Feeding on fancies with recipe books during the period of China’s great famine (1958–1961)

ABSTRACT

In 1958, the People’ s Republic of China initiated the Great Leap Forward campaign. In the same year, People’s Communes were established as an administrative entity in rural China with the goal of developing collective economy. One of the most important elements of the commune was the Communal Canteen (gonggong shitang), which were established to ensure all the members within the commune obtained a fair share of economic growth, while simultaneously forbidding the preparation of food at home. This article discusses three recipe books created for Communal Canteens published in 1959. These books suggested that the Communal Canteen provide various delicious and nutritious dishes, such as those containing meats and eggs. In reality, however, the recipe books did not play any significant role in the development of Communal Canteens, because of the nationwide famine that began in late 1958, thus neither meat nor eggs were available. By examining booklets published by local authorities and government documents, this article reveals the actual foods Communal Canteen provided, demonstrating that the government created false hope that a communist society could be achieved through Communal Canteens and the Great Leap Forward more generally.

KEYWORDS:

• Communal canteen
• Great Famine
• people’s commune
• People’s Republic Of China
• recipe book

Acknowledgments

The work described in this article was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (project no. 9042591, CityU 11602617).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee [Project no. 9042591, CityU 11602617].

Notes on contributors

Ka Wai Fan

Dr. Ka Wai Fan is a historian. He graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and he obtained a PhD in History from Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is currently associate professor at the City University of Hong Kong. He is interested in medical history and Chinese history. Department of Chinese and History, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong ([email protected]).