Great Chinese Famine Research Articles

Incidence of breast cancer in Chinese women exposed to the 1959\u20131961 great Chinese famine

BackgroundThe association of malnutrition in early life with breast cancer risk has been studied in Europe by investigating survivors of the Dutch Hunger Winter Famine, but not in China. We evaluated the effect of exposure to the 1959–1961 Great Leap Forward famine on subsequent breast cancer risk in Chinese women.MethodsA total of 59,060 women born in 1955~1966 were recruited from Minhang district, Shanghai, China, during the period 2008 to 2012. A baseline survey was conducted to collect demographic characteristics and known risk factors for breast cancer. Incident breast cancers were identified by conducting record linkage with the Shanghai Cancer Registry up to June 30, 2015, and confirmed through medical records. Cumulative probabilities of cancer incidence were evaluated after adjusting for age, educational level and other confounders. Cox regression models were applied to estimate the hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of breast cancer.ResultsThe overall crude incidence of in situ and invasive breast cancer were 19.2 and 115.0 per 100,000, respectively, in women conceived or born during the famine (1959–1962), slightly higher than those in women born before (1955–1958) (13.2 and 109.8/100,000) and after (1963–1966) (10.4 and 101.5/100,000). Particularly, at age group of 50–52 years when all participants contributed person-year of observations, the age-specific incidence of invasive breast cancer was higher in pre-natal exposed women (123.7/100,000, 95%CI: 94.5–161.9/100,000) than in post-natal exposed (109.6/100,000, 95%CI: 69.1–174.0/100,000) and unexposed women (82.7/100,000, 95%CI: 46.9–145.7/100,000). However, the incidence of cancer in situ was slightly lower in pre-natal exposed women at the age group. Adjusted cumulative probabilities of breast cancer incidence, both in-situ and invasive, were also observed to be higher in women exposed to the famine, however, the difference was not statistically significant.ConclusionOur results suggest a possible adverse, but limited, impact of exposure to the Great famine on the risk of breast cancer in Chinese women.

Living through the Great Chinese Famine: Early-life experiences and managerial decisions

Previous studies have linked personal characteristics of business leaders to corporate decisions and outcomes. We analyze if the traumatic experience of the Chinese Famine has an impact on managerial decisions. By exploiting the exogenous variation in local severity of the famine, we find that having lived through the famine during one's younger years is associated with more conservative financial, investment, and cash holding policies, a lower likelihood of unethical behavior, and better firm performance during economic downturns.

Prenatal famine exposure, adulthood obesity patterns and risk of type 2 diabetes.

BackgroundPrenatal exposure to famine and adulthood obesity have been independently related to the risk of type 2 diabetes; however, little is known about the joint effects of these risk factors at different stages of life on adulthood diabetes risk.MethodsThe analysis included 88 830 participants of the China Kadoorie Biobank, who were born around the time of the Chinese Great Famine and without diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, or cancer at baseline. We defined famine exposure subgroups as nonexposed (born between 1 October 1962 and 30 September 964), fetal-exposed (born between 1 October 1959 and 30 September 1961) and early-childhood exposed (born between 1 October 1956 and 30 September 1958). General obesity was assessed by body mass index (BMI: overweight ≥ 24.0, obesity ≥ 28.0) and abdominal obesity assessed by waist-to-hip ratio (WHR, men/women: moderate ≥ 0.90/0.85, high ≥ 0.95/0.90).ResultsDuring a median 7.3 years (642 552 person-years) of follow-up, we identified 1372 incident cases of type 2 diabetes. Compared with nonexposed and early-childhood exposed participants combined as a single comparison group, fetal-exposed participants showed an increased risk of diabetes in adulthood [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.25; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.07–1.45]. The association between general obesity and diabetes was consistent across subgroups according to famine exposure (P for interaction > 0.05). A stronger association between abdominal obesity and diabetes was observed in the fetal-exposed subgroup than in other subgroups (P for interaction = 0.025 in the whole population). This interaction was more obvious in women (P = 0.013) but not in men (P = 0.699). Compared with normal-BMI and -WHR participants, those with both general (BMI ≥ 24.0) and abdominal (WHR ≥ 0.90/0.85) obesity in adulthood had 5.32 (95% CI: 3.81–7.43)-, 3.13 (2.48–3.94)- and 4.43 (3.45–5.68)-fold higher risks if these were carried during, before and after times of famine, respectively.ConclusionsCoexistence of prenatal experience of undernutrition and abdominal obesity in adulthood was associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes.

