| Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine Contributor(s): Becker, Jasper (Author) |
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ISBN: 0805056688 ISBN-13: 9780805056686 Publisher: Holt Paperbacks OUR PRICE: $24.29 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 1998 Annotation: Journalist Jasper Becker conducted hundreds of interviews and spent years immersed in detective work to produce this first full account of the dark chapter in Chinese history--Chairman Mao Ze-dong's secret famine of the late 1950s and early 1960s. In this horrific story of state-sponsored terror, cannibalism torture and murder, China's communist leadership boasted of record harvests and actually increased grain exports, while refusing imports and international assistance. 16-page photo insert. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Asia - China - Social Science |
| Dewey: 363.809 |
| LCCN: 97044007 |
| Series: Holt Paperback |
| Physical Information: 1.2" H x 5.9" W x 8.9" (1.3 lbs) 416 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1950's - Chronological Period - 1960's - Cultural Region - Asian - Cultural Region - Chinese - Cultural Region - Pacific Rim - Ethnic Orientation - Asian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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 Becker conducted hundreds of interviews and spent years immersed in painstaking detective work to produce Hungry Ghosts, the first full account of this dark chapter in Chinese history. In this horrific story of state-sponsored terror, cannibalism, torture, and murder, China's communist leadership boasted of record harvests and actually increased grain exports, while refusing imports and international assistance. With China's reclamation of Hong Kong now a fait accompli, removing the historical blinders is more timely than ever. As reviewer Richard Bernstein wrote in the New York Times, "Mr. Becker's remarkable book...strikes a heavy blow against willed ignorance of what took place." |
Contributor Bio(s): Becker, Jasper: - Jasper Becker is currently Beijing bureau chief for the South China Morning Post. He has also written extensively on Chinese affairs for The Guardian, The Economist, and The Spectator. He lives in Beijing. |