Great Famine in China, 1958-1962: A Documentary History

by Zhou Xun (Editor)

Beginning soon after the implementation of the policies of the Great Leap Forward of 1958-1961, when the drive to collectivize and industrialize undermined the livelihoods of the vast majority of peasant workers, China’s Great Famine was the worst famine in human history. In addition to claiming more than 45 million lives, it also led to the destruction of agriculture, industry, trade, and every aspect of human life, leaving large parts of the Chinese countryside scarred forever by human-created environmental disasters. Drawing on previously closed archives that have since been made inaccessible again, Zhou Xun offers readers, for the first time in English, access to the most vital archival documentation of the famine. For some time to come this documentary history may be the only publication available that contains the most crucial primary documents concerning the fate of the Chinese peasantry between 1957 and 1962. It covers everything from collectivization and survival strategies, including cannibalism, to selective killing and mass murder.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, China

225 pages, Hardcover

First published June 26, 2012

Reviews

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mistook this book for "Tombstone," the recently translated work about China's devastating famine of the early 1960s. However, "The Great Famine in China, 1958-1962" is a remarkable work. Xun Zhou has collected and translated 121 primary documents about the great famine. These documents, which only hint at the vast amount of bureaucratic paperwork that must exist somewhere, make absolutely clear that the Communist Party was aware of the severity of the famine and the associated civil and social destruction. Wisely, the author mostly allows the documents to speak for themselves, offering short essays at the beginning of each chapter to place the documents in context. The content of the documents is simply horrifying; the chapter titles "Terror, Repression, and Violence," "Seasons of Death," and "Cannibalism" fail to adequately prepare the reader for what's coming. I was rocked by the level of detail of many of these reports, which included names of ordinary people (starved to death, buried alive, beaten to death, eaten by relatives ...) as well as the names of the people who carried out the atrocities. If the knowledge that approximately 50 million people were allowed to starve to death only 60 years ago somehow fails to move you, consider this - in a public statement (quoted in this book), Mao clarified that he was more than willing to allow half of the Chinese population to die to achieve Communism. I strongly recommend this book.

[Hana]

An interesting review: https://www.theguardian.com/world/201...