The Great Chinese Famine Exposure in Early Life and the Risk of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Adult Women

Introduction and aimPrevious studies found famine exposure was associated with a higher risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS). In the study, we investigated the relationship between Chinese famine exposure and the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in adult women. Materials and MethodsData were obtained from subjects via routine physical examinations in the Public Health Center of our hospital between 2011 and 2014. Women were categorized into the following three groups: control, pre-natally exposed, and postnatally exposed. Hepatic steatosis was diagnosed according to the guidelines established for the diagnosis and treatment of NAFLD. ResultsThe prevalence rates of NAFLD among non-exposed, prenatally, and postnatally exposed women were 17.3, 23.0, and 22.9%, respectively. Pre-exposed and postnatally exposed women had higher risks of NAFLD, exhibiting ORs (95% CI) of 1.33 (1.04-1.70) and 1.26 (1.03-1.55), respectively. Prenatally, but not postnatally, exposed women had significantly higher risks of having abnormal alanine aminotransferase (ALT), with ORs of 1.30 (1.05-1.61). ConclusionsThe results indicate a significant association between famine exposure in early life and the risk of NAFLD in adult women. Prenatally exposed women displayed higher risks of NAFLD and mild, moderate and severe steatosis.

Communism and Hunger: The Ukrainian, Chinese, Kazakh, and Soviet Famines in Comparative Perspective by Frank (eds) Graziosi, Andrea and Sysyn (review)

REVIEWS 779 More broadly, The Jewish Revolution in Belorussia also provides a compelling argument that the global economic and political crisis of the late 1920s played no small role in shaping racialized conceptions of antisemitism. ‘Each episode of crisis,’ Sloin writes, ‘hypostasized a certain manifestation of “Jewishness” and took this manifestation to be a malignancy on the body politic’ (p. 243). Andrew Sloin’s attempt to chart how the Bolshevik movement restructured Jewish lives in Belorussia is an engaging and theoretically sophisticated study. The book makes a timely contribution to Soviet and Jewish history and modern European history, and deserves to be read widely. University of Illinois Eugene M. Avrutin Graziosi, Andrea and Sysyn, Frank (eds). Communism and Hunger: The Ukrainian, Chinese, Kazakh, and Soviet Famines in Comparative Perspective. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, Edmonton, AL and Toronto, ON, 2016. viii + 158 pp. Maps. Figures. Tables. Notes. Bibliographies. $24.95 (paperback). This book presents six of the papers from a conference on Communism and hunger held at the University of Toronto in 2014. Only a few of the papers have substantial academic value, while most of them have flaws that undermine their validity and novelty. The best contribution is the comparative study of famines in Central Asia by Niccolò Pianciola, which places the history of the Soviet Kazakh famine of 1931–33 in the context of Soviet and Chinese treatment of their spheres in Mongolia and of the effects of the Chinese Great Leap Famine [GLF] in Tibet and Central Asia in 1958–61. Using archival and other primary sources in Russian and Chinese, Pianciola shows that the Soviet government restrained collectivization and livestock procurement policies in Mongolia in the 1930s, unlike in Kazakhstan, and that China emulated the Soviet Virgin Lands programme in the 1950s. The paper by Xun Zhou on the GLF presents revealing examples of the extreme violence perpetrated by Chinese officials, based on her monograph and document collection on the GLF. Sarah Cameron’s brief paper on the Kazakh famine discusses some of the scholarly literature, showing the dispute over the use of the term ‘genocide’. All these articles have minor errors in their discussions of the USSR. Theotherarticlesinthebookareweaker.LucienBiancoarguesthattheUSSR and PRC faced similar problems of chronic famines and growing population that both exploited the rural economy to support industrialization; that both increased grain collections from the villages during the famine; and that both chose to supply urban populations at the expense of villagers. The two SEER, 95, 4, OCTOBER 2017 780 cases differed, according to Bianco, in that the Chinese regime disrupted the villages more than in the USSR with the people’s communes, that nationality was more important in the USSR, and that the Chinese famine lasted longer and was more lethal and inconsistent. Bianco also compares the roles of the ‘actors’ responsible for the famine, among whom he includes some of the peasants (p. 76), and the different responses of the victims to the famines. Bianco’s comparisons are not very profound and have errors. He asserts, for example, that neither the Soviet nor Chinese authorities reduced grain procurement quotas (p. 59), but then admits that the Soviet government not only reduced quotas but returned grain to the villages (p. 59), and that the Chinese authorities reduced quotas once they learned of the famine (p. 71). He asserts that the Soviets had ‘local famines’ in 1924 and 1926, but in fact there was no famine in 1926 because the USSR had a large harvest that year — Werth in his essay calls 1925–27 a ‘golden age’ (p. 11), but Bianco does not mention this. The 1924 famine was not local but affected Ukraine, the Volga and other regions, which Werth also acknowledges (p. 11). Bianco asserts that Stalin in 1928 ‘needed to feed 41 million more people than Tsar Nicholas’ in 1897, but the difference between the Soviet 1926 census (147 million) and the 1897 census (125 million) was 22 million. He also cites Wemheuer but omits his finding that environmental factors reduced the 1960 harvest that caused the peak of the famine (Felix Wemheuer, Famine Politics in Maoist China and the Soviet Union, New Haven, CT, 2014, pp. 12, 246). Nicholas...

