Why were the inhabitants of some villages more likely to survive while others perished during the devastating Great Leap Forward famine (1959–1961)? To date, scholars of the worst famine in history have largely approached the question through an examination of quantitative data available at the provincial and county levels. But while we know that radicalized provincial and county leaders contributed to much higher death rates in the provinces of Anhui, Sichuan and Henan, for example, less clear is the variation among villages within the same province and county. In this long-awaited monograph, Yixin Chen argues that the extreme variation of survival at the local level was largely due to two critical factors: the ecological conditions in which villages were embedded and the strength of family lineages in the village leadership structure. Both historians and social scientists within and outside of China studies will find much in this impressive book to inform, challenge and transform their understanding of one of the most momentous calamities of the previous century.
Chen’s curiosity was first piqued on a research visit to “Old Qu,” a village where he worked between 1970 and 1976. The shocking death rate of villagers in Old Qu, or over 57 per cent of those residing in the village during the peak of the famine, he subsequently learned, was caused in no small part by the collapse of the village lineage leadership. The in-depth interviewing that gave rise to this initial insight prompted another critical observation: the famine was a protracted process (p. 91), rather than a singular event. Food scarcity waxed and waned over the course of the three years in which the famine unfolded, punctuated by the total unavailability of food. In Old Qu, starvation unfolded over 53 days in spring of 1960, corresponding directly with the suspension of food rations from the food granary system.
Was this the case elsewhere? Chen’s comparative study of multiple villages in Anhui and neighbouring Jiangxi suggest that yes: “the continuation or breakdown of lineage leadership or integrity,” often made the difference between life and death (p. 93). Drawing on oral interviews, archives and local genealogies, Chen offers an intimately drawn comparative accounting of pre-revolutionary lineage histories, local environmental conditions and leadership practices during the Great Leap Forward and famine. In the case of the relatively prosperous village of Three Treasures, for example, the radicalization of the county leadership and the breakdown of lineage leadership were the most significant factors leading to the starvation of 220 people (or approximately 75 per cent of the village).
Chen’s inquiry is nonetheless primarily focused on survival. As Chen asks, how and why did more than 94 per cent of China’s farmers live through the famine? (p. 261) In the first section of the book, Chen discusses passive strategies, such as searching for wild edible plants or pilfering unripe crops from the fields; strategies that became even more crucial in the absence of local leaders willing to protect the people for whom they were responsible. One of the reasons that extremely poor regions in Anhui fared better than wealthier regions elsewhere, Chen argues, is because of proximity to wild food sources, including from lakes and pastures, as well as access to uncultivated mountainous areas. The key to survival in this instance was not remoteness from Beijing or the county seat but rather being adjacent to natural resources that could sustain the population when food stores ran out.
In the second section of the book, Chen offers a vivid account of various forms of active collective resistance in the face of food scarcity. Strategies included the hoarding of food, bribing local officials, underreporting grain output, concealing food (including in a coffin! [p.170]), illegally distributing food stores, and crop riots. When examined in light of other recent research, including Ralph Thaxton’s village-level study of Da Fo, Chen’s detailed analysis makes clear that certain forms of collective resistance were national in scope (p. 179), thus overturning once and for all the mistaken characterization of Chinese peasants as passive victims of the Great Leap Forward Famine (p. 183).
Chen’s insights regarding the positive impact of lineages, including the role they played in food hoarding and riots, offer further weight to analyses regarding the protective role of lineages, as argued by Vivienne Shue and Lily Tsai. But recent research also raises questions about how lineages generally, and closer family kinship ties more specifically, intersect with the enactment of state power. Daniel Mattingly, for example, suggests that lineages have bolstered the informal authority of the party-state in China (and elsewhere). Given that Chen and Mattingly both define lineages in broad terms, or in Chen’s words, “as single-surname lineage-based or consanguine communities, which were originally founded by a family or a small clan and later expanded” (p. 12), this contradictory finding raises important questions for future scholarship. Did the extreme scarcity of the famine create conditions so extraordinary that lineage leaders sided with the people instead of the state? Or has the oversight of rural leaders changed so much since the Maoist era that the current regime is more effectively able to permeate village life, including lineages? And how do we make sense of questions of accountability and governance, when lineages and local party organizations are almost entirely led by male leaders?
The final section of the book contrasts the experiences of Anhui and Jiangxi, demonstrating the importance of personal ties in yet another medium: provincial leadership. Indeed, Chen argues that Jiangxi escaped the high death rates of Anhui for several critical reasons, including the fact that provincial leaders were better informed about local conditions through their close contacts with local leaders in former revolutionary base areas.
When Food Became Scarce makes a critically important contribution to scholarly understanding of the Great Leap Forward Famine, and to understanding of state–society relations in China, and beyond. The book is well-written and deeply attentive to wider debates about the Maoist era, and I strongly recommend its inclusion in senior undergraduate and graduate courses on modern China. It is mandatory reading for anyone wishing to better understand one of the most catastrophic events of the 20th century.
