Wu Manyou, a native of hengshan, Shaanxi Province, fled from famine in 1928 and arrived in Yan'an to do farm work. In 1942 he distinguished himself in the great production campaign by working hard to reclaim wasteland and grow crops, becoming a labor hero in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. On January 11, 1943, the Liberation Daily newspaper in Yan'an published an editorial calling on the peasants in the region to launch a "Wu Manyou Campaign" in order to learn from him and devote every effort to reclaiming wasteland and developing production.