The Jewish Revolution in Belorussia: Economy, Race, and Bolshevik Power by Andrew Sloin (review)

SEER, 95, 4, OCTOBER 2017 778 Sloin, Andrew. The Jewish Revolution in Belorussia: Economy, Race, and BolshevikPower.TheModernJewishExperience.IndianaUniversityPress, Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN, 2017. xi + 329 pp. Map. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $38.00: £33.00 (paperback). In a meticulously researched book, Andrew Sloin explores how the Bolshevik experiment, premised upon principles of national liberation in a post-capitalist order, gave way to repeated outbreaks of popular ethnic resentment and racial animosity. In many respects, the story that Sloin tells is well known. Much has been written about the promises and pitfalls of Soviet nationality policies and the ways in which the Soviet state managed its multi-ethnic empire. Drawing on a wealth of previously untapped archival materials from Belorussian archives, Sloin’s excellent study nonetheless fills a major lacuna. It will stand alongside some of the best scholarship in Soviet Jewish history that has been published in recent years. Sloin’s focus is on ‘ordinary’ people — Jewish artisans, workers, local party operatives and small-scale labourers — most of whom lived in small towns in Belorussia. Moving beyond official statist agendas or top-down modernization campaigns, The Jewish Revolution in Belorussia emphasizes that, above all, local contexts mattered. The book is divided into seven well-developed chapters, with the most innovative sections dealing with the problem of race. Sloin positions himself in the larger debates on the meanings and practices of race, articulated most forcefully by Francine Hirsch and Eric Weitz, and wisely moves away from what he labels as ‘extreme measures in determining the degree to which race persisted in the Soviet context’ (p. 16). By focusing on the relationship between economy, labour and identity formation, Sloin’s study enlarges our understanding of the role that the logic of race played in everyday Jewish life. Regardless of its commitment to equality, antiracism and internationalism, Sloin demonstrates that the policies embraced by the Soviet state reproduced the conditions of race socially and shaped understandings of nationality at the grassroots level. The new economic reality of the Soviet helped produce much of the racial animosity. In fascinating detail, Sloin describes the interethnic tensions, antagonisms and anxieties that resulted from the NEP economy slidingintocrisis.ReaderslearnhowBelorussianworkersmockedandassaulted Jews on the shop floor, how the new regime of labour caused ethnic divisions, and how the state repeatedly questioned Jewish assimilability. Antisemitic incidents surged in the late 1920s, as the Stalin revolution helped fuel violence against Jews. Sloin provides a compelling, multivalent explanation of the debates on the integration and assimilability of Jews in the post-Revolutionary order. He argues that the Soviet state helped fuel antisemitism. As the Soviet Union slid into crisis, the language used to describe Jews became more absolute. REVIEWS 779 More broadly, The Jewish Revolution in Belorussia also provides a compelling argument that the global economic and political crisis of the late 1920s played no small role in shaping racialized conceptions of antisemitism. ‘Each episode of crisis,’ Sloin writes, ‘hypostasized a certain manifestation of “Jewishness” and took this manifestation to be a malignancy on the body politic’ (p. 243). Andrew Sloin’s attempt to chart how the Bolshevik movement restructured Jewish lives in Belorussia is an engaging and theoretically sophisticated study. The book makes a timely contribution to Soviet and Jewish history and modern European history, and deserves to be read widely. University of Illinois Eugene M. Avrutin Graziosi, Andrea and Sysyn, Frank (eds). Communism and Hunger: The Ukrainian, Chinese, Kazakh, and Soviet Famines in Comparative Perspective. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, Edmonton, AL and Toronto, ON, 2016. viii + 158 pp. Maps. Figures. Tables. Notes. Bibliographies. $24.95 (paperback). This book presents six of the papers from a conference on Communism and hunger held at the University of Toronto in 2014. Only a few of the papers have substantial academic value, while most of them have flaws that undermine their validity and novelty. The best contribution is the comparative study of famines in Central Asia by Niccolò Pianciola, which places the history of the Soviet Kazakh famine of 1931–33 in the context of Soviet and Chinese treatment of their spheres in Mongolia and of the effects of the Chinese Great Leap Famine [GLF] in Tibet and Central Asia in...

