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: 9780521897495
• ISBN10: 0521897491
• Format: Hardcover
• 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

Introduction

The Republican era and the emergence of Communist leadership during the anti-Japanese war of resistance

The ascent of the vigilante militia: the violent antecedents of Mao's war

The onset of collectivization and popular dissatisfaction with Mao's 'yellow bomb' road

The mandate abandoned: the disaster of the great leap forward

Strategies of survival and their elimination in the great leap forward

The escape from famine and death

Indignation and frustrated retaliation: the politics of disengagement

The market comes first: the economics of disengagement

Persistent memories and long-delayed retaliation in the reform era

Conclusion

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