In what book and by what Author was this prediction done?

[Hubbards]

Hi,
Decades ago I read in a sci-fi book about a prediction that in the future to feed the Chinese people they will have shrunken in size so they will be full just by eating a grain of rice.
I thought it was Asimov but I cannot find it. Has anyone else come across this and know what book and what author who said that. It could be a book from the fifties.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Miniaturized Chinese is one of the many premises in Slapstick, or Lonesome No More! (1976) by Kurt Vonnegut. It's certainly not the main plot of the novel.

Slapstick (novel) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

. . . the Chinese are making vast leaps forward by miniaturizing themselves and training groups of hundreds to think as one. Eventually, the miniaturization proceeds to the point that the Chinese become so small they cause a plague among those who accidentally inhale them, ultimately destroying Western civilization beyond repair.

 

[Hubbards]

So it was a much more sinister plot to shrink the Chinese population than just a feeding problem. Thanks for solving this. Time to reread Kurt Vonnegut.