Increase in the prevalence of hypertension among adults exposed to the Great Chinese Famine during early life

ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess the association between exposure to the Great Chinese Famine (1959–1961) during early life and hypertension in adulthood.MethodsFrom July to September 2009, 1224 eligible adults were recruited in a cross-sectional survey using a multi-stage stratified random sampling method in Chongqing China. A questionnaire was used to collect information of hypertension and sociodemographic factors. Participants were categorized as childhood, fetal, and none exposure to famine based on the date of birth.ResultsOf the sample, 12.3% reported having hypertension. The prevalence of hypertension varied by famine status: 11.9% in childhood exposure, 16.1% in fetal exposure, and 10.2% in non-exposure group. After adjusting for sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, compared with non-exposure group, fetal exposure group had an increased likelihood of having hypertension with odds ratio of 1.79 (95%CI 1.13-2.84). Although there was no significant gender and famine interaction, the positive association between famine exposure and hypertension was stronger among women than men.ConclusionFetal exposure to the Chinese famine may be associated with an increased risk of arthritis in adulthood in women.

CEOs' early-life experiences and corporate policy: Evidence from China's great famine

We examine the style of famine CEOs (CEOs who experienced China's Great Famine) in their corporate policy. By exploiting the variation in famine intensity across provinces, we find that CEOs who experienced more intense famines during their childhood are more risk averse. They use less debt, hold more cash, and perform fewer takeovers. However, their takeovers perform better, and their stock returns are less volatile. Our findings support the view that early-life experience affects CEOs' risk preference.

Nutritional Deficiency in Early Life Facilitates Aging-Associated Cognitive Decline.

Nutrition is important for the fetal developmental programming. Nutritional deficiency in early life could increase the susceptibility to many aging-related disorders including cognitive decline. Our study aims to investigate the effect of early famine exposure on aging-associated cognitive function. We recruited 6790 subjects born between 1956 to 1964 during which the Great Chinese Famine occurred (1959-1961). Cognitive function of these subjects were evaluated using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Activities of Daily Living scale (ADL), the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scale (IADL) and the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR). Our study identified that early exposure to the famine significantly increased the risk of cognitive impairments in later life, leading to higher prevalence of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and dementia. We also found the sex and rural-urban differences in this malnutrition-induced effect. Illiteracy, history of stroke or diabetes mellitus are great risk factors to facilitate the cognitive decline. These findings demonstrate that exposure to famine during early life including prenatal period and early childhood facilitates aging-associated cognitive deficits.

