The rumor of "cutting eggs" suddenly broke out in various places during July 1950, which is different from the common rumors and needs a relatively slow spread process; There is also: the spread area of rumors is the northern part of North China, which is vast and sparsely populated, and it is also unusual.

This means that there are two possibilities for the outbreak of this rumor: first, there is a huge organization planning to spread rumors at the same time; Second, in the area where the rumor happened, something happened with * * *, which triggered the collective memory of the people. In the 1950s, when the government quelled the rumors, it planned the storm with self-righteousness. But as far as historical data are concerned, this conclusion is too hasty. Although Yiguan Road has many members, it is loosely organized, and it is difficult to organize and plan a rumor that spreads so widely in a short time. But there is no doubt that Yi Tongdao actively participated in the spread of rumors.

Reason 2: Mao Zedong's postponement of his visit to the Soviet Union aroused people's speculation.

At that time, the traffic and communication conditions also determined that it was impossible for a one-stop organization to spread rumors quickly in such a vast area with a vast population and a sparse population. Therefore, the second possibility is more likely, that is, some events evoke the collective memory of the people at the same time.

One of the major events that may inspire this collective memory in those years was that Mao Zedong didn't go home after visiting the Soviet Union.

Mao Zedong visited the Soviet Union from February 1949 to 16 to 1950 to 17. In fact, due to the long train ride and long stopovers in some places, Mao Zedong departed from 1949 to 16 and 18 in February. For such a long time, it is impossible for people to know the real information of Mao Zedong's trip, so it is inevitable to guess.

Reason 3: A nationwide peaceful signature movement linked the atomic bomb with "egg cutting".

1950 another thing happened, which may have played a more direct role in the origin of the rumor-in March this year, the World Peace Conference called on all countries in the world to jointly launch a peace signature movement. As a part of the propaganda struggle in the Cold War, the * * * production party countries reacted quickly, and the China administration was no exception. On April 28th this year, the relevant departments of China issued a circular asking workers, peasants, soldiers, students, women, literary and art workers and government workers all over the country to take part in the signature activity of "Supporting world peace and prohibiting the use of atomic weapons".

According to the data, in many rural areas, the proportion of people who participate in signature is surprisingly high, such as Qingyang area in Gansu Province, which is as high as 80%. Such a high proportion of signatures can only explain: first, the data is untrue, and second, most people's signatures are confused. This kind of chaos obviously provides a hotbed for rumors: 1, instilling a new term "atomic bomb" into the vast number of backward rural areas; People know nothing about this new term and are curious about its mystery.

Reason 4: There is a tradition of mystifying "eggs" in the life of the bottom people in China.

The lower classes in China have always tended to mystify the "egg"-for example, in the 1960s+0920s, it was circulated in Sichuan that someone cut off male and female genitals, nipples and fetuses and sold them to foreigners in western pharmacies to make medicines, which caused panic among the people.

To sum up, this understanding should be not far from the facts: during Mao Zedong's later visit to the Soviet Union, the government inexplicably popularized a powerful mysterious term called "atomic bomb" to the vast number of illiterate people, which, together with the long-term mystification of "egg" by the lower class in China, resulted in the rumor of "cutting eggs". In addition, at that time, the country was trying to ban one-way streets, which naturally pushed the members of one-way streets into the army that spread the rumor of "cutting eggs" (it is said that there are still remnants of the Kuomintang involved, but the historical materials are relatively poor and difficult to verify), resulting in such an absurd rumor disaster.