It seemed appropriate on the eve of Veterans' Day to reprise this book review I wrote way back in 2011. A member of my family is in the military and this is my way of thanking him for the sacrifices he made to keep people like me safe from fanatics like Mao. The book review:
Apparently Mao believed that he was the greatest living Marxist theoretician, but he needed Stalin's aid, so he kept the bragging to a minimum as long as Stalin was alive. When Stalin died in 1953 Mao looked around for a dramatic demonstration that China was the true home of communism, and what he came up with was a plan to industrialize the country in just a few short years.
To accomplish this he bought a bunch of obsolete old factories from the Russians, and promised to pay for them with Chinese grain. The problem was that there wasn't enough grain for the Chinese, let alone for the Russians. Grain was seized from the already strapped peasants and sent out of the country. Peasants who resisted were treated as counter revolutionaries. Lots of them starved.
Factories require iron and steel, so Mao collected most of the country's pots and pans, tools and farm implements so they could be melted down. How, you might ask, were the peasants supposed to cook their food? The answer is, they weren't. Government canteens were set up, and you got your meals there. If you didn't meet your farm quota that day (maybe because your tools had been seized), you didn't get any food. Lots of people starved because they were barred from the canteens.
Then there was the prosperity parties. It occurred to Mao that all the killing might depress the morale of the people who were still alive, so to bolster their spirits he declared a week-long (I think it was a week) national party where the canteens disgorged their supplies, and everyone was required to overeat. Lots of photos were taken of happy peasants pushing away food when they just couldn't eat any more. Unfortunately the aftermath of the parties was even greater starvation.
Mao is said to have remarked that there'd be plenty of grain for the Chinese if they had half the population. Maybe he killed off so many people that the remainder finally had the necessities of life, I don't know. A Maoist on the internet claims that the population tripled during this time, that everybody was happy, and that only gangsters and imperialists would criticize the sensitive poet and father of his people. You be the judge. Anyway, the respite after The Great Leap didn't last long. Later Mao would start The Cultural Revolution, with all the loss of life that would entail.
The book:
http://www.amazon.com/Maos-Great-Famine-Devastating-Catastrophe/dp/0802777686/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299893964&sr=8-1
Here's (above) the author.
14 comments:
I love your book references Eddie. Way better than anything I have been assigned to read so far in college. I've been reading the Girls of Murder City book also (though admittedly, slowly, because I've been distracted by a different book about the workings of various ant societies).
Benjamin writes in reply to to the May 19, 2001 post on Wolverton:
"Wolverton had an amazing ability which Armstrong used to help him make another publication—1975 In Prophecy—a highly effective recruiting tool for his End Time cult. Wolverton actually signed the incorporation papers of The Worldwide Church of God in 1946). My Wolverton Bible is on the way but I'd love to find an original copy of his doomsday mag too."
This sounds strangely like this CNN documentary that I watched years ago from 2005 about North Korea and how literally hundreds of people starve every year over there, despite receiving foreign aid in the form of rice sacks, and how so many of these people try to illegally escape to China without getting caught by the North Korean border patrol over there, and even trying to sneak back just to see their families again, etc. It was really fascinating, but really cringe worthy and sick at the same time. You've probably have seen it before, but if you haven't, it's probably posted on YouTube somewhere. Definitely recommend you to watch it if you have free time. I apologize for getting slightly off-topic, but I just had to tell you this.
The more I read about these former Communist countries and the ones that are presently communist today, I keep realizing what a backwards system of government it must be, even though it must have looked good on paper when Marx and Engel first wrote "The Communist Manifesto" back in 1848. I think that even China has tried to incorporate some more socialist and capitalist attitudes towards its affairs in the last decade or so, but I could be wrong. We should all be fortunate enough to live in a society, like the United States, where freedom of speech and the Internet are not regulated by corrupt regimes and such.
Thank you for the wonderful reply that you gave me on your previous post. I knew I wasn't the only one who cares about funny drawing and animation in the world.
The depiction of Mao in the Scorsese film Kundun, was really interesting, I thought
Strange enough, it kind of reminded me of Andy Warhol.
