"Mao's Great Famine" Wins Prize “毛泽东的大饥荒”一书获奖

"Mao's Great Famine" wins prize “毛泽东的大饥荒”一书获奖

Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62，“毛泽东的大饥荒” by Frank Dikotter  陈凯博客： www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com Samuel Johnson prize won by 'hugely important' study of Mao “毛泽东的大饥荒”一书获奖 Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikötter takes award for 'stunningly original' history of tyrannical regime Alison Flood guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 July 2011 Nowadays Soldiers guarding Mao statue in China （Mao murdered 45 million Chinese in four years during his man-made great famine) 今天毛泽东仍是所谓中国政权合法性的基石 Frank Dikötter's "stunningly original and hugely important" account of how Mao's Great Leap Forward led to the deaths of 45 million people has won him the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction. Dikötter, a Dutch academic, accessed previously hidden archives to shine a light on China between 1958 and 1962, when millions of Chinese – he puts the figure at 45 million – were worked, starved or beaten to death as Mao attempted to overtake the west in less than 15 years. Ben Macintyre, historian, journalist and chair of the Samuel Johnson prize judges, called Mao's Great Famine the book of the year. "This is not just an important book now, but it will become in some ways more important, as China becomes more powerful in the world and a greater part of global consciousness. To understand why China is the way it is, you almost have to read this book. If you want to understand why it's a materialistic, non-ideological place, you need to realise that just a generation ago, this appalling, manmade catastrophe was visited on its people," said Macintyre. "One of the judges, [biographer] Brenda Maddox, simply said 'this book changed my life - I think differently about the 20th century than I did before. Why didn't I know about this?' We feel we know who the villains of the 20th century are – Stalin and Hitler. But here, fully 50 years after the event, is something we did not know about. It's a testament to the power of non-fiction, that it can rock you back on your heels." Mao's Great Famine, which beat five other shortlisted titles to win the prize, is "a vision of a society in utter collapse", said Macintyre, and Dikötter "ties it completely to Mao himself". "Often the famine is dismissed in the west as circumstantial, but Dikötter blows that myth completely out of the water. Mao and his cronies knew what was going on and just didn't care," said the writer, pointing to Mao's remark that "it is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill." A moral travesty - Mao's statue in the Nixon Library in America 一个道德与历史的强奸罪 - 美国公立尼克松图书馆内的毛塑像 Dikötter narrowly beat Maya Jasanoff's Liberty's Exiles, a history of the journeys of the American loyalists left behind by the 18th-century British evacuation, to win the £20,000 prize. "It was hard; really really hard ... Passionate feelings came to a head. At one moment we thought we might have to split the prize," said Macintyre, praising the "bursts of pure lyricism" in Jasanoff's work. But in the end Dikötter triumphed, becoming the second writer giving an insight into the communist east to win the Samuel Johnson prize in two years after Barbara Demick took it in 2010 for her journalistic investigation Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea. "I think Samuel Johnson would have been stunned by what comes under the general heading of non-fiction these days – we were comparing [Jonathan Steinberg's] Bismarck, this monumental account of a great statesman, with Matt Ridley's delightful, trouble-making, brilliant futuristic look at what is happening to us all, [The Rational Optimist]. That's the pleasure of this prize. But in the end we tried to say which is the book of the year? And this is it," said Macintyre. "It could have been overwritten, but part of what makes it work so well is it is written with quiet fury. He doesn't overstate his case because he doesn't need to. Its very strength lies in its depth of scholarship, lightly worn." Dikötter, chair professor of humanities at the University of Hong Kong and professor of the modern history of China on leave from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, was announced as winner of the Samuel Johnson prize at a ceremony in London on Wednesday evening. The author of nine books about China, he lives in Hong Kong. ------------------------------------------------------------- 《毛的大饥荒》获奖 -大跃进灾难生动重现 (博讯北京时间2011年7月09日 转载) 美国之音 记者 齐勇明 一本探索中国“大跃进”灾难的英文著作《毛的大饥荒》日前获得英国“塞缪尔.约翰逊”非小说类文学奖，此书再次引发人们对那一时期实际死亡人数的关注。 《毛的大饥荒》作者 - Frank Dikotter 这本书的作者冯克（Frank Dikotter）是香港大学历史教授，人文学院院长。他多年来潜心研究中国历史，撰写了好几部中国历史问题专著。这部有关大跃进灾害的作品是他最新完成的著作。 *新书获奖，接受VOA采访* 冯克在英国出席颁奖仪式后，星期五对美国之音说，“大跃进时期饿死的中国人和第二次世纪大战的死亡总数相似，都在4500万以上。” 冯克：“从1958到1962这几年间，中国人为的灾难造成的死亡人数可以和整个二战期间各国死去的人数相提并论。这个数字令人震惊，是毛泽东制造的最大的人祸。” 中国前领导人毛泽东于50年代末60年代初领导了全国性的大跃进运动，以“大炼钢铁”、“超英赶美”为目标，不顾实际情况采取冒进的工业政策。各地农村也大肆鼓吹“人有多大胆，地有多大产”的奇迹，造成一派亩产万吨粮的假象，最终以全国大饥荒、死人千万的悲剧收场。 由于中国政府信息的不透明，造成国内外学界对这一时期的死亡人数存在很大争议，争议的范围从1000万人至5000万人不等。 *出版人：帮中国人了解自己历史* 香港新世纪出版社出版人鲍朴对这本书非常欣赏，他说这本书可以帮助中国民众了解自己国家的历史，特别是中青年一代更应补上这一课。 鲍朴说：“我去年到北京去，和与我同龄的在文革期间出生的人谈到是否知道有过大饥荒，他们说，‘唉，这事真不知道啊。’包括中共党史二卷出版后，官方承认饿死了1000万人，这个他们也不知道。就算是1000万人也不是个小数字啊。” 鲍朴说，冯克的写法非常生动细致，在描写人性的方面有独到之处。他称赞作者是少有的、能让严谨的史实通过活灵活现的笔触表达人性的严肃学者。鲍朴是原中共中央政治体制改革研究室主任鲍彤的儿子。鲍彤曾任赵紫阳秘书，六四后被判刑7年。 鲍朴说：“冯克的这本书是一个突破，中国人都没有做到。他的突破在于，他不仅去查了中央和省籍的档案材料，这些档案一度开放，目前又不开放了。另一方面他对中国那一段社会情况做了非常深入的研究。” *作者：饥荒中有人以粮惩罚人* 冯克认为，他写的《毛的大饥荒》这本书最重要的是充分展示了人们不仅因为没有饭吃而活活饿死，更严重的是有人把粮食当作一种武器来掌握，惩罚人们。 他说：“这一点最重要，显示人们是被饿死的，他们被剥夺了进入大食堂的权利，其中原因有的因为年迈，病重，发表了不同意见，甚至因为在开会时打了磕睡。这些事件都令人触目惊心。” 早在2000年就开始撰写中国大饥荒的中国资深媒体人，北京炎黄春秋主编杨继绳对这个题目有专门著作《墓碑--中国大饥荒》。他和冯克自07年就已相识，也很赞赏冯克的文笔。但杨继绳认为，目前要通过档案资料得到饥荒中死人的具体数字很不容易。因为有关的档案资料不开放。 *档案保密，死亡数字难确定* 他说：“我跑了社会科学院档案馆，跑过中央档案馆，但是我是通过关系，通过朋友，因为我曾是新华社高级记者。而他肯定看不到，因为那些资料不开放啊。” 尽管杨继绳认为目前总结出来的大饥荒死亡人数不可靠，但他相信总有一天当局控制的档案资料是会开放的，这段历史终究会大白于天下的。 《毛的大饥荒》预计9月将发行中文版。中译本的出版人鲍朴说，究竟饿死了多少人可以继续研究。 他说：“冯克研究的数字是4500万，这个数字可以争论。但我认为他起码是走出了研究该领域的第一步了。最后到底应该是一个什么样的可信数字，什么样一个确切数字，还有待于将来的研究。” 冯克在最后的6名决选者中脱颖而出，赢得了塞缪尔.约翰逊文学奖的两万英镑奖金。评审团主席马辛泰尔高度赞扬这本书的意义，说对于任何要了解20世纪历史的人来说，“这是一本必读之书”。 本文来源：美国之音 (博讯 boxun.com)