Context of the thread
I have just finished the book, Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikotter about the famine of 1958-1962 in China. I found it to be a fascinating account of one of the most catastrophic events in human history, and one that is largely ignored in our history books. I hope to give a general account of some elements of the book that I found interesting. This thread serves as only a partial summary of the book. Partial being the operative word. Furthermore, it is biased by my personal subjective interpretation of some of the content. My thread, my liberty I guess. My understanding of this period in chinese history is limited and heavily tied to the perspective of this book alone, but I still want to give an account and motivate people to read it. I have read this book, that means I possess only the minimal qualification required to start a thread on it, hopefully others better placed will weigh in on the whole.
Context of this book
Dikotter was one of a few historians to gain access to a series of chinese archives relevent to the famine. Subsequently the documents he analysed are largely unavailable, so cannot be verified. Nevertheless, the archival evidence has allowed him provide a fresh, painstaking analysis of the famine. Endless detail and often idiosyncratic accounts are dispersed throughout the book. That said, their insights are rare due to the nature of forgetting history and the fact that chinese archives are hidden from us, every one of them deserves to be accounted and heard and I don't begrudge their place in the book. Spoiler: I'm not really sure you need a spoiler for a book of this nature, but this thread will reveal an often lot about the book, personally, I don't think that should be considered a major problem before reading it.
Context of the famine
Mao, driven by a desire to lift China to the head of the communist bloc over the soviet union, stated that the backward agrarian economy of China would pass out Britain in 15 years on an industrial basis. Mao, amongst others, envisioned the Great Leap Forward (GLF), a series of economic policies that would transform the economy utilising China's massive labour force to rapidly increase economic output. The policies undertook created a complex, inter-related series of events that shattered chinese society and starved the country. This was a man-made famine.
Some of Dikotter's claims include
-45 million unnecessary deaths – minimum and conservative
-40% housing destroyed – a level of intensity of destruction exceeding either world wars
-2.5 million actively murdered
However, in some ways its the little details that are vital to an analysis of the famine. How the policies created chaos and how communist idelogy led to subtle failures on the ground. The best word for the famine is CHAOS, and I believe in a way that cannot be normally attributed to most other famines if any. Although 1930s Ukraine is referred to in the book. I hope I can construct a lucid account of this, but suffice to say, the little details matter, endless little details, because the extent of the famine can only be accounted by understanding the many different, interconnected ways that the chinese economy was gutted and chinese society was destroyed by a myriad of destructive policies. The book gives a remarkable range of examples of which I will take a few.
The political environment
There was political opposition and criticism of the GLF early on, and in the end it forced Mao to ease the policies and end the famine in 1961/1962, but through the threat of demotion and utilisation of purges, Mao won the day and silence feel on the party for most of the 4 years. Dikotter goes into much detail in regard to the political wranglings and no doubt they are of momentous importance, sealing the faith of the chinese people with Mao's political victory. Ultimately you were purged if you spoke ill of the GLF, and Mao silenced most opposition in his party.
A significant element was the desire of local leaders to report back exaggerated figures in agriculture and industry to please Mao. An endless cycle of lies followed. As the state procured a certain amount of the grain, they were procuring a higher total percentage of the actual grain, as the official figures stated there was far more. And in the desire to deliver, local leaders simply allowed the locals to starve to meet the quotas and remain in favour. In industry, slave labour and horrendous violence upon the chinese people descended in the desire of each local leader to win favour and outproduce the neighbouring village, county or province. To understand the famine, it is important to grasp the threat of purges, the inflated figures and the desire to impress Mao and the party and how this affected leadership at a local level who enforced violent regimes to meet targets. The nature of the policy flowed top-down.
I have just finished the book, Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikotter about the famine of 1958-1962 in China. I found it to be a fascinating account of one of the most catastrophic events in human history, and one that is largely ignored in our history books. I hope to give a general account of some elements of the book that I found interesting. This thread serves as only a partial summary of the book. Partial being the operative word. Furthermore, it is biased by my personal subjective interpretation of some of the content. My thread, my liberty I guess. My understanding of this period in chinese history is limited and heavily tied to the perspective of this book alone, but I still want to give an account and motivate people to read it. I have read this book, that means I possess only the minimal qualification required to start a thread on it, hopefully others better placed will weigh in on the whole.
Context of this book
Dikotter was one of a few historians to gain access to a series of chinese archives relevent to the famine. Subsequently the documents he analysed are largely unavailable, so cannot be verified. Nevertheless, the archival evidence has allowed him provide a fresh, painstaking analysis of the famine. Endless detail and often idiosyncratic accounts are dispersed throughout the book. That said, their insights are rare due to the nature of forgetting history and the fact that chinese archives are hidden from us, every one of them deserves to be accounted and heard and I don't begrudge their place in the book. Spoiler: I'm not really sure you need a spoiler for a book of this nature, but this thread will reveal an often lot about the book, personally, I don't think that should be considered a major problem before reading it.
Context of the famine
Mao, driven by a desire to lift China to the head of the communist bloc over the soviet union, stated that the backward agrarian economy of China would pass out Britain in 15 years on an industrial basis. Mao, amongst others, envisioned the Great Leap Forward (GLF), a series of economic policies that would transform the economy utilising China's massive labour force to rapidly increase economic output. The policies undertook created a complex, inter-related series of events that shattered chinese society and starved the country. This was a man-made famine.
Some of Dikotter's claims include
-45 million unnecessary deaths – minimum and conservative
-40% housing destroyed – a level of intensity of destruction exceeding either world wars
-2.5 million actively murdered
However, in some ways its the little details that are vital to an analysis of the famine. How the policies created chaos and how communist idelogy led to subtle failures on the ground. The best word for the famine is CHAOS, and I believe in a way that cannot be normally attributed to most other famines if any. Although 1930s Ukraine is referred to in the book. I hope I can construct a lucid account of this, but suffice to say, the little details matter, endless little details, because the extent of the famine can only be accounted by understanding the many different, interconnected ways that the chinese economy was gutted and chinese society was destroyed by a myriad of destructive policies. The book gives a remarkable range of examples of which I will take a few.
The political environment
There was political opposition and criticism of the GLF early on, and in the end it forced Mao to ease the policies and end the famine in 1961/1962, but through the threat of demotion and utilisation of purges, Mao won the day and silence feel on the party for most of the 4 years. Dikotter goes into much detail in regard to the political wranglings and no doubt they are of momentous importance, sealing the faith of the chinese people with Mao's political victory. Ultimately you were purged if you spoke ill of the GLF, and Mao silenced most opposition in his party.
A significant element was the desire of local leaders to report back exaggerated figures in agriculture and industry to please Mao. An endless cycle of lies followed. As the state procured a certain amount of the grain, they were procuring a higher total percentage of the actual grain, as the official figures stated there was far more. And in the desire to deliver, local leaders simply allowed the locals to starve to meet the quotas and remain in favour. In industry, slave labour and horrendous violence upon the chinese people descended in the desire of each local leader to win favour and outproduce the neighbouring village, county or province. To understand the famine, it is important to grasp the threat of purges, the inflated figures and the desire to impress Mao and the party and how this affected leadership at a local level who enforced violent regimes to meet targets. The nature of the policy flowed top-down.
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