Chinese collective memory on the Internet: Remembering the Great Famine in online encyclopaedias

Recent research on how the Great Chinese Famine was debated on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, in 2012 suggests that information and communication technologies can challenge official versions of the past and increase pluralism in collective memory narratives in authoritarian states. This article suggests that analysing change in the treatment of the famine in Chinese online encyclopaedias during and following the debate helps us further explore the debate’s impact. Moreover, it allows us to determine the extent to which Chinese online encyclopaedias function as the type of memory place that previous research on Wikipedia in other contexts might lead us to expect. The article concludes that the changes made to the narratives about the Great Famine in Chinese online encyclopaedias following the debate were rather limited and that the Chinese online encyclopaedias have not yet developed into participatory and pluralistic memory places that challenge official narratives.

Prenatal exposure to the Great Chinese Famine and mid-age hypertension.

BackgroundOne of the most terrible famines last century was Great Chinese Famine (GCF) in 1959~1961 when millions of people died from starving. Under-nutrition during famine between the Western and Eastern (Dutch Hungry vs. GCF) was similar, while cardiovascular consequences might not be the same. Addressing such questions may gain new insight into prevention of cardiovascular diseases.MethodsA retrospective cohort of 18,593 participants aged 43–49 years of old, was from Suzhou, China. Logistic regression model was used to calculate the relative risk (RR) of hypertension and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI). The multivariate RRs were adjusted for age, plasma glucose, triglyceride, and cholesterol.ResultsThe multivariate RRs of systolic and diastolic pressure were not significantly elevated in the rural subgroups, but was higher in the urban population born in the famine (systolic pressure adjust RR 1.382, 95% CI 1.235–1.545, diastolic pressure adjust RR 1.569, 95% CI 1.415–1.740). The risks of hypertension were significantly higher among the urban subjects than that in the rural subgroups (systolic hypertension adjust RR 2.915, 95% CI 2.616–3.249, diastolic hypertension adjust RR 4.568, 95% CI 4.079–5.116). Percentile of optimal diastolic pressure at mid-age was significantly lower in the urban population prenatally exposed to the famine regardless of sexes. However, a similar reduction of percentage of optimal systolic pressure was only seen in the female, not the male population in the urban region.ConclusionThe data suggest Asian genetic basis was not able to block famine-programmed vascular diseases as that happened in Europe, and the programmed problems due to under-nutrition could be reversed after birth. Protective mechanisms may be related to diet habits before age of 30 years old, which is important contribution to early prevention of hypertension.

Abstract P294: The Chinese Great Famine and Major Depression Disorder: the CHARLS study

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of major depression and experience severe famine during the Chinese Great Famine in middle-aged and older Chinese population, and to evaluate the impact of famine experience on risk of major depression in late adulthood. Methods: We estimated the prevalence of major depression and severe famine in participants of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). CHARLS surveyed a representative sample of 17,708 middle-aged and older Chinese adults. SAS PROCFREQ procedure was applied to estimate famine and depression prevalence taking into account the survey design and responding rate. Depression was measured using Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) short form. Famine was based on self-report, and was categorized into none, slight, moderate, and severe. We evaluated famine experience and major depression risk in late adulthood in cohorts of different development stages when famine occurred, using logistic regression adjusting for important demographic, socioeconomic, biomedical, and chronic comorbidities. Odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) are presented. Results: A total of 11.60% of the middle-aged and older Chinese adults experienced severe famine in 1959-1961. Famine significantly increased risk of major depression in late adulthood among those who experienced famine during fetal, mid-childhood, young teens, and adulthood. Compared to those who did not experience famine, those with severe famine experience were 3.00 (95% CI: 1.53-5.89), 1.94 (95% CI: 1.39-2.71), 1.89 (95% CI: 1.15-3.10), and 2.32 (95% CI: 1.62-3.32) times more likely to have major depression in late adulthood among the fetal, mid-childhood, young teens, and adulthood cohorts, respectively. Even adjusting for all variables, there are still significant trends between famine severity and risk of major depression. However, famine experience was not associated with late adulthood depression risk among infant, toddler, preschool, or teenagers cohorts. Conclusion: More than 11.6% of the Chinese population experienced severe famine. Exposure to famine during fetal, mid-childhood, young teens, and adulthood stages increased risk of depression in late adulthood.

