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Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine
by
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Chinese people suffered what may have been the worst famine in history. Over thirty million perished in a grain shortage brought on not by flood, drought, or infestation, but by the insanely irresponsible dictates of Chairman Mao Ze-dong's "Great Leap Forward," an attempt at utopian engineering gone horribly wrong.
Journalist Jasper Be ...more
Journalist Jasper Be ...more
Paperback, 416 pages
Published
April 15th 1998
by Holt Paperbacks
(first published June 13th 1996)
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Start your review of Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine
Malthusian Catastrophe
"The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation. They are the precursors in the great army of destruction, and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague advance in terrific array, and swee ...more
"The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation. They are the precursors in the great army of destruction, and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague advance in terrific array, and swee ...more
There is no bottom in China, and no facts
Is there anyone who'd ever read Alan Ryan's Cast A Cold Eye?
How about To cast 40 million pairs of cold eyes?
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Is there anyone who'd ever read Alan Ryan's Cast A Cold Eye?
How about To cast 40 million pairs of cold eyes?
...more
Mao said that the peasant who owned his own land was inherently capitalistic, and he forced four hundred million Chinese peasants to join collective farms. Khrushchev counseled Mao not to repeat Stalin’s mistake of rushing into collectivization too quickly, but Mao ignored his advice. Mao named his next step in the collectivization of agriculture “The Great Leap Forward” after the German philosopher Hegel’s assertion that progress comes in sudden leaps and bounds. In 1958 peasants replaced scien
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*I wrote this review over a year ago and found it in a notebook and realized I had never typed it out.
This book was fascinating, dark and heartbreaking. I found it almost impossible to read at times. It may be the most depressing book I have ever read, and it is true.
China has had alot of famines. The climate lends itself to droughts, flooding and crops being infested by insects. The difference with Mao's famine was that is was not inflicted by nature, but by man. Mao was evil, manipulative and ...more
This book was fascinating, dark and heartbreaking. I found it almost impossible to read at times. It may be the most depressing book I have ever read, and it is true.
China has had alot of famines. The climate lends itself to droughts, flooding and crops being infested by insects. The difference with Mao's famine was that is was not inflicted by nature, but by man. Mao was evil, manipulative and ...more
One of the most compelling history books I've ever read, period. I'm a lover of history who recognizes that 90% of the books I read make most people fall to sleep - but with 'Hungry Ghosts', I recommend it even to those who typically would never pick up a history book at all.
The modern and recent scholarship of 'Hungry Ghosts' provides a perspective on Maoist China which has only recently been revealed. After reading this book, I must seriously reconsider the conventional wisdom that "Hitler was ...more
The modern and recent scholarship of 'Hungry Ghosts' provides a perspective on Maoist China which has only recently been revealed. After reading this book, I must seriously reconsider the conventional wisdom that "Hitler was ...more
Excellent book to read along with Lisa See's Dreams Of Joy. This is a real account of what happened in China during Mao's reign. After I read Dreams of Joy, I wanted to know more about that time period and this explained the horror.
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Marxist communism in all its gory horror. This is a fascinating and very readable account of Mao's Great Leap Forward and its aftermath, which cost ultimately tens of millions of lives. Starvation was used as the weapon of choice to destroy the landlords and aristocracy class, as well as to force the peasants to submit to Mao and idolize him without question, even as they were dying and Mao did not care.
The many descriptions of torture and the physical effects of starvation are very graphic, too ...more
The many descriptions of torture and the physical effects of starvation are very graphic, too ...more
"Hungry Ghosts" sets out to explain one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century, and as a benefit, helps explain present-day China. Whether the specific numbers are accurate or whether Mao can be held personally responsible for the millions of starvation deaths is something that will be debated for years. However, books written about or by Ch'an monks who lived during that era support much of what Becker asserts (see George Crane's "Bones of the Master" as an example). After reading this,
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A horrifying and well-researched history of how Mao's "Great Leap Forward" became the worst famine in history, killing perhaps 30 million Chinese (1958 - 1960) -- it appears unlikely an exact fatality figure will ever be known. Which adds to the horror: that millions of people, with hopes and dreams like our own, could vanish without leaving a trace, not even a number, in the world outside their homes. Not to mention uncounted millions of children whose lives were blighted by brain-damage from m
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Jasper Becker in Hungry Ghosts: "North Korea seems in the grip of a death-cult psychosis that leaves it impervious to rational notions of self-interest" (339).
