Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine
Cover of the first edition
AuthorJasper Becker
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreHistory
PublisherHolt Paperbacks
Publication date
15 April 1998
Media typePrint (hardback)
ISBN0-8050-5668-8

Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine is a book about the Great Chinese Famine by British author Jasper Becker, the former Beijing bureau chief for the South China Morning Post.[1][2] Becker interviewed peasants in Henan Province and Anhui Province, both of which were significantly affected by the famine.[3] Hungry Ghosts was the first major English book to provide a "comprehensive accessible account" of the man-made famine.[4][5]

Background

In 1958, Mao declared that China would be more prosperous than the United Kingdom within 15 years. His government set up thousands of people's communes to increase industrial production in a campaign called the Great Leap Forward. For a number of reasons, including radical agricultural policies, social pressure, economic mismanagement, and coincidental natural disasters, this campaign resulted in declining grain production, food insecurity, and eventually starvation in many parts of the country between 1959 and 1961. This famine would eventually be known as the Great Chinese Famine; estimated death tolls range from 15 million to 55 million people.[6][7][8][9][10][11]

Reception

Hungry Ghosts was positively reviewed by academics and reviewers, especially for the depth of its research and its clear account of the famine. Many called it horrifying or chilling.[12][13][14][15][16] Others noted that the book was a valuable resource for Western audiences.[17][18]

Kirkus Reviews called it "a remarkable book, the more devastating for its quietness and absence of rhetoric."[19] A New York Times Book Review by political economist Nicholas Eberstadt called the book "a grim tribute to the dead and a challenge to our consciences."[20] Isabel Hilton of The Independent argued that the book provides "a small memorial to those uncounted millions, a memorial the leaders who brought about those deaths will never erect."[21]

Caroline Moorehead, writing in the New Statesman, stated that Becker's account was "as full as possible" given the difficulty of obtaining information on the famine.[12] Publishers Weekly stated that the book was a "gripping, well-researched account" and "a testament to the folly of utopian engineering."[22] Several reviewers, including historian Lee Feigon, sinologist Robert Ash, as well as Ann Scott Tyson of the Christian Science Monitor, highlighted the in-depth interviews from survivors as one of the most important aspects of the book.[15][23][24]

Several critics pointed out the strong argument that Becker made against Mao's government and policies, especially the Great Leap Forward.[15][21][25][26] A reviewer for The Economist wrote that Becker "passionately but precisely, Mr. Becker records the tragic results of one of the boldest example of Utopian engineering ever attempted".[16] A review in Asiaweek referred to the book as "admirable history" and stated that Becker's research was a "damning indictment of Maoist policies."[26] In The New York Times, Richard Bernstein stated that the book "firmly establishes the Great Leap and the resulting famine as one of the worst atrocities of all time".[27] Journalist and historian Philip Bowring suggested that if there was greater awareness of the reality of the famine in China, there would be less reverence for Mao.[14] Colina MacDougall, writing for Asian Affairs, agreed, saying that "publication of the truth would safeguard China against future leadership folly."[28]

Historian Susan Whitfield, writing in the Financial Times, and French academic Jean-Philippe Beja, writing in the journal China Perspectives, both praised Becker for challenging the official explanation for the famine, which positioned it as being the result of natural disasters and downplayed the importance of political decisions.[29][30] Writing in the London Review of Books, American sinologist Perry Link stated that "Becker makes an important argument that secrecy about famines is more than morally dubious in its own right, and more than practically disastrous because it erases the possibility of foreign aid."[25]

Accuracy of research and analysis

The book attracted criticism from reviewers for its research and analysis. Paul Monk compared Hungry Ghosts to the work of Robert Conquest in his book Harvest of Sorrow (1986), which covered famine in the Soviet Union caused by agricultural reforms and collectivization. However, his review in The China Journal was highly critical of Hungry Ghosts. He felt that Becker had bypassed "the Soviet agrarian debate of the 1920s," and that his treatment of cannibalism in China was "lurid".[31] Monk argued that Becker was insufficiently skeptical of claims about the famine, and found that took away from the book's underlying argument that "it was the tendency to exaggerate and play fast and loose with statistics in the interest of propaganda which helped to bring about the famine itself."[31]

