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Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine
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Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine Paperback - 2000

by Jasper Becker

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.


From the publisher

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."

Details

  • Title Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine
  • Author Jasper Becker
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 416
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher St. Martins Press-3PL, New York, New York, U.S.A.
  • Date 2000-09-05
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9780805056686 / 0805056688
  • Weight 1.3 lbs (0.59 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.2 in (22.61 x 14.99 x 3.05 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 1950's
    • Chronological Period: 1960's
    • Cultural Region: Asian - General
    • Cultural Region: Asian - Chinese
    • Cultural Region: Pacific Rim Studies
    • Ethnic Orientation: Asian - General
  • Library of Congress subjects Mao, Zedong, Food supply - China
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 97044007
  • Dewey Decimal Code 363.809

Media reviews

Citations

  • New York Review of Books, 11/22/2012, Page 30
  • New York Times, 08/09/1998, Page 28

About the author

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.

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Hungry Ghosts : Mao's Secret Famine

Hungry Ghosts : Mao's Secret Famine

by Jasper Becker

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Hungry Ghosts : Mao's Secret Famine

Hungry Ghosts : Mao's Secret Famine

by Jasper Becker

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Hungry Ghosts : Mao's Secret Famine
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Hungry Ghosts : Mao's Secret Famine

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Hungry Ghosts : Mao's Secret Famine
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Hungry Ghosts : Mao's Secret Famine
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Hungry Ghosts : Mao's Secret Famine

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Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine (Holt Paperback)
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Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine (Holt Paperback)

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Hungry Ghosts (Holt Paperback)
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Hungry Ghosts (Holt Paperback)

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Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine (Holt Paperback)
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Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine (Holt Paperback)

by Becker, Jasper

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Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine (Holt Paperback)

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