Bruce Cumings on the kind of racism that is allowed to run free when talking about North Korea: "Prominent Americans lose any sense of embarrassment or self-consciousness about the intricate and knotty problems of racial difference and Otherness when it comes to North Korea and its leaders" (49).
I'm sure there are better books about the G ...more
Bruce Cumings on the kind of racism that is allowed to run free when talking about North Korea: "Prominent Americans lose any sense of embarrassment or self-consciousness about the intricate and knotty problems of racial difference and Otherness when it comes to North Korea and its leaders" (49).
I'm sure there are better books about the G ...more
Hard to read at times, but this book certainly gives some perspective on the dietary habits of people in China. For a country that has been only too familiar with the suffering brought on by natural and man-made famines over millennia, the 1959-62 famine was catastrophic, preventable and hidden from the world; and affected almost everyone living outside the major cities. Communist sympathisers would no doubt state that 'you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs!' But 40million is a lot of
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The most depressing book I've ever read, but also the most shocking because a tragedy of such epic proportions is barely known in the western world and conveniently ignored in the eastern where the Chinese government was directly and knowingly responsible for the deaths of over 30 million of their own citizens during their efforts to implement the perfect Communist society during the late 1950s and 1960s.
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An incredible story that few people in this country (or, apparently in China) know about. The chapter on cannibalism is hair-raising. Becker writes well, provides lots of ''in the trenches'' accounts as well as providing a narrative that unfolds in horrifying detail the evil that Mao perpetrated upon the peasants he had depended upon to bring him to power. Should be a part of every high school history class.
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very good depiction of the cost of communism. so compelling and harrowing in it's illustration of the consequences of personality cults. reinforces the belief that humans are meant to have freedom of conscience about all.
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Really interesting details on how a man made famine comes about, but can't help but wonder how the age/whiteness/outsider-ness of the author influences his perspective.
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Being an account of the Great Leap Forward famine. Which means that it is, often enough, not pleasant reading. It is, however, thorough and extensive in detail.
It opens with an overview of famine in China, the Communist takeover and plans for the peasantry, and an account of the infamous Ukrainian famines, which he presents as the closest analogue to the Great Leap Forward.
It then goes through the collectivizations and the nonsense science that led to the famine. Ludicrous farming practices. The ...more
It opens with an overview of famine in China, the Communist takeover and plans for the peasantry, and an account of the infamous Ukrainian famines, which he presents as the closest analogue to the Great Leap Forward.
It then goes through the collectivizations and the nonsense science that led to the famine. Ludicrous farming practices. The ...more
Both essential and sickening. Must be read to understand the power of cult thought in politics to destroy the mind, soul, and body of the people. How can people allow themselves to be starved, beaten, raped, humiliated and de-humanized? How can leaders say they would rather a large percent of their population be starved to death as long as the remaining population remains loyal? How can an entire country willingly participate in the deceit that is killing them? Clearly, communism is a tragic, le
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Somehow I've been reading this mostly at lunch. Well researched, covers the Great Leap Forward and the deadliest famine in recorded history, with estimates ranging from 30-80million Chinese starved, killed, or not born as a result of Mao's vainglorious policies. Also examines the roots of the Cultural Revolution within the Great Leap Forward and examines reasons why the former is well-documented while the latter remains shrouded in secrecy to an extent that many still deny it ever happened.
Also ...more
Also ...more
Apparently this was the first book (in English) to chronicle what really happened during the Great Leap Forward in China (1958-1962), when 45 million people died during a time of peace and without natural disasters.