Sinologist Frederick Teiwes was strongly critical of the research and presentation in Hungry Ghosts. He called the book "maddeningly deficient in a number of important respects," said that Becker's "assertions are often unsourced," and called the book's infrequent footnotes "essentially unusable"; despite these critiques, he ultimately concluded that the book "provides a long overdue and salutary lesson for all concerned."[32] Economist Carl Riskin felt that there were inaccuracies within the book – both exaggerations and plain factual errors – and echoed the issues Teiwes had with poorly-documented sources.[33]

Political scientist Andrew J. Nathan described Becker's presentation of the famine for a Western audience as useful, but argued that Becker was careless with his sources.[17] Although sinologist Robert Ash called the book "well-researched", he compared it unfavorably to Calamity and Reform in China (1996) by Dali L. Yang, stating that Yang's analysis offered superior insights.[23] Some took issue with specific claims, such as American historian Paul G. Pickowicz, who wrote in The Wall Street Journal that he disagreed with Becker's claim that "even now in the West the famine is still not accepted as a historical event.[15] Dirk Schmidt, reviewing for China Information, wrote that Becker "tends to oversimplify the intra-elite aspects of the [Great Leap Forward]."[18] Historian and political economist Songlin Yang disputed Becker's claims that Mao "ignored the famine," noting State's Council reports from 1959 which indicated that Mao had pressed for hunger relief in a number of provinces.[34]