Thomas: I never even heard of Kundun. Is it worth seeing?
Reading this makes me want to throttle Chairman Mao's neck.
Kundun is Scorsese's film about the Dalai Lama.
Its a pretty solid biopic, but not much more. It has its moments...
found a clip...
maomao
Mao's atrocities used to make me extremely angry, back when I knew a lot of American leftists who admired him. Now they are merely sickening.
The trouble with Kundun, I remember thinking at the time, was that it's hard to make an exciting movie about a person you think is holy. (William Wilder, director of "Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ", told his wife: "Only a Jew could tell this story.")
"The more I read about these former Communist countries and the ones that are presently communist today, I keep realizing what a backwards system of government it must be, even though it must have looked good on paper when Marx and Engel first wrote "The Communist Manifesto" back in 1848."
Well you have to consider that Marx and Engel thought that communism would happen in a developed captialist country in the 19th century, such as the UK or Germany. The didn't write their model according to the backwards nations of Russia and China. Russia was just becoming a modern captialist state before the Bolsheviks came into power, thereby causing the transition all sorts of problems.
Depressing stuff, Eddie, dosen't help at all with all the bad crap going on in Japan right now--got to keep positive!
By the way Eddie, how far away do you live? I live all the way in Ohio and i want to be a cartoonist and animator, but i'm actually afraid of drawing--i know it sounds ridiculous, but hear me out--i always work myself up over wasting even ONE slice of paper on a bad drawing, only to have to erase it later, since i don't have anyone who knows when i'm making a mistake or not when i'm working.
I think i could work better if i had an experienced mentor like you watching over my work--i think it would be tedious to have to make a drawing, upload it to my blog and wait for feedback, but if that't the only way you can critique my work, i'll accept that.
Or do you know any competent animation teachers who live in Ohio, preferrably in the province of Amherst or Lorain? I remember John K mentioning this one guy who works at a university or something that knows classic Disney principles, but i can't remember the name, nor have i been able to find that post again to find out who he was talking about.
By the way, i posted a funny new post on my blog, talking about the early Warner Bros. stars Foxy and Roxy. Check it out, and leave your opinion on it please! I'll appreciate it!
>>it's hard to make an exciting movie about a person you think is holy.<<
I think you're right.
The Mao scene was mostly what I remembered from Kundun. You don't see Mao portrayed in film very often. Are there others? Must be..
Sparky: I'm not able to do some of the things you suggest, and I don't know anyone in Ohio, but I can help with the paper issue. Get used to the idea that you're going to use a lot of paper. Buy it cheap by the ream in bulk and use it as if it cost nothing. Deliberately waste it. Paper is the one thing you can't economize on if you're going to be a cartoonist. Get used to the cost and never give it a thought, even if you're poor.
Also, find a pencil or leads that you really like to use. I use a Tombow 4B, but you might prefer something else. Eagle 714s used to be cheap and good. Buy some pencil extenders at the art store.
Don't use sketch pads. They make you feel guilty if you don't do a good drawing. If you do use a pad, and you're self-conscious about your work, never show the pad to anybody.
Come to think of it, maybe you do you need a sketch pad to draw people secretly in restaurants. Get the cheapest, most inconspicuous one you can find. Never, ever buy a quality sketchpad, even on sale. They're not for beginning cartoonists.
Sketch pads shouldn't be big enough to call attention to themselves. No need for color, but if you insist on it then buy the kind of watercolor brush that's hollow and can be filled with water. Art stores have them.
Cheap watercolors that come in cakes usually don't contain much pigment. When you're starting out, just carry a small tube of white and a small tube of black, and remember that watercolor looks best when it's light, and not heavily saturated.
It's OK if the watercolor wrinkles the page, but always have a spare pieces of trash paper under the page so you won't wrinkle lots of good pages at once. When you're home and the pad is dry, keep it under some books to flatten out the wrinkles. I never use a sketch pad at home...only when I'm outside. I always prefer xerox-type paper.
I hope this helps. I don't have time to write more.
This Mao post brings to mind that creepy hunger computer animation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59HnvNfFj04
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