Book contents
- The Cambridge Economic History of China
- The Cambridge Economic History of China
- The Cambridge Economic History of China
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Citations
- Introduction to Volume II
- Part I 1800–1950
- Part II 1950 to the Present
- 15 The Origin of China’s Communist Institutions
- 16 China’s Struggle with the Soviet Growth Model, 1949–1978
- 17 Living Standards in Maoist China
- 18 The Political Economy of China’s Great Leap Famine
- 19 China’s External Economic Relations during the Mao Era
- 20 The Chinese Economy in the Reform Era
- 21 China’s Great Boom as a Historical Process
- Index
- References
18 - The Political Economy of China’s Great Leap Famine
from Part II - 1950 to the Present
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 February 2022
Book contents
- The Cambridge Economic History of China
- The Cambridge Economic History of China
- The Cambridge Economic History of China
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Citations
- Introduction to Volume II
- Part I 1800–1950
- Part II 1950 to the Present
- 15 The Origin of China’s Communist Institutions
- 16 China’s Struggle with the Soviet Growth Model, 1949–1978
- 17 Living Standards in Maoist China
- 18 The Political Economy of China’s Great Leap Famine
- 19 China’s External Economic Relations during the Mao Era
- 20 The Chinese Economy in the Reform Era
- 21 China’s Great Boom as a Historical Process
- Index
- References
Summary
Indisputably, the Great Leap Famine of 1958–61 stands out in Chinese history as the most profound demographic catastrophe after six centuries of nearly uninterrupted population growth. As some 30 million, or 5 percent of a population of 660 million, were wiped out within a short period of three years, it was by far the deadliest famine in human history. However, until the demographic consequences of this catastrophe were fully revealed in the 1980s, the outside world assumed that China had solved its food problem following the founding of the People’s Republic, when in fact the greatest famine in human history was just beginning to unfold.
Keywords
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- Information
- The Cambridge Economic History of China , pp. 642 - 684Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
References
Further Reading
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Bai, Y., and Kung, J.K.S., “The Shaping of an Institutional Choice: Weather Shocks, the Great Leap Famine, and Agricultural Decollectivization in China,” Explorations in Economic History 54 (2014), 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernstein, T.P., “Mao Zedong and the Famine of 1959–1960: A Study in Wilfulness,” China Quarterly 186 (2006), 421–45.Google Scholar
Bramall, C., “Agency and Famine in China’s Sichuan Province, 1958–1962,” China Quarterly 208 (2011), 990–1008.Google Scholar
Cao, Shuji 曹树基, 1959–1961 年中國的人口死亡及其成因 (The Death Rate of China’s Population and Its Contributing Factors from 1959–1961), 中国人口学 (Chinese Population Science), 2005, 14–28.Google Scholar
Garnaut, A., “The Geography of the Great Leap Famine,” Modern China 40.3 (2014), 315–48.Google Scholar
Kasahara, H., and B. Li, , “Grain Exports and the Causes of China’s Great Famine, 1959–1961: County-Level Evidence,” Journal of Development Economics 146 (2020), 102513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kung, J.K.S., and Chen, S., “The Tragedy of the Nomenklatura: Career Incentives and Political Radicalism during China’s Great Leap Famine,” American Political Science Review 105.1 (2011), 27–45.Google Scholar
Kung, , J.K.S., and J.Y. Lin, , “The Causes of China’s Great Leap Famine, 1959–1961,” Economic Development and Cultural Change 52.1 (2003), 51–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kung, J.K.S., and Zhou, T., “Political Elites and Hometown Favoritism in Famine-Stricken China,” Journal of Comparative Economics (2020), at www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147596720300184?via%3Dihub.Google Scholar
Li, W., and Yang, D.T., “The Great Leap Forward: Anatomy of a Central Planning Disaster,” Journal of Political Economy 113.4 (2005), 840–77.Google Scholar
Lin, J.Y., and Yang, D.T., “Food Availability, Entitlements and the Chinese Famine of 1959–61,” Economic Journal 110.460 (2000), 136–58.Google Scholar
Meng, X., Qian, N., and Yared, P., “The Institutional Causes of China’s Great Famine, 1959–1961,” Review of Economic Studies 82.4 (2015), 1568–1611.Google Scholar
Gráda, Ó, C., “Great Leap, Great Famine: A Review Essay,” Population and Development Review 39.2 (2013), 333–46.Google Scholar
Walker, K.R., “Food and Mortality in China during the Great Leap Forward, 1958–61,” in Ash, R.F. (ed.), Agricultural Development in China, 1949–1989: The Collected Papers of Kenneth R. Walker (New York, Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 106–47.Google Scholar
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