in rural areas who had the task of resettling educated youth met. "Jumping in line" means that the young intellectuals in these cities move from the city to the countryside, and according to the arrangement of the village, they are inserted into different production teams for life and labor exercise.

"educated youth" is short for "educated youth". For a long time, "educated youth" and "educated youth" became a proper term, referring to a special group at that time, that is, young people who volunteered or were forced to be sent from the city to the countryside to be farmers from the 195s until the end of the Cultural Revolution. Most of these people actually only got junior high school or high school education.

after the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to solve the employment problem in cities, young people in cities have been organized to move to rural areas, especially remote rural areas, to set up farms since the mid-195s. As early as 1953, People's Daily published an editorial "Organizing High School Graduates to Participate in Agricultural Productive Labor". In 1955, Mao Zedong put forward that "the countryside is a vast world, where much can be done." It became the slogan of later educated youth going to the countryside. From this year on, the Youth League began to organize farms to encourage and organize young people to take part in the reclamation movement. In 1962, it was proposed to organize the movement of going to the countryside nationwide. In 1964, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China set up a leading group for this purpose.

In 1966, under the influence of the Cultural Revolution, the college entrance examination was stopped. By 1968, many middle school graduates were unable to enter universities or get jobs. In addition, the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution in 1966-68 made the leading bodies in China realize that they needed to find a way to settle these young people so as not to get out of control. On December 22, 1968, Mao Zedong instructed the People's Daily to publish an article entitled "We also have two hands, so we don't stay idle in the city", which quoted Mao's instruction that "it is necessary for educated youth to go to the countryside and receive re-education from poor middle peasants ...", and the whole country began to distribute middle school graduates to the countryside in an organized way, and the movement of educated youth going to the countryside was officially launched in all parts of the country.

Since 1971, many problems of educated youth in rural areas have been exposed, and at the same time, China has begun to assign some jobs to decentralized educated youth in cities. However, most of the educated young people who return to the city in this way get the opportunity to return to the city through relationships. By 1975, even Mao Zedong himself felt the seriousness of the problem of educated youth and decided to reconsider it. But up to now, millions of young intellectuals are still assigned to the countryside every year. Mao Zedong's death in September 1976 also put the problem of educated youth on hold.

In p>1977, the college entrance examination was resumed, and most young intellectuals in rural areas tried their best to return to their hometown. In the winter of 1978, young intellectuals in Yunnan expressed their demands in the form of petitions and strikes, which once again made the Central Committee feel the urgency of the problem. On May 8, 198, Hu Yaobang, then general secretary of the CPC Central Committee of China, proposed not to go to the countryside again. On October 1st, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided that the educated youth who used to go to the countryside can gradually return to their hometown cities for resettlement in an organized way, and the 25-year movement of educated youth going to the countryside was completely ended.

from 195s to the end of 197s, the total number of educated youth going to the countryside in China was estimated to be between 12 million and 18 million.