When the Chinese Communist Party assumed power, Mao Zedong declared that "not even one person shall die of hunger." A little over a decade later, China was in the midst of the most devastating famine in modern history. Between 1957 and 1962 - the years commonly associated with Mao's Great Leap Forward - some 30 million peasants died of starvation and exhaustion.

Rather than exploring why party leaders stumbled so badly in their attempts to modernize China, the contributors to this landmark collection draw on newly available sources to show how men and women in rural and urban settings experienced the changes during this period. Eating Bitterness lifts the curtain of officially propagated images of mass mobilization to expose the uneven and deeply contested nature of state-society relations in Maoist China. It also illuminates the role that history writing and memory have played in shaping narratives of the recent past.

Eating Bitterness lifts the curtain of officially propagated images of the Great Leap Forward to expose the social suffering of citizens and the uneven and deeply contested nature of state-society relations in Maoist China.

About the Author

Kimberley Ens Manning is an associate professor of political science at Concordia University. Felix Wemheuer is an assistant professor in the Department for East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna.

Contributors: Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik, Richard King, Xin Yi, Wang Yanni, Gao Hua, Yixin Chen, Jeremy Brown, Ralph A. Thaxton Jr., and Wangling Gao

Reviews

An important collection that contributes both new perspectives and rich data. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the Great Leap Famine and the early years of the PRC.

-- Kathryn Egerton-Tarpley * The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol 71, Issue 2 *



Book Information
ISBN 9780774817271
Author Kimberley Ens Manning
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint University of British Columbia Press
Publisher University of British Columbia Press
Weight(grams) 500g