I found this documentary (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-woaDniFQc) on the Great Chinese Famine.
A couple of questions that are not made entire clear, that I instead would like to ask you are: How much was the famine felt in industrial cities? While the international community quite successfully were kept in the dark, what were the domestic political ramifications?
The purpose of the Great Leap forward was to make more food through collectivization and use the money from selling that food to fund industrialization. Mao wanted to copy Stalin in that respect.
The urban population was favored over the rural population during Pol Pot's time and during Stalin's time, so one can assume that Chinese urban workers did better during the Famine. 1/3 of the food grown was reserved for exporting and for industrial workers.
According to Mao, "when there is not enough to eat people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill."
The international community was not in the dark. JFK and Japanese leaders knew about the famine and aid was offered but China refused help.