Jung Chang

Rong Zhang

Chang recounts the evocative, unsettling, and insistently gripping story of how three generations of women in her family fared in the political maelstrom of China during the 20th century.

Three Daughters of China

Wild Swans

Het is een tijd geleden dat ik een nonfictie boek heb gelezen en misschien moet ik het meer gaan doen. Ik vind het nogsteeds gek om te beseffen dat dit allemaal daadwerkelijk gebeurd is omdat het zo wild is allemaal. Het boek schets drie periodes van China en het contrast tussen het begin en einde is enorm. Het boek is ook enorm tragisch door al het leed wat Jung Chang en haar familie meemaken. Ik heb vooral medelijden met haar moeder die steeds word gestraft omdat ze niet meekan in het regime van Mao, en haar man die haar niet steunt omdat hij geloofd in de revolutie. Wat zijn verhaal later nog tragischer maakt wanneer hij hetzelfde overkomt. Ik heb het idee dat ik China nu iets beter begrijp en ik heb ook een nieuwe haat en afkeer voor Mao Zedong gekregen. Dit boek is zeker een aanrader.

Bart Veldhuijsen 

The story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history—a bestselling classic in thirty languages with more than ten million copies sold around the world, now with a new introduction from the author. An engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents’ experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a “barefoot doctor,” a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving—and ultimately uplifting—detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.

"Father is close, Mother is close, but neither is as close as Chairman Mao."

When I had first picked it up from my university library, I had no idea what the book was about. Having read it now, one word to describe it is ... depressing. 

present the story of three generations of a family, also summing up the political, social and economic changes occurring in 20th century China.

The portrait revolves first around a young concubine with bound feet and no power to a zealous woman working alongside her husband for the Communist Party and for the good of her people then to the granddaughter who is the first of her generation to study abroad. It must have taken a considerable amount of courage on the author's part to come forward with this since it's not only the story of a changing China under Mao Zedong but that it also directly affected her family.

kept me up at nights, replaying the cruel and arrogant regime of Mao. It was absolutely horrifying and the hold that he had on Chinese people was so strong because I immensely felt what Jung said about people crying at his death. They were so used to it that they didn't know whether their tears were genuine or false.

Conclusively, I'd like to add that this book is very beneficial for people who are interested in 20th century Chinese history, especially if aiming to read about how it affected the common people.

sani

"Father is close, Mother is close, but neither is as close as Chairman Mao."

When I had first picked it up from my university library, I had no idea what the book was about. Having read it now, one word to describe it is ... depressing. Wild Swans present the story of three generations of a family, also summing up the political, social and economic changes occurring in 20th century China.

The portrait revolves first around a young concubine with bound feet and no power to a zealous woman working alongside her husband for the Communist Party and for the good of her people then to the granddaughter who is the first of her generation to study abroad. It must have taken a considerable amount of courage on the author's part to come forward with this since it's not only the story of a changing China under Mao Zedong but that it also directly affected her family.

Wild Swans kept me up at nights, replaying the cruel and arrogant regime of Mao. It was absolutely horrifying and the hold that he had on Chinese people was so strong because I immensely felt what Jung said about people crying at his death. They were so used to it that they didn't know whether their tears were genuine or false.

Conclusively, I'd like to add that this book is very beneficial for people who are interested in 20th century Chinese history, especially if aiming to read about how it affected the common people.

A.L.L.

Excellent book that was hard to put down. Each woman in the family stood witness to a different era of Chinese history and Jung's accounting brings to life so much that I think is often inaccessible to Western readers of Eastern history.

Jaymie Lemke

I could not get through this book and ended up sending back to the library early.

Vivian

Hmm, I feel conflicted about this book. On the one hand, I enjoy historical family sagas where you can see how each generation's life was shaped by the time they were in. Wild Swans is exactly that, and provided much needed first hand experience under Mao's China, especially during the Culture Revolution (on this subject I think Life and Death in Shanghai did a finer job). I particularly enjoyed the book's female-centric perspectives, and was moved by Chang's mother and grandmother's courage, perseverance and sacrifice. 

I can imagine the hype this book must have generated in the West when it came out in 1991, when China was still relatively closed to the outside. Although Chang's family went through traumatic sufferings as portrayed in the book, sadly they still belonged to an elite and privileged group compared to their contemporaries, many of whom suffered and perished in silence and oblivion with no redemptions for their offsprings.

As Chinese myself, I can't help but notice this book is targeted at a Western audience and for sure has shaped a lot of people' perceptions of China and the Chinese - along the lines of "evil communism, propaganda, censorship, oppression", meanwhile stroking the West's ego about their "advanced democracy". How many people would read this book and think "This is how China is, I know China now" and not "This is how a part of China was at one point"? I'm troubled that the portrayal of my home country is often reduced to one single dimension, which still rings true in the Western media nowadays. 

Nevertheless, I applaud books like this, because everyone needs to know their history, let it be glorious or shameful. It is thus a great pity and sorrow that this book remains banned in where it should be read the most.

Jade Flynn

I have read countless reviews on this memoir and tried to write my own review umpteen times but the english language seems to fail when it comes to discussing Wild Swans. And rightfully so. Neither the reviews that are already written or my own jumbled thoughts will do it justice in the end. It's a tome of a family saga but worth every second you spend turning its pages. If you have even an infinitesimal ounce of interest in China's past then please read it. The book spans the time of warlord generals to Mao's Communist Revolution, to the Red Guard's and Kuomintang's civil war, and then finally the famine, that kick started the barbaric Cultural Revolution that caused an immeasureable amount of pain for both country and citizens for a decade. The true amazement which unmitigatedly bewildered me is how the family we follow, from a grandmother, a mother and down to a daughter, (as well many other people) managed to survive with their indestructible humanity intact. I expect there will be few books I own now that will grace my shelves when I'm 60 but Wild Swans just indisputably earned its place. This is a countries humanity at its worst of times through no fault of its own but it is also humanity at the best of times due to sheer perseverance. Jung Chang is a paragon of writing.

Wild Swans Three Daughters of China