This stated the fact that adequate food will be offered to every single citizen of the country and thus making the country hunger-free. However, a decade later. China was amidst the largest Asian feminine affecting the majority of the population. The most devastating feminine in modern history between the period 1957 and 1962 resulted in the death of some 30 million peasants out of starvation and exhaustion. It needs to be mentioned that the stated years were marked with Great Leap Forward but resulted in severe starvation and thus a backward step rather than a leap forward. Rather than examining the fact why party leaders stumbled so badly in their attempt to modernize China. the book revolves around exploring what exactly the great leap forward meant for ordinary people in the urban and rural areas. The book lifts the curtain of official images of mass mobilization exposing the deeply contested nature of the relationship between the state and society in Maoist China in a critical manner. The book covers vivid images of the concerned issues in a critical manner.

When the Chinese Communist Party came into power, the major focus was on taking the economy forward along with making sure that people are not deprived of food in the short as well as in the long run. However, what happened in the following years especially between 1959-61 resulted in huge criticism of CCP as the leap forward was majorly hit by the famine resulting in the death of a number of peasants. Two major studies were Jisheng’s and Meiser’s on CCP and its impact on rural and urban China embedded with famines. Contention in Rural China. Both these works focused on drawing conclusions based on previously unavailable sources along with offering new and interesting insights into the famine. These studies reflected the perspective of peasants who struggled to survive in the calamity. These works further introspected Chinas experiment with state socialism in a critical manner.&nbsp.