From: jlam@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au (Lord Automato)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: Cannibalism in China
Date: 18 Aug 92 00:15:47 GMT
Organization: University of Melbourne


In article <199208171938.AA10725@thames.bu.edu>, lix@BUCRSB.BU.EDU writes:
|> T.T.Wu wrote:
|> ======================================
|> In article <etxmow.714043998@garboc34> etxmow@garboc34.ericsson.se (Mats Winberg) writes:
|> > (the lie cited by etxmow@garboc34.ericsson.se deleted)
|> Frankly, I heard this sort of thing when I was in China, but not exactly
|> like the article described.  It happened at later 50s' and early 60s',
|> just before I was born; so my knowledge is second hand.
|> 
|> This disaster was caused by CCP crazy "Big Leap" movement which brought
|> about man-made famine.  In order to keep them in power, CCP tried every
|> method to make sure PLA immuned from the famine and let city people suffered
|> to a point that they might complain but they would not rebel.  So CCP
|> took everything away from farmers, literally everything, in some cases
|> last grain was taken away.  So many farmers were forced to starve to death.
|> In some area unfortunately cannibalism occured.
|> 
|> This was most serious crime CCP committed to Chinese people, in my opinion.
|> Frankly, as a Chinese myself, I really don't understand why those farmer
|> didn't rebel, because they really had nothing to lose.  I always think
|> this is most ugly side of Chinese people, that is too submissive to the
|> authority.
|> 
|> However, I think this sort of thing has little to do with culture, instead
|> it has a lot to do with ugly side of human nature.  It occured in all kinds
|> of cultures.  For example, in Jewish gettoes at Third Reich time,  or in
|> Leningrad under Nazi German siege, cannibalism occured too because of extreme
|> lack of food.  I never think it has anything to do with Jewish Culture or
|> Russia Culture, thoug Nazi propaganda would say otherwise.
|> ======================================
|> 
|> As one surviving the famine, I feel obligated to say that was simply a lie.
|> There was a famine from late 1959 to mid 1963. I know a village where half
|> of the population were starved to death. However, there was no such thing
|> as cannibalism happened in China in such period, to the best of my knowledge.
|> 
|> Some young friends may not understand why farmers did not rebel, so they
|> tend to accept the rumored cannibalism as truth.
|> 
|> The fact is: the Chinese overnment still managed to strictly control the
|> situation. How they could do that is another intersting question, but that
|> was a fact. No rebellion existed at that period. Period.
|> 
|> The Big Leap Forward and resulted famine is one of the most serious crime
|> of Lao Mao committed to Chinese people and nation. No problem about this,
|> but rumor about cannibalism is only an insult to those suffered.


It seems that you can only say for a village, would there be enough people
to represents 0.001% of Chinese population? The fact is cannibalism could and
did occur in many occasions when man were starved. I would not say that 
cannibalism during the big famine is definitely a lie, it might be
more difficult to believe that no cannibalism at all during such most
adverse conditions.

Lin Can
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