References

  1. ↑ Pan, Philip P. (1 May 2002). "Hong Kong Paper Fires Critical Journalist". The Washington Post. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  2. ↑ Todd, Allan; Waller, Sally (19 May 2011). History for the IB Diploma: Origins and Development of Authoritarian and Single Party States. Cambridge University Press. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-521-18934-7. Archived from the original on 11 October 2022. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  3. ↑ Wemheuer, Felix (25 February 2016), "The Great Leap Forward and the Famine", Chinese Studies, Oxford Bibliographies, doi:10.1093/obo/9780199920082-0129, ISBN 978-0-19-992008-2, archived from the original on 13 May 2022, retrieved 5 December 2021
  4. ↑ Zhou, Zhang-Yue (18 May 2017). Achieving Food Security in China: The Challenges Ahead. Taylor & Francis. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-317-61412-8. Archived from the original on 11 October 2022. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  5. ↑ Fathers, Michael (26 October 2012). "A Most Secret Tragedy". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 14 May 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  6. ↑ Smil, Vaclav (18 December 1999). "China's great famine: 40 years later". BMJ: British Medical Journal. 319 (7225): 1619–1621. doi:10.1136/bmj.319.7225.1619. ISSN 0959-8138. PMC 1127087. PMID 10600969.
  7. ↑ MENG, XIN; QIAN, NANCY; YARED, PIERRE (2015). "The Institutional Causes of China's Great Famine, 1959–1961" (PDF). Review of Economic Studies. 82 (4): 1568–1611. doi:10.1093/restud/rdv016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 March 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  8. ↑ Ashton, Basil; Hill, Kenneth; Piazza, Alan; Zeitz, Robin (1984). "Famine in China, 1958-61". Population and Development Review. 10 (4): 613–645. doi:10.2307/1973284. JSTOR 1973284.
  9. ↑ "China's Great Famine: A mission to expose the truth". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  10. ↑ Bowman, John S. (5 September 2000). Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-50004-3.
  11. ↑ Kung, James Kai-sing (2022), Ma, Debin; von Glahn, Richard (eds.), "The Political Economy of China's Great Leap Famine", The Cambridge Economic History of China: 1800 to the Present, Cambridge University Press, pp. 642–684, doi:10.1017/9781108348485.019, ISBN 978-1-108-42553-7, S2CID 246670673
  12. 1 2 Moorehead, Caroline (14 June 1996). "Gibberish to Genocide". New Statesman. Vol. 125, no. 4288. pp. 44–46 – via EBSCO.
  13. ↑ "Briefly noted". The New Yorker. Vol. 73, no. 8. 14 April 1997. ISSN 0028-792X – via EBSCO.
  14. 1 2 Bowring, Philip (24 September 1996). "BOOKS : HUNGRY GHOSTS:China's Secret Famine". International Herald Tribune. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2 December 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2021 – via The New York Times.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Pickowicz, Paul G. (7 February 1997). "The Great Leap Into Oblivion". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 2 December 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  16. 1 2 "Hungry Ghosts: China's Secret Famine". The Economist. Vol. 341, no. 7988. 19 October 1996. p. S8.
  17. 1 2 Nathan, Andrew J. (2 February 1997). "Left Wanting : HUNGRY GHOSTS: Mao's Secret Famine. By Jasper Becker . The Free Press: 352 pp., $25". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  18. 1 2 Schmidt, Dirk (June 1998). "Book Reviews : Jasper BECKER, Hungry Ghosts: China's Secret Famine. London: John Murray 1996. xiii + 352 pp., with index. ISBN: 0-7195-5440-3 (pbk). Price: £13.00". China Information. SAGE Publications. 13 (1): 138–139. doi:10.1177/0920203X9801300108. ISSN 0920-203X. S2CID 145348253. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  19. ↑ "HUNGRY GHOSTS: Mao's Secret Famine". Kirkus Reviews. 15 December 1996. Archived from the original on 2 December 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  20. ↑ Eberstadt, Richard (16 February 1997). "The Great Leap Backward". The New York Times Book Review. Archived from the original on 1 September 2021. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  21. 1 2 Hilton, Isabel (22 June 1996). "And Hunger Stalks the Land". The Independent. Archived from the original on 4 December 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  22. ↑ "Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine". Publishers Weekly. 2 February 1997. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  23. 1 2 Ash, Robert (September 1999). "Book Reviews". Disasters. Wiley-Blackwell. 23 (3): 271–276. doi:10.1111/1467-7717.00117. Archived from the original on 5 December 2021. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  24. ↑ Tyson, Ann Scott (11 August 1997). "Chinese Peasants Reflect On Mao's Turbulent Rule". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  25. 1 2 Link, Perry (18 July 1996). "'Plant less, produce more, harvest less'". London Review of Books. Vol. 18, no. 14. ISSN 0260-9592. Archived from the original on 4 December 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  26. 1 2 Crowell, Todd (1996). "Trapped By Their Own Lies". Asiaweek. Archived from the original on 5 December 2021. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  27. ↑ Bernstein, Richard (5 February 1997). "Horror of a Hidden Chinese Famine". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 5 March 2009. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  28. ↑ MacDougall, Colina (November 1996). "Challenges for the new peacekeepers". Asian Affairs. Routledge. 27 (3): 329–419. doi:10.1080/714041315. ISSN 0306-8374.
  29. ↑ Whitfield, Susan (1996). "Great Leap Forward - to Inhumanity". The Financial Times – via WebArchive.
  30. ↑ Béja, Jean Philippe (1996). "Arise, You Hungry Ghosts". China Perspectives (6): 67–69. ISSN 2070-3449. JSTOR 24050237. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  31. 1 2 Monk, Paul (July 1997). "Review of Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine". The China Journal. University of Chicago Press (38): 201–204. doi:10.2307/2950355. ISSN 1324-9347. JSTOR 2950355. Archived from the original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  32. ↑ Teiwes, Frederick C. (March 1997). "Hungry Ghosts: China′s Secret Famine. By Jasper Becker. London: John Murray, 1996. xvi + 352 pp. £19.99. ISBN 0-7195-5433-0.]". The China Quarterly. Cambridge University Press. 149: 212–214. doi:10.1017/S0305741000043988. ISSN 1468-2648. S2CID 154780294. Archived from the original on 2 December 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  33. ↑ Riskin, Carl (29 November 1996). "Hidden hunger, shameful secrets". Times Higher Education (in Simplified Chinese). Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  34. ↑ Yang, Songlin (2021). Telling the Truth: China's Great Leap Forward, Household Registration and the Famine Death Tally. Springer Nature. pp. xxvi. doi:10.1007/978-981-16-1661-7. ISBN 978-981-16-1661-7. S2CID 240948156. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
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