Steinnudeln. Landliche Erinnerungen und staatliche Vergangenheitsbewaltigung der 'Groβen Sprung'- Hungersnot in der chinesischen Provinz Henan (Stone Noodles: Rural and Official Memories of the Great Leap Famine in the Chinese Province Henan)

摘要

The Great Leap Forward (GLF) is a key event in China's history and is associated not only with Herculean efforts of social engineering, but also the starvation of tens of millions of peasants. Unlike scholars past and present who have studied this horrific episode in China's contemporary history from the vantage points of actors, institutions and outcomes, Wemheuer is less interested in the extent of the cat-astrophe and whose fault it was. Rather, the aim of his study is to find out how this event is officially explained, whether this explanation is challenged at lower levels of the administrative hierarchy, and how it conflicts with, or is integrated into, the mem-ories of the survivors. Wemheuer rightly asserts that this is no small matter, because historical correctness is an important element of socialist legitimation.