history context

Wenjian ren

Eng 2100

History Context of China 's Modern History

History is vital in the development of a country . China is one of the countries with a rich account of historical events . These include the Chinese Civil War , Great Leap Forward , Cultural Revolution , and Great Famine . I am fascinated by China 's Great Famine--largest ever recorded famine in human history--that transpired between 1959 and 1961 . The famine had caused the death of about 30 million Chinese citizens due to extreme starvation . Encyclopedia of Population describes the famine as massive

institutional and policy changes which accompanied the HYPERLINK "http /en .wikipedia .org /wiki /Great_Leap_Forward " \o "Great Leap Forward " Great Leap Forward were the key factors in the famine

Mao Zedong , a distinguished Chinese leader , had this wild dream to make China 's economy soar quickly . He planned to surpass Britain 's achievement on iron and steel production . So he ed millions of peasants to join the iron and steel production workforce instead of working in their fields . My grandfather , who had experienced that period said , I was ed to mine local deposits of iron ore and limestone while my brother was ed to smelt metal instead of farming ' My grandfather said that people then were eating tree peels and roots Those efforts toward industrialization resulted to decreased agricultural activities that eventually triggered the spread of famine

Banister , J "Analysis of recent data on the population of China Population and Development , Vol .10 , No .2 , 1984

Personal Interview , guo ren , grandfather , May 9 , 2008...