Catastrophe and Contention in Rural China: Mao's Great Leap Forward Famine and the Origins of Righteous Resistance in Da Fo Village

by Ralph A. Thaxton, Jr

• ISBN13: 9780521722308
• ISBN10: 0521722306
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-05-05
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book documents how Chinas rural people remember the great famine of Maoist rule, which proved to be the worst famine in modern world history. Ralph A. Thaxton, Jr., sheds new light on how Chinas socialist rulers drove rural dwellers to hunger and starvation, on how powerless villagers formed resistance to the corruption and coercion of collectivization, and on how their hidden and contentious acts, both individual and concerted, allowed them to survive and escape the predatory grip of leaders and networks in the thrall of Maos authoritarian plan for a full-throttle realization of communism - a plan that engendered an unprecedented disaster for rural families. Based on his study of a rural villages memories of the famine, Thaxton argues that these memories persisted long after the events of the famine and shaped rural resistance to the socialist state, both before and after the post-Mao era of reform.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Cast of Characters: Da Fo Village (Great Buddha), 1920-1993	p. xvii
Chronology of Important Events	p. xxi
Introduction	p. 1
The Great Leap Forward Famine and Chairman Mao's Catastrophe	p. 1
The History of a Single Rural Village	p. 5
Memory, Politics, and Oral History Methodology	p. 10
Book Overview	p. 19
The Republican Era and the Emergence of Communist Leadership During the Anti-Japanese War of Resistance	p. 23
Saline Earth and Earth Salt	p. 25
The Crises of the Republican Period	p. 26
Large Landholders in the Republican Period	p. 33
The Japanese Invasion and the Two Poles of the Resistance	p. 39
The Da Fo Militia and the Second Pole	p. 41
Early Communist Party Governance and Protection in Da Fo	p. 45
The Ascent of the Vigilante Militia: The Violent Antecedents of Mao's War Communism	p. 51
Occupation by Yang Faxian's Puppet Regime	p. 51
The Second Pole in Occupied Da Fo	p. 58
The Land Revolution of 1945-1947	p. 70
The Civil War and Vigilante Violence, 1946-1949	p. 75
The Disappearance of the First Pole	p. 80
The Work Style of War	p. 83
The Onset of Collectivization and Popular Dissatisfaction with Mao's "Yellow Bomb" Road	p. 89
Cooperativization: Mutual Aid Groups and Land-Pooling Associations	p. 91
The Introduction and Escalation of Unified Purchase and Sale	p. 97
The Failure of the Agricultural Production Cooperative	p. 101
The Path to the Liangmen People's Commune	p. 106
The Mandate Abandoned: The Disaster of the Great Leap Forward	p. 118
Farming and Living Collectively	p. 119
Runaway Procurement and the Causes of the Famine	p. 123
Escalating Demands for Labor	p. 132
The Gender Bias of Maoist Forced Labor and the Attack on Motherhood	p. 139
Public Criticism	p. 143
Strategies of Survival and their Elimination in the Great Leap Forward	p. 157
Foot-Dragging	p. 158
Remittances	p. 160
Migration	p. 162
The Black Market	p. 170
Begging	p. 176
Crop Theft	p. 177
Gleaning	p. 181
Grain Concealment	p. 185
The Nature of Resistance in the Early Years of the Great Leap	p. 188
Political Repression and the Lesson from Xinyang	p. 191
The Escape from Famine and Death	p. 199
Chi Qing: The Most Effective Hidden Strategy of Resistance	p. 200
The Death Rate in Da Fo	p. 207
Explaining Da Fo's Escape from the Great Leap Forward Famine	p. 215
Chi Qing as a Form of Anti-State Resistance	p. 226
Indignation and Frustrated Retaliation: The Politics of Disengagement	p. 231
Alienation and Disengagement during the Great Leap Forward	p. 232
Resentment Unalleviated: The Anti-Five Winds Campaign and the Four Cleanups Campaign	p. 246
The Cultural Revolution and Its Complexities	p. 253
The Price of Restoring Order: Bao Zhilong Is Returned to Power	p. 262
The Market Comes First: The Economics of Disengagement and the Origins of Reform	p. 268
Hidden Smallholding within Collectivization	p. 270
The Land Division of 1982	p. 274
Hidden Market Reentry within Collectivization	p. 277
Persistent Memories and Long-Delayed Retaliation in the Reform Era	p. 292
The State Campaign to Manage the Memory of the Great Leap Forward Famine	p. 293
Obstacles to Creating a New Memory of the Great Leap Forward Famine	p. 301
Settling the Score	p. 312
Conclusion	p. 325
War Communism and Lumpen Leadership	p. 327
The Repression and Theft of Entitlement	p. 331
Resistance, Memory, and Communist Party Legitimacy	p. 334
The Cultural Revolution and Its Link to the Great Leap Famine	p. 339
The Great Leap's Legacy and Reform	p. 342
Reform and Revenge	p. 344
Bibliography	p. 349
Index	p. 365
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