Book Review: Mao's Great Famine 书评：毛泽东的大饥荒

Mao's Anti-Humanity Crimes 毛泽东的反人类罪行/作者访谈

陈凯博客： www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com

Book Review: Mao's Great Famine
书评：毛泽东的大饥荒

The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962
中国历史上最大的人造大饥荒，1958-1962
(45 million starved to death, killed and by suicide 四千五百万人在“大跃进”中丧生)

陈凯一语：

当世界有良知的人们认清毛泽东反人类罪行的时候，中国的人们却在大肆宣扬、崇拜毛的魔像。 从天安门广场到人民币的币面，从无数的毛塑像到海外的“毛厨房”: 这是一群毫无自尊、自省、自责、自我忏悔的人们。 哀哉。

Kai Chen's Words:

When all freedom-loving people in the world have learned the truth about Mao-the Monster, the Chinese are doing exactly the opposite. They believe in lies manufactured by their government and they believe the Mao-the devil's image can protect them somehow. So they spread Mao around. From Mao's portrait and rotten corpse on Tiananmen Square to the design of Chinese currency, from countless Mao statues in China to many "Mao's Kitchens" overseas: This is the depiction of a people without conscience, without memory, without history, without remorse, without self-awareness and responsibility. Pity indeed.



Book Link 购书网点： http://www.amazon.com/Maos-Great-Famine-Devastating-Catastrophe/dp/0802777686/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296946211&sr=1-1

Book Review: A shocking tale of the Chinese draconian hell
在中国地狱中传来的悲声（书评）
September 28, 2010

By Paul Gelman "PAUL Y. GELMAN" (HAIFA , ISRAEL)

This review is from: Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962 (Hardcover)

Frank Dikotter has written a masterpiece about history's greatest monster amd mass murderer ever to have lived. To be precise,he describes the massed and forcible collectivization of the Chinese peasants who paid a horrible price in the process: over 45 million of them died in addition to the many more tens of millions who perished as well because of one man's mad scheme to bring change to his country,no matter what the price ought to be. This was the so-called Great Leap Forward and it happened during 4 years,between 1958-1962.

To quote Dikotter: "China descended into hell. Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy...(which was)an attempt to catch up with and overtake Britain in less than fifteen years. In pursuit of a utopian paradise,everything was collectivized and people in the countryside were robbed of their work,their homes,their land,their belongings and their livelihood."(See Introduction)

To write this book,thousands of new documents hitherto classified were used. These came from many sources,mainly from the Office of Foreign Affairs and other provincial archives. These brutal acts caused the greatest demolition of real estate in history and one third of all housing was turned into rubble. "Homes were pulled down to make fertilizers,to build canteens,to relocate villagers,to straighten roads,to make place for a better future beckoning ahead or simply to punish thier owners".

But not all the people died of hunger. Many would suffer from common illnesses such as diarrhoea,dysentery and typhus. "Suicide reached epidemic proportions and in Puning,Guangdong,suicides were described as 'ceaseless' ;some people ended their lives out of shame for having stolen from fellow villagers."(p.304) What's more,"human flesh was traded on the black market. "A farmer who bartered a pair of shoes for a kilo of meat at the Zhangye railway station found that the package contained a human nose and several ears."(p.321) "One elderly man quietly sobbed when he recounted how,as a young boy,he and the other villagers had been forced to beat a grandmother,tied up in the local temple for having taken wood from the forest. Others were intimidated by mock trials and mock burials. People were given yin and yang hair cuts,as one half of the head was shaved off,the other not"(p.296)

Mao,albeit strong words of criticism,did not care at all about how history would judge him. To exemplify,one of his strongest critics,Liu Shaoqi,who had been totally shocked by what he had seen in his village,tried to stop the sheer madness of the Chairman. Mao had,at this point, decided to launch a reconstruction campaign also known as the Cultural Revolution,but he made sure to hound his opponent by using the Red Guards until Liu died in 1969,deprived of his medicines.

This is a tale of madness,of horror and shows to what extent dictators can use their untrammelled power in order to wreak havoc not only on others but also on their own people without even flinching. It shows how some of the leaders have lost their reason completely and have used their super-megalomanic aspirations without thinking about the price that others would pay. The names of Stalin,Ceausescu,Hitler,Pol Pot,Idi Amin and the worst monster of them, Mao, will always reside in history's hall of infamy.

This book is a stunning achievement and extremely important. It reads like a thriller and the narrative will keep you breathless! Hats off, Mr.Dikotter!


A Moral Travesty 尼克松的道德混乱: Mao's Statue in the Nixon Library, California 尼克松图书馆中的毛塑像