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Scarlet Memorial: Tales Of Cannibalism In Modern China

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The author aptly details the results of government sanctioned murder and cannabalism. The cannabalism was partly a result of the artificially created famine that swept China between 1958-1963. The Chinese Communist Party, despite warnings from Moscow, engaged in exactly the same type of agricultural policies favored by Stalin in the late 1920s and 1930s. The results mirrored the conditions that existed in Russia and especially the Ukraine. Massive famine, starvation, malnutrition, the extermination of entire groups of people, rampant government corruption and incompetence, and finally cannabalism followed in each other in a grim parade. Cannabalism became the norm as entire villages were destroyed silently by the famine. The author highlights the cultural attributes towards cannabalism that are unique to Chinese society and history, apart from the results of the famine.

For those who believe (incorrectly) that this work lacks scholarly rigor, or is simply Western race-baiting, I would recommend the following works: "Harvest of Sorrow", "The Black Book of Communism", "The Gulag Archipelago", and "Hungry Ghosts". These works, and their authors, demonstrate the barbarism that was and is communism, and the use of famine as an instrument of social policy. Ad hominem attacks cannot refute the indesputable fact that Communist parties around the world have murdered over 100 million people.

This book is very well written and very informative. A must read for anyone who is interested in history and how we can learn from it. Never again!

Cannibalism exists everywhere in the world.
But Chinese cannibalism is unique and different from other cannibalism.
"They enjoyed eating."
The feasts of human flesh during the cultural revolution had the cultural background.

If realy read this book you can't not dare to have doubts about autor ,you just feel it , like it was happining to you.
It's horror!!!

If you like sensationalism like the "Predator" series on Wild Discovery or films showing people eating monkey brain in Taiwan and Hongkong, then this book is for you. If you are looking for enumeration of examples that can rile you up about the Cultural Revolution, you will like this book. But you don't need to buy it -- or even read it, because you can easily incorporate it in your indignations without wasting your time. You can easily invent your own stories without relying on this "authoritive" account. Any books dealing with such subject ought to be under especially tight objective standards, which the author apparently does not adhere. It is very badly done and borders more on the fictional and figments of imaginations.

The book begins by accounting several accounts of cannibalism during the Cultural Revolution, without producing any convincing evidence that the government actively sponsors such events, as the author insinuates. I don't have the time nor patience to prove nor disprove that such events occurred, as social pathology exists in any society; just as the Donner Party in Califorina or the Jeffery Dommer murder do not highlight any bigger meaning for the American society at large. Incidentally canabalism is only recently practised by some tribes in Southeast Asia, without any obvious political undertones.

The author then digresses into the tradition of cannibalism in the minority tribe that was implicated in these events. He quickly asserts that one should not pass morale judgment on their tradition, as the chauvanistic Han majority does to its national minorities and gives a few references to cannibalism in the Chinese history. At this point, the author seems to have sensed the quagmire that his logic has sunk into; it is no longer a simple case of "communist eats people," and the book is in danger of losing steam in building up his case against the Chinese government.

But he picks up with this indignation at Han chauvanism (which is true but definitely tangential to his argument) and brings the point home by using this as an example of why he became disillusioned and anti-communist. It is confusing whether he is simply anti-cmmunist or is stepping into an anti-Chinese sentiment.

It is indeed quite sad to see that some people had not moved beyond sloganeering their prejudices whether it's against the capitalist roaders and running dogs during the Cultural Revolution, or the sexually handicapped Chiang Kai shek in Taiwan. They seem to be rigid with an urge at personal vendetta and character assassination and are incapable in engaging in rational scholarship without the emotional bagage.

This book is either a hoax of the Maria Monk type, or a conspiracy theory of the David Icke type.

The author, Zheng Yi, claims that politically motivated cannibalism on a massive scale took place during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the Guangxi province. This truly remarkable claim is, however, utterly unconvincing.

Zheng Yi claim that there were tens of thousands of cannibals in Guangxi. How come nobody else noticed? China has never been a completely closed society, unlike North Korea. Besides, there was chaos in China during the Cultural Revolution. Why didn't people flee the area and alert the authorities, the PLA or some competing Red Guard faction? And how come everything was covered up so completely? No society can go mad, and then simply forget about it the day after. Further, Zheng Yi only managed to interview two cannibals in Guangxi! A remarkably low figure in a province where "everyone" must have experienced cannibalism... But one of the "cannibals" is clearly a pathological liar, while the other only admits of having eaten small parts of a victims' liver.

Zheng further claims that there are documents proving that cannibalism took place. These documents are only re-printed in the Chinese-language edition of the book. But this too is unconvincing. Documents can be forged. There are "documents" from the Moscow show trials as well. Originally, Zheng apparently supported the "right-wing" faction within the Chinese Communist Party. He visited Guangxi on an official mission to investigate "certain ultra-leftist deviations" during the Cultural Revolution. During this trip, he supposedly saw the documents. Apparently, the "right-wing" in Beijing were preparing a purge of the local party leadership in Guangxi. The documents claim that the local party boss was responsible for the cannibalism. In other words, the documents are forgeries in a intra-Stalinist purge.

Zheng wonders why nobody was ever brought to trial for cannibalism. Simple: the "right-wing" around Hua Guofeng and Deng Xiaoping must have realized that a "cannibal trial" would have strained the credulity of both domestic and foreign public opinion to the breaking point. Besides, the show trial against the Gang of Four largely failed, after Chiang Ching exposed it. A failed "cannibal trial" would have been even more embarrasing...

Inadvertently, Zheng Yi reveals another aspect of the situation that disproves him. Apparently, the local party in Guangxi was dominated by the Zhuang, a national minority traditionally regarded as cannibals by the majority Han population! AHA!! Here we have it!! The rumors of cannibalism are rooted in age-old Han racist prejudices against the Zhuang. After all, why cannibalism? And why Guangxi? Why these specific allegations, and why in that particular province? The explanation is obvious.

Zheng senses the problem, and devotes an entire chapter to absolve the Zhuang. Instead, he claims that the Han have a long tradition of cannibalism! This "politically correct" self-hatred (Zheng is Han himself) is not convincing. There are indeed ancient legends of cannibalism in China, but very little real proof of cannibalism out-side periods of famine.

In Sweden, some people take this book seriously. A respectable Swedish newspaper have promoted it several times. It's also been used in anti-Communist propaganda. This is amazing. Why do people believe a book like this? I believe that the explanation is sub-conscious racism against "Orientals". In the Western imagination, East Asiatics are often seen as cruel, totalitarian and irrational. This old prejudice was simply projected onto the new Communist regimes after World War Two, when "the yellow peril" became "the red menace".

Think about it. Would anyone accuse Stalin or Ceaucescu of cannibalism? Of course not. But accuse Mao, Pol Pot or Kim Il Sung of something, and you can get away with almost anything. Even tales of cannibalism in modern China.

ADDENDUM, 18 june, 2006

Incidentally, the book is NOT about famine-induced cannibalism, but VERY EXPLICITLY about (supposed) politically motivated cannibalism, carried out as a form of terror. Nobody denies that famine took place during the Great Leap Forward (long before the events "described" in the book), or that cannibalism and famine are connected. But there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever for cannibalism in China out-side periods of famine, like the "cases" described in this paranoid, delusional book.

That's awful, but it's true. And the Chinese has imputed this cannibalism to every enemy country, such as Japan of WWII.