In the People’s Communes, public canteens collected the farmers’ grain, cooked it together and handed it out to all members according to need. People called this “eating from the big pot” (吃大锅饭). The phrase came to stand for egalitarian distribution in general.
In July 1983, the Shekou Industrial Zone was the first to “break the egalitarian big pot.” It introduced a pay scheme of basic wage, position wage and floating wage.