Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China
by Jung Chang
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Book Reviews of Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China
Book Review: Review of Jung Chang's Wild Swans
Summary: 5 Stars
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. by Jung Chang. (New York: Simon & Schuster 2003)
Wild Swans was written in 1991 by Jung Chang, a Chinese woman now living in England. In 1988, Chang's mother visited her daughter in Britain and told her the in-depth story of her own life and the life of her mother, Chang's grandmother, through China's turbulent 20th century. In the introduction, Chang reveals that she had always felt an inclination to write, and her mother's revelations and encouragement gave her a broad topic, and incentive. The story chronicles her family over three generations in post-imperialist and Communist China. The book illustrates not only the experiences of Chang's family, but also provides an outline of the changing political and social climate in China during the 20th Century. Wild Swans is effective as a passionate memoir and as an historical reference.
Wild Swans begins with a description of Chang's grandmother's life in Manchuria during the warlord era, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Chang's grandmother lives for some time as a concubine to a warlord general with whom she has one daughter. She is confronted by the trials of raising a daughter in a culture and era in which women had little to no say in their own lives and those of their children. Living in Manchuria, Chang's mother grew up under the political authority of the Japanese and then the Kuomintang. Chang's mother yearned for a sense of pride in her country and for equality among Chinese. She joined the Communist cause in her mid-teens with the belief that the party could unite the country and bring justice and equality to the people. Chang's mother and father, a young Communist official, met and fell just as the government of China changed hands. They were married and given posts in the newly established Communist government. Chang herself was born three years after the birth of the People's Republic. The trials of Chang and her family, her father, mother and five siblings, through the various campaigns and purges of the Communist Era, including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution become the main focus of the novel, which ends when Chang accepts a scholarship to study abroad in England.
Wild Swans provides an inside view of how the good intentions of China's Communist party were twisted and distorted in such as way that they eventually led to the torment and persecution of many of its members. The Chang family is hounded in campaign after campaign to rid the country of the influence of anyone deemed to have capitalist aspirations or connections. Chang uses the experiences of her family as a jumping off point to describe the ridiculous criteria used to determine who these `counterrevolutionaries' were, and the suffering and heartache these campaigns caused millions of Chinese.
As well as describing her own experiences and those of her family, Chang includes short stories of the experiences of people in different social positions including peasants and officials higher that her parents. She succeeds in providing the reader with a more in-depth view of the effects that the changes in China's social climate had upon its people. The stories highlight the positive experience enjoyed by few and the negative experiences of others. In this way, she creates and understanding with her reader and convinces them that one of her main objectives in writing Wild Swans and sharing her experiences is to paint an accurate portrait of her country.
Chang writes in a very effective manner. She often describes what she and her family members were feeling at the time, but for the most part does not let her emotions get in the way of providing a concise chronicle of events. By doing this, she has allowed her readers the freedom to develop their own opinions and feelings toward the characters and events in the story.
One underlying theme in Wild Swans is the absolute power wielded over the Chinese by Mao Zedong, the Communist party leader. In most respects, Chang provides the reader with her own opinions regarding the changing policies of China, but does not attempt to persuade the reader to share them. The exception is her description of Mao. Chang paints her own portrait of Mao's character, while explaining to the reader how her views of the Great Helmsman (which are initially that he is a concerned and intelligent leader, a view which was and is shared by many people in the Western world) evolved and changed with each new hardship his policies brought to her family and to the country in general. Chang describes how she came to realize that Mao is was the God she has been brainwashed to have absolute faith in, but a tyrant whose main objective was to secure his own absolute power over China.
Chang's work is very relevant in the study of post-imperial China. As well as describing person experiences, it follows China's changing social policies and gives insight into the lives of Chinese people from all walks of life during these times. The main focus of Wild Swans is the lives of three women in China making the novel even more pertinent. Most historical and personal accounts of life in 20th Century China are written by men. By reading Wild Swans, one can take away an idea of the politics of China over the past 80 years, and a wonderful story of adventure and courage in the face of unimaginable hardship.
