whom the author interviewed. Five provinces were struck by the disaster, due to lack of rain. The book is not a chronology of what happened; it is more, with many descriptions of the Incredible Famine from the points of view of many actors and victims. It tries and succeeds in giving a large perspective of the famine, with references to previous similar ones and effective relief policies of the emperors (i.e. pp. 29-33) and more recent ones (i.e. p. 228) in China, as well as frequent comparisons with the Irish famine of 1845-1849, famine in Southern India in 1876-1878, the position of the British government and the attitudes and reactions of the victims.

Among her many approaches to famine, the author unfortunately does not expand on the economic aspect or the technical remedial policies. Of course she mentions Amartya Sen and his thesis on entitlement and deprivation, but adds that it does not wholly explain all famine in Qing China (p. 57). In fact she is more interested in the political dilemma facing China’s highest authorities and the division among the political elites. Should China concentrate all its efforts on feeding its starving population, or go on building up a strong coastal defence against foreign powers? This is to turn on famine’s causation, which is the subject-matter of the second part of the book.

This part has for its title “Praise and Blame: Interpretive Frameworks of Famine Causation”. Although what is said there is based on careful analysis one cannot but feels that it is a thesis that is somehow leading the research. It does not at all mean that the thesis is wrong; only that the recurrent distribution of praises and blames is overall in favour of the Chinese authorities and philanthropists, with a rather black image of all the foreigners, especially in Shanghai, as well as missionaries.

One can go rather quickly through the pages dedicated to the explanation “The Wrath of Heaven versus Human Greed”(chapter 3), with an equivalent of some sort from missionaries, writing “…I cannot but think that God is speaking in these Eastern famines.” (p. 126) Disasters always seem to be interpreted as such by some moralists or bizarre prophets.

More interesting is the debate between self-strengtheners and the Qinliu. The first “viewed as their top priority the establishment of modern arsenals and shipyard and the purchase of western weapons” (p. 93), in order to redress China’s situation after so many defeats at the hands of foreign, colonial or imperialist, forces. The Qinliu officials, who are perhaps too quickly labeled conservative, advocated a strong Confucian policy with the aim of restoring political harmony based on honest administration by able people in charge (p. 95). The struggle between the two camps ended without clear winners or losers. But the author seems to have some sympathy for the Qinliu proponent, “who championed the cause of the famished people of North China by insisting that harmony between the people and the rulers was more vital to insuring the survival of the dynasty than western weaponry.”(p. 113) It is surely true that the division did not help any cause.

As for the foreigners (chapter 5 “Views from the Outside: Science, Railroad, and Laissez-Faire Economics”) they are obviously the villains, when one reads editorials and reports of such a newspaper as the North China Herald. Even the Shenbao, written by Chinese for a Chinese public to promote Chinese interests, was still very much culturally hybrid, says the author (pp. 142-143). However, it had a positive influence in promoting Chinese relief work. Yet, a bent towards Western method and modernization is clearly reflected in its editorial line, to the point that its articles on the famine may be seen somehow as “an example of ideological colonization”, but also a voice to promote reform (pp. 154-155).

The third part, “Icons of Starvation: Images, Myth, and Illusions”, details the horrors during the famine. One of the themes deals with gender issues: women more or less were forced to sell their bodies for survival, girls were exposed as the first victims of lack of food, as well as virtuous daughters-in-law sacrificing themselves to save the family, especially older members or young sons. So-called traditional virtues colour the morality of desperate actions and readers may be left with a feeling of déja-entendu. Actually, the author notes, women, girls or wives, with no strong position in the family during normal times, became “valuable assets” on the market during the famine. This may mean a reversal of Confucian family norms, but some studies prove that young women, in fact, sometimes had better chances of survival than men, although naturally at the price of morality, forced upon them by males (pp. 187-188).

Let us mention, among other pages worth pondering in this book so rich in ideas, the comments on “The Feminization of Nationalism”, with the motto “saving women, saving China” (pp. 208-210), the exploitation of the theme of cannibalism, which was a metaphorical expression of the catastrophic destruction of the family as the primary unit (p. 225). The book concludes by stressing that neither political (the fall of the dynasty) nor societal (the crumbling of Confucian norms in 1919) major changes in China can trace their origin to the Incredible Famine. To survive during traumatic periods people tend to hold more firmly to so-called views and values which are seen as solid social pillars in the midst of ruins (p. 226).

Although the author mainly presents here the result of her study of the Incredible Famine in China, she also offers many thoughts for thinking in various directions; perhaps too many for some readers in a single book, but very inspiring and reaching well beyond the scope of the research, as indicated by the sub-title of the volume.