by PETER LEE
The Great Leap Forward, a calamity that killed tens of millions, afflicted China with the misery and morals of a concentration camp and spawned the Cultural Revolution, was once a shunned and shameful topic.
But convenient myths – such as the threadbare explanation of “Three Years of Natural Disasters”, fingerpointing at the Soviet Union, and exculpatory emphasis on quixotic but seemingly admirable revolutionary enthusiasm – are now crumbling as a new generation feels enough distance to confront the painful past, and at the same time races to record the memories of the citizens who suffered through the period before they pass on.
Through the efforts of Chinese and foreign researchers, a more complete history of the Great Leap Forward is emerging from archives and personal accounts, as a parade of folly, viciousness, and cruelty. This history – and the current regime’s incomplete willingness to confront it – is finding resonance in the campaign to discredit Chongqing neo-Maoist firebrand Bo Xilai, and the effort to shape the agenda of the new leadership cadre that is expected to assume power in 2013.
In the process, the era of the Great Leap Forward and its aftermath is acquiring a new name: The Great Famine.
The Great Leap Forward was born of hubris: Mao Zedong’s bet that his version of socialism could unleash unprecedented productivity from the Chinese economy and show the supercilious commissars of the Soviet Union who was the best and greatest Communist leader.
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