From: lix@BUCRSB.BU.EDU
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: Cannibalism in China
Date: 18 Aug 92 00:07:56 GMT

T.T. Wu wrote:
>LaoMao Shi ZhongHua MingZu De QianGu ZeiRen (Excuse my Pinyin, please)

Agreed. (My Pinyin is by no means better than yours:-)

>Mr.lix:
<
<My apology to you for my unwitting insult.

No problem, I was talking about the original article. It is nice to make
things clear through friendly discussion.

>However I want to explain a little bit.
<
<1) I heard this sort of thing from chat with friends.  I have never seen
  such things reported in ANY Chinese publication.  Though this kind of
  chat could be called rumor, I gave credit to those people, because
  they were relating what happened in their home villages, specifically,
  in Anhui province.

I heard this sort of things during the famine in late-1989 to early-1963
too, in Chengdu, Sichuan. It was not a surprise to learn such stories in
Anhui, which was the one of top two provinces sufferred the most in that
famine along with Sichuan:-(   I called the original a lie, not because
I never knew any evidence of such stories -- my ignorance can't prove its
nonexisistance.

<2) Even in those 'rumor', this sort of things was said to be isolated
   incidents, that is very few.

OK, no problem about this.

<3) Even in those 'rumor', this sort of things was said to be considered
   as most severe crime and the people involved had been treated capital
   punishment.  Some people could interpret such measure as a way to keep

Fine again.

>   morale from deterioration.  The sad fact was that MOST of those 
   criminals otherwise would have been fairly normal human beings.

Here is the problem. I can't agree on this. Whenever a culture regards
cannibalism as normal humanbeing's behavor when he/she is hungry, the
culture should be blamed. According to the above 2) and 3) that is not the
case in China. Please read the original message again:

In article <etxmow.714043998@garboc34> etxmow@garboc34.ericsson.se (Mats Winberg) writes:
>       In today's "Dagens Nyheter" (17/8) the largest morning paper
>       in Sweden, there is a long article claiming that many cases
>       of cannibalism occured in China during the '60s. The article
>       written by a Chinese, claims that tens of thousand of people

First of all, please note the number "tens of thousand"

>       were massacred and eaten. First they were condemned as "enemies
>       of the people" and then slaughtered. I will spare you the grisly

Second, please note the manner -- "slaughtered and eaten" in a legal ways.

>       details, but the author claimed that the career in the communist
>       party were easier for those who participated in the abhorrent
>       murders.

Third, the author is trying to find a reason why it was of large scale and
legitimate.

>       Does the article lie ? (second question deleted)
>       (To relate to another thread in s.c.c., no cannibalism took place
>       in Norway during the '60s, to the best of my knowledge...)

So my conclusion is "Yes", the author is lying, and is insulting Chinese
people and Chinese culture. Your points 2) and 3) above agree with me:

Cannibalism was not permitted or encouraged by either Chinese culture or
Chinese government even in the famine from 1959-1962. As to individual,
isolated criminal cases? I said:

>However, there was no such thing
>as cannibalism happened in China in such period, to the best of my knowledge.

This is a truthful statement learned from the Norway netter. "HeXueHeYong":-)
Maybe I should add: I did hear a few such stories without 3W for me to
verify, and none of these stories were told in an encouraging tone:-)

Some of my respectable friends also sent me emails, warning me careful to
answer "Yes" to the question of that Norway netter. I am very confident
that is a lie, not based on I never knew such case, but the three points
of the original, which I listed above.