Book Review: A View into China's Fascinating, but Tumultuous History.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Wild Swans", by Jung Chang, is a sophisticated and substantive biographical-historical novel about life and events in China during 1909-1978. The story centers on Chang's parents' lives, her own life, and those of her siblings; and it is told against the backdrop of significant historical events: the Sino-Japanese war, the Russian occupation of China, Koumintang rule (under Chiang Kai-shek), the civil war between the Koumintang and the Communists, The Long March, and Communist rule (under Mao Tse-tung). Chang indicates that the names of the public figures as well as the members of her family are real; but the names of other figures have been changed. [Note: Speaking of names, Chang's older sister's name is Xiao-hong---`hong' means `Wild Swan'. Also, Chang's birth name is Er-hong which means `2nd Wild Swan'. They also have three younger brothers named, Jin-ming, Xiao-hei, and Xiao-fang].
According the Chang, during each of aforementioned periods the `rulers' committed numerous atrocities against the Chinese people. The Japanese were extremely cruel, particularly, to the Manchurians, relegated them to second class status, and committed numerous acts of torture. When the Japanese were eventually ousted, the Russians came in and committed many inhumane acts against the Chinese people. Under Koumintang rule, many Chinese were punished and executed. However, according to Chang, none of the aforementioned cruelties compared to the disaster created by Mao Tse-tung and his reckless policies---Chang describes Mao Tse-tung as a tyrant and a cult leader who suffered from delusions of grandeur, had no regard for human life, and was totally ignorant regarding economic policy.
More specifically, according to Chang, Mao's "Great Leap Forward" (which required the entire population, including farmers, to devote their efforts to making steel) led to a great famine which resulted in the deaths of some 30 million people. As a result of the disastrous famine Mao relinquished his position as President of China to Liu Shaoqi, and assumed a lower profile. However, Mao retained the more powerful position of Chairman of China's Communist Party and was still China's supreme leader. Once the famine was over, and under the more pragmatic leadership of Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping (general secretary), both the economy and the society became more liberal. According to Chang, Mao was unhappy with this approach---he wanted the Chinese to live a life based on conflict, struggle and violence, not harmony.
Mao began a comeback by promoting his own deification (e.g., issuing propaganda and slogans that glorified himself, further regimenting the population, encouraging people to spy on one another, mandating public self-criticism and denunciation of others, etc.). Then Mao launched the disastrous Cultural Revolution. According to Chang, the Cultural Revolution was essentially a `witch-hunt' and a `reign of terror' carried out (against teachers, intellectuals, `rightists', the `bourgeoisie', Kuomintang sympathizers, and ultimately Communist Party officials) by millions of Red Guards. The Red Guards were essentially teenagers (who typically were children of officials) and kids in their early twenties (who generally were not children of officials). All member of the Red Guard routinely carried copies of Mao's "Little Red Book' which contained slogans that deified Mao. The Red Guards were directed by the Cultural Revolution Authority led by Mao's wife, Chiang Ching. The Cultural Revolution and the Red Guards wreaked havoc on the Chinese society---they persecuted numerous people, conducting `home raids' at will. Mao's reason for launching the Cultural Revolution was to ultimately remove President Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping and to completely revamp China's Communist Party. The Cultural Revolution went on from 1966 to 1976, when Mao died. According to Chang, Mao was a cult leader who desired absolute power and control, "both on earth and in heaven."
I was extremely impressed with this work. The book provides deep insight into China's fascinating, but tumultuous history. Chang's presentation is sophisticated, and the material is substantive. She adeptly uses words to `paint a picture' in order to familiarize the reader with the intimate thoughts, feelings, and experiences of the individual characters, and skillfully interweaves the characters' lives with important historical events, thereby bringing these events to life. I was most surprised to learn the extent of Mao's disastrous policies, and the extent of control that he exercised over the Chinese people, including their innermost thoughts. Although I had previously read about the Red Guards in the newspapers, I hadn't previously understood Mao's motives for unleashing such devastation against his own people, or why they would have continued to support him.