Mao wanted to surpass the Soviet Union in all ways possible, including grain and steel output. So to show the USSR it meant business, China exported more grain to the Soviet Union than it could afford to give up. Peasants slaved in the fields to work miracles, and as a result grew so ...more
Mao wanted to surpass the Soviet Union in all ways possible, including grain and steel output. So to show the USSR it meant business, China exported more grain to the Soviet Union than it could afford to give up. Peasants slaved in the fields to work miracles, and as a result grew so ...more
Journalist Jasper Becker, formerly the Beijing Bureau chief for the South China Morning Post, reconstructs the history of Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward (1958-61) and the resulting famine that devastated China in this historical work. Drawing on interviews with survivors and Communist Party officials, government documents, memoirs, and secondary literature, Becker provides a detailed, panoramic account that includes China's past experiences with famine; the collectivization of agriculture under
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This book was fascinating, dark, and heartbreaking ! If anyone has questions about whether Communism is a great idea, this should put that question to rest. Mao turned his country upside down, inside out, and truly perverted the truth beyond recognition with his great Communist agricultural projects. He collectivized private property and then used junk science to force on China agricultural practices and programs that most KNEW were disastrous to the growing of food. When the programs began to
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Journalist historical recounting of the Great Leap Forward in China (1955-59). Lays out the ideological mindset, the political climate in Beijing, Mao's goals, and the great losses in the aftermath of the Leap. The first part of the book lays out a general overview and the perspective from Beijing, and Mao's reasons for thinking up the GLF. The second part of the book examines provincial officials' reactions to Beijing's directive and how central policy was carried out at the provincial level. A
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I really enjoy Becker's writings. This is probably one of the few books that I could say changed my life and it began my interest in studying modern Chinese history. Mao was both evil and incredibly manipulative, but nonetheless brilliant. I especially enjoyed the postword on North Korea and how they are going through the exact same thing as China did forty years ago. And we are doing nothing about it.
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I really liked this book. It tells the story of Mao Zedong and what he did to China during his reign. Mao kept anybody outside of China in ignorance of what was happening in the horrific famine. His man-made famine is something very few people know about, even now. As my daughter said"How could something like that happen (45 million dead in 3 years) and I never learned about that in school?" This book will open your eyes.
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The so-called "Great Leap Forward" brought unmitigated disaster on China and a great leap backward. Mao forced new farming methods on his people and ignored reports of starvation. The result: 12 million died, a greater toll than that of the Cultural Revolution. The breaks the myth that communism brough a better life for most Chinese.
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A book i read in college. I took so many Asian history classes because their history is astounding and long! I love it and this book captures a darker side of the history. Not for the weak hearted, but for the truth seekers and realists.
Someone is to blame for the death of 30 million Chinese. That someone is Mao Zedong. I've never read such an exhaustively researched compulsively readable historical account. Becker makes no bones about it - he calls Mao "the architect of the famine." Highly recommended.
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This is a very detailed account of what was done to the Chinese people by Mao & his operatives in the government and covered the devastation of the people on a very personal level. My sons kept asking when I would start reading something happy, so Riordan's Lightning Thief was next.
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I was torn between giving this book four or three stars, and settled for the latter because of some questions it slighted. This was written in the 1990s, when Western academia was flush in triumphalism over "the end of history", with itself at the apex of all human destiny. We've had a couple of humbling decades since then, which can give a deeper perspective on this tragedy.
Mr. Becker took it for granted that the Chinese famine was proof that socialized farming was in itself a failure and disas ...more
Mr. Becker took it for granted that the Chinese famine was proof that socialized farming was in itself a failure and disas ...more
This is a book to be read slowly, in small segments, so that the mind's ability to be horrified is not numbed by exposure to one atrocity after another.
China has a long history of famines, which appear to have been the result of a change in tax policies which lead to a population spike. By the twentieth century, famine was so common in China that many Western observers believed that it was China's natural state.
Mao came to power at least partly on a platform of land reform -- but once he got int ...more
China has a long history of famines, which appear to have been the result of a change in tax policies which lead to a population spike. By the twentieth century, famine was so common in China that many Western observers believed that it was China's natural state.
Mao came to power at least partly on a platform of land reform -- but once he got int ...more
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Jasper Becker is a British journalist who spent 30 years covering Asia including 18 years living in Beijing. His reporting on uprisings, refugees and famine in China, Tibet and North Korea garnered him many awards and he is a popular speaker and commentator on current events in Asia. He now lives in England and has just finished his tenth book, tentatively called The Fatal Flaw. Earlier books suc
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