Exposure to severe famine in the prenatal or postnatal period and the development of diabetes in adulthood: an observational study.

Limited studies have compared the effect of prenatal or postnatal exposure to different severities of famine on the risk of developing diabetes. We aimed to measure the association between diabetes in adulthood and the exposure to different degrees of famine early in life (during the prenatal or postnatal period) during China's Great Famine (1959-1962). Data from 3967 individuals were included (a total of 2115 individuals from areas severely affected by famine, 1858 from moderately affected areas, 6 excluded due to missing data). A total of 2335 famine-exposed individuals were further divided into those exposed during the fetal stage, childhood or adolescence/young adulthood. We constructed a difference-in-differences model to compare HbA1c and fasting plasma glucose among the participants exposed to different degrees of famine intensity at different life stages. Logistic analyses were used as measures of the association between diabetes and the different levels of famine severity at different life stages. Individuals who had been exposed to famine during the fetal period, childhood, and adolescence/adulthood and who had lived in a severely affected area had a 0.31%, 0.20% and 0.27% higher HbA1c, respectively, (all p < 0.01) compared with unexposed individuals. After adjusting for age, sex, smoking status, education level and waist circumference, participants exposed to severe famine during the fetal stage (OR 1.90, 95% CI 1.12, 3.21) and childhood (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.06, 1.97) had significantly higher odds estimates. Unexposed participants living in severely and moderately affected areas had a comparable prevalence of diabetes (OR 1.22, 95% CI 0.80, 1.87). A significant interaction between famine exposure during the fetal and childhood periods and the level of severity in the area of exposure was found (p < 0.05). Exposure to severe famine in the fetal or childhood period may predict a higher HbA1c and an increased diabetes risk in adulthood. These results from China indicate that both the prenatal and postnatal period may offer critical time windows for the determination of the risk of diabetes.

The association between China's Great famine and risk of breast cancer according to hormone receptor status: a hospital-based study.

The Great Chinese Famine afflicted almost all Chinese people between 1959 and 1961. No study has explicitly assessed the association between an exposure to Chinese Famine and risk of overall breast cancer and tumor subtype. We evaluated the unique historical environmental influences of famine exposure on breast cancer subtypes. 16,469 Chinese women who were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center (FUSCC) from 1999 to 2014 were analyzed. Four tumor subtypes were defined by both estrogen-receptor (ER) and progesterone-receptor (PR) status. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) of ER-PR-, ER+PR-, and ER-PR+ relative to ER+PR+ breast cancer for exposure to famine and age at the exposure. Compared with cases not exposed to the Famine, exposed cases were more likely to be diagnosed with ER-PR- (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.43-1.81), ER-PR+(OR 4.85, 95% CI 3.80-6.19), and ER+PR- (OR 1.99, 95% CI 1.67-2.37) than ER+PR+ breast cancer after controlling for established breast cancer risk factors. Women exposed to Famine after first birth had a higher risk of EP-PR- (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.28-2.15), ER-PR+ (OR 9.75, 95% CI 5.85-16.25), and ER+PR- (OR 2.35, 95% CI 1.69-3.26) compared to those with ER+PR+ breast cancer. Women exposed to the Famine, particularly those exposed after first birth, were more likely to be diagnosed with ER-PR-, ER-PR+, and ER+PR- breast cancer. This retrospective analysis suggests that famine, malnutrition, or the associated lack of fruit and vegetable consumption in adulthood may be related to epidemiological heterogeneity within breast cancer subtypes.

Estimating the Long-Term Impact of the Great Chinese Famine (1959–61) on Modern China

Summary This research analyzes the long-term impact of the Great Chinese Famine (1959–61) on the modern Chinese economy, and shows that areas in which famine was most severe have significantly lower per capita GDP today. The Great Famine coincided with the Chinese Communist Party’s industrialization and agriculture modernization plan, the Great Leap Forward (GLF). To remove omitted variable and endogeneity problems, a unique relationship between the Communist army’s takeover of mainland China (1946–50) and the degree to which subnational leadership was willing to enforce GLF policies to the detriment of rural citizens’ well-being is exploited via instrumental variable (IV) estimation. Specifically, areas liberated later had a higher density of zealous administrators by the start of the GLF in 1958, and in turn experienced stricter enforcement of GLF policies which resulted in greater famine severity. As a result, this research finds a relatively pronounced impact of politically-triggered famine captured by the IV approach, which strengthens the growing outlook that famine is a consequence of inadequate food entitlement, as opposed to being simply food shortages.

