The
大锅饭 (literally a single enormous communal cooking pot) was a real Great Leap Forward-era collective-dining practice (late 1950s People's Communes) where villages ate from one shared pot for free. After the reforms of 1978 onward,
吃大锅饭 became the standard pejorative for pre-reform work units - everyone eating equally regardless of contribution, which Deng-era reformers cast as the original sin of inefficiency.
