Riding the times

The nominal figures in Zhang's records reduced dramatically from 1955 onward, after the government introduced currency reforms to bring down prices. More currency reforms followed in 1962 and 1987.

Other details included the first sum of money Zhang spent on buying a bicycle, which was considered a luxury in China in 1964. For the bicycle, he paid 194 yuan — more than two-thirds of his family's monthly income at that time.

Interestingly, as a senior Party official, he had already been assigned the usage of a bicycle as early as 1953, during which time bicycles were even scarcer. Despite this, Zhang didn't know how to ride it at the time and in due course returned it.

It was small actions such as this that drew Li Chunlan, a writer based in the Shanxi capital Taiyuan, to conclude in a review in Taiyuan Daily: "The notebooks are more than the personal financial accounts of Zhang Jianmin. They are also part of the collective memory of that decade, the depiction of a longtime Party member, as well as the history of the local society from an ordinary person's angle."