Editing Great Leap Forward (section)

===Backyard furnaces===
{{Main|Backyard furnace}}
[[File:Backyard furnace4.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Backyard furnaces in the countryside, 1958]]
The Great Leap Forward sought to revive folk technologies, including in the area of steel production.{{sfnp|Qian|2024|p=168}} [[Steel industry in China|China's steel industry]] faced a shortage of imported iron and calls to increase production of "native iron" had begun in 1956.{{sfnp|Qian|2024|p=168}} Efforts to improve steel production were a major focus of the Great Leap Forward.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=234}} By mid-1958, the Chinese state began promoting indigenous metallurgical methods and the proliferation of "folk furnaces".{{sfnp|Qian|2024|p=168}} This was an effort to increase steel production without increased investment costs.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=233}}

Although the 1958 national mobilization effort to produce steel reached its target if 10.7 million tons, more than 3 million of it was unusable.<ref name=":Zhu2">{{Cite book |last=Zhu |first=Tao |title=Red Legacies in China: Cultural Afterlives of the Communist Revolution |date=2016 |publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]] |isbn=978-0-674-73718-1 |editor-last=Li |editor-first=Jie |series=Harvard Contemporary China Series |volume= |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |chapter=Building Big With No Regret: From Beijing's "Ten Great Buildings" in the 1950s to China's Megaprojects Today |doi= |jstor= |editor-last2=Zhang |editor-first2=Enhua}}</ref>{{Rp|page=69}}