Stalin’s and Mao’s Famines: Similarities and Differences

This essay addresses the similarities and differences between the cluster of Soviet famines in 1931-33 and the great Chinese famine of 1958-1962. The similarities include: Ideology; planning; the dynamics of the famines; the relationship among harvest, state procurements and peasant behaviour; the role of local cadres; life and death in the villages; the situation in the cities vis-à-vis the countryside, and the production of an official lie for the outside world. Differences involve the following: Dekulakization; peasant resistance and anti-peasant mass violence; communes versus sovkhozes and kolkhozes; common mess halls; small peasant holdings; famine and nationality; mortality peaks; the role of the party and that of Mao versus Stalin’s; the way out of the crises, and the legacies of these two famines; memory; sources and historiography.

Entrepreneurship and the School of Hard Knocks: Evidence from China's Great Famine

Many entrepreneurs proclaim proudly to have learned from the School of Hard Knocks rather than business schools. These claims challenge the social value of investments in entrepreneurship education and training. Yet, there is little empirical evidence of the effect of earlier life challenges on subsequent success in entrepreneurship. Here, we exploit geographical differences in the intensity of China's Great Famine, 1959-61, as a quasi-natural experiment to identify the effect of hardship. We find robust evidence of more entrepreneurship in counties that experienced greater hardship during the Famine. We investigate whether the difference is due to selective culling or conditioning of personality, and find evidence of adaptation towards greater risk tolerance.

Memory Resurrected in HD: Collective Digital Video Filmmaking as Production of Counterhistory in the Folk Memory Project

This article examines the Folk Memory Project, a collective documentary initiative in China that organized young filmmakers to return to their home villages to interview elders and unearth silenced memories of the devastating Chinese Great Famine of 1959–61. Focusing on two films produced as part of this project, Self-Portrait with Three Women (dir. Zhang Mengqi, China, 2010) and Children's Village (dir. Zou Xueping, China, 2012), the article argues that the project produces a counterhistory through collective film production in a digital format. These films foreground the filmmaking process and the filming subjects, demonstrating self-reflexive performativity more than transparent authenticity. It is such performativity that mediates between the past and the present, between the individual and the collective. As a participatory performance of filmmaking, the Folk Memory Project demonstrates the profound impact of digital production on the filming subjects as well as its sociopolitical implications. It asks for a paradigm shift in our theoretical understanding of digital cinema, moving from a focus on the indexicality of the image to a consideration of the plurality of knowledge in media, from the subjectivity of spectators to the subjectivity of filmmakers.

“Embodied Histories of Violence, Maternity, and Reproduction”

