The PRC promoted the Great Leap Forward and people's communes in 1962. Both were huge social, economic, and agricultural disasters. Further pushed by a series of natural disasters, the people of mainland China found themselves facing starvation and despair. The ensuing mass flight to Hong Kong is remembered by history as the May Exodus.
1962 年，中國推行「大躍進」和「人民公社」，造成社會經濟與農業生產的巨大破壞，加上一連串的天災，大陸人民在不堪饑餓、生存絕望的情形下掀起集體投奔香港的狂潮，史稱「五月逃亡潮」。