Calamity and Reform in ChinaChina's Great Leap Famine of 1959 61 resulted in 30 million deaths, making it easily the worst famine in human history. Yet unlike the Cultural Revolution that other massive catastrophe of Mao's rule the Great Leap Forward has received scant scholarly attention. This is partly because victims of the ensuing famine were inarticulate farmers and partly because many key players in that inglorious era are members of the current elite who tightly guard the