“Embodied Histories of Violence, Maternity, and Reproduction” Elisa Camiscioli and Jean H. Quataert The articles assembled in this issue place women’s bodies at the center of historical debates on violence and vulnerability, technologies of reproduction, and the meanings attributed to motherhood and childbirth. We begin with three articles that situate acts of sexual assault in diverse but revealing contexts: the Holocaust, the Great Chinese Famine under Mao Zedong, and fin-de-siècle Australia in the age of white settler migration. They are followed by a pair of articles that consider how the body’s reproductive capacity was defined and deployed in the battles for and against assisted conception and surrogacy in the late twentieth-century United States. A final selection on the material culture of motherhood reads artifacts to decipher what the experience of childbirth meant to women in late medieval London. Nicole Ephgrave’s “On Women’s Bodies” opens this issue with an exploration of “gender-specific trauma” during the Holocaust. She argues that even if both men and women were subjected to starvation, forced labor, deportation, humiliation, and death, “only women had to cope with pregnancy, amenorrhea . . ., abortion, rape, and invasive gynecological examinations.” Thus many of women’s corporeal experiences of the genocide were unique, despite the universalizing tendencies of the prevailing scholarship that stresses how Jews were targeted as Jews and not gendered beings and how anti-Semitism rather than sexism was the key ideological motor of the Holocaust. Yet according to Ephgrave, to subsume women’s experiences under those of men’s ignores how “women were dehumanized and experienced dehumanization in distinct ways from men that specifically targeted their bodily integrity.” For example, she shows that Jewish women’s testimonies discussed their fears of pregnancy and sterilization in the context of Nazi racism, where they were targeted as potential mothers of racial enemies. Expectations of modesty and beauty, moreover, were different for women and men, and therefore it is likely that nudity and head shavings produced different “feelings and experiences of degradation for women.” Ephgrave also notes that while sexual violence occurred in women’s homes before deportation, and in ghettos, prisons, brothels, and concentration camps, researchers “have minimized or ignored issues of sexual vulnerability and assaults against women.” But so too have female survivors who, in their testimonies, tend to omit details about rape. Thus the “split between genocidal and gender-specific trauma . . . not only exists in the memories of witnesses but also is often reified in the historical reconstruction [End Page 7] by scholars.” Since the Holocaust often serves as starting point for comparative research, Ephgrave’s article cautions against assuming a nongendered body when assessing other human rights tragedies and traumas. Bin Yang and Shuji Cao note a similar pattern of silence regarding sexual violence in the historiography of Mao’s Great Leap Forward. In “Cadres, Grain, and Sexual Abuse,” the authors examine charges made against local officials in Wuwei County, China, between the mid-1950s and the early 1960s and, specifically, during the Great Famine. While scholars have neglected or shied away from discussing sexual abuse in this period, Yang and Cao conclude that it was “rampant”: male cadres exploited the “monopoly of power and resources at the crucial moment of economic scarcity,” committing rape, molestation, harassment, and other forms of abuse. Corrupt cadres at the local level used jobs, promotions, and party membership, as well as access to grain in the context of a devastating famine, to demand sex from “vulnerable women” who were no longer protected by the “traditional patriarchal institutions of family, lineage, and clan.” The victims typically were young and unmarried women, many of them peasants, workers, and wives, or low-ranking cadres subordinate to male overseers. Because nongovernmental institutions that might have challenged the party-state did not exist and the Chinese Communist Party had “deprived” men of their “traditional power and right to protect women,” local officials had undue influence over women and at times exploited them. In a stinging critique, Yang and Cao conclude that the “patriarchal party-state” of Mao’s China did not bring about women’s liberation but rather the institutionalization of sexual abuse. While the articles by Ephgrave, Yang...

Siege of Leningrad Survivors Phenotyping and Biospecimen Collection.

Poor nutrition during the early stages of human development can lead to rare pathological conditions in adult life. The best-known and most severe historical cases of famine include the Dutch 'Hunger Winter,' the Finnish famine, the Chinese Great famine, and the siege of Leningrad. The siege of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) was one of the longest in history, lasting 872 days, from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944. There were 670,000 registered deaths of the civil population, in which 97% died due to starvation. The aim of the present study is to create a collection of biospecimens from extensively phenotyped siege of Leningrad survivors, who underwent starvation during the early periods of their lives, and from a matched control group. A total 305 siege survivors and 51 age- and sex- matched control subjects were investigated in of an observational retroprospective cohort study in 2009-2011 at a baseline visit. After 3 years of follow-up, 252 siege survivors (182 females and 70 males; mean age 74.7 ± 2.6 years) and 45 controls (32 females and 13 males; mean age 75.5 ± 2.8 years) were examined. All siege survivors were exposed to the extreme dietary restriction and stress associated with the siege in their early childhood. All participants signed informed consent and were subject to questionnaires and physical examination, as well as various laboratory and instrumental tests. Anthropometry, blood measurement, cognitive and physiological testing, and vascular damage assessment were performed. Blood specimens of the extensively phenotyped siege survivors were collected and processed (blood plasma, blood serum, and flash-frozen PBMC); serum and urine were used for laboratory tests. We believe that data obtained from this unique collection of biospecimens can elucidate the mechanisms of healthy aging and emphasize the importance of reproductive health, counseling, and monitoring among people with eating disorders.