Book Review: A real eye opener!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This author writes of the uphevel of her country from the time of warlords, through the Communist take-over, to the semi-capitalistic government of today in a unique way. This is a true biography of the changes in China as a country told through the lives of three women. Ms. Chang begins with the life of her grandmother. This is a women with bound feet and a bound life. However, she is not content to live within the confines of the society she finds herself in. Although she starts her life as a concubine to a warlord, she finds a way to gain as much freedom as can be allowed by women during this time. Then the author takes us through the life of her mother, who as a dedicated member of the Communist party, tries to follow the rules and regulations laid down by their leader Chairman Mao, but at the same time tries to convince her husband, to no avail, that all is not what it should be. What struck me as I read this book, were the events happening during the 60's and 70's that I could compare to my life during the same timeline. I don't think the world could comprehend what life was like for people there. I know that when I would read of an event, such as a horrible drought that caused massive starvation, I was at the same time thinking, I was graduating from high school and looking forward to college. Ms. Chang continues the story of her country's transformation from one form of hostility to another with the tales of her own life. The oppression and house arrest of her parents even though they were devout communists, her own displacement to a country farm far away from her family for reasons readily unclear. I can sympathize with her as she tried to live her life "under the radar", after her return, so that she would not suffer the same fate as her parents. That she went years without seeing either one of them and the suffering she and her siblings endured. Yet, the courage she writes of her grandmother, mother, eventually her father who finally decides that life isn't what he was promised, the lies told by others who had little that could elevate their status against those like her parents who seemed to have so much, and finally of her own courage, gives the reader hope that the people of China will find a way to join the 21st century in a positive way, or unfortunately, be forced to. Her story seemed to bog down a little as she wrote of the communist years, but after I finished the book, I realized she had to put in all those details or no one would understand completely what she and her family endured all those years and the reader comes to understand that her family were some of the chosen ones who enjoyed special privileges! What the country endured as it changed from hope to dispair for the people who suffered through it all and who were just "ordinary" workers is incredible. Just as in the time of the Emperor and the Forbidden City, nothing went in or out of China that the government did not want to. I remember an especially horrilbe event of an earthquake. It had taken place in a remote part of China and was so destructive that no villages were left. The survivors had no shelter and no food. The army was sent to "help" but the reality was that they were sent to prevent the stories of survival to leave the area. However, Chairman Mao told the people of China that all was well and there was only minor damage and all were being cared for. Eventually, some people escaped the area and the story became known, but was not readily believed due to the blanket of falsehoods and control the government had. Then there is the part where Chariman Mao is elevated to the status of "god" and his wife and the committee ran the government. Ms. Chang states that many ancient artifacts were destroyed under their rule. This book opened my eyes to China and how the country struggles today to become a world power. Ms. Chang made her escape to England on an English scholarship when she became disillusioned with the government who pledged to care for it's people but instead enslaved them. Most of her family are still there and she visits when she can, but if you are interested in seeing the real China, read her book and view it through the eyes of a Chinese woman who lived it. This is an excellent reference book on the changes the people of China have lived through and are living through still. Bravo, Ms. Chang for your bravery and courage to tell us the truth. By: Sherry AireyBook Review: An epic book!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an epic book. I can't imagine that anyone will write a narrative of 20th century China that will approach the richness of detail, breath of topic and unsettling nature of this work. The author tells the tale through the stories of three women - her grandmother Yu-Fang, her mother Bao-Qin and herself. China's 20th century included the demise of the feudal warlords, the Japanese invasion, the fall of the Nationalist (Kuomintang) government, the rise of Mao-Tse-Tung, the installation of communism as the national government, and the chaotic Cultural Revolution. Jung Chang's family is caught up in all of these events.
Her grandmother was born into feudal China. Her feet were broken and bound in an effort to keep them from growing, a practice common in the first half of the twentieth century in China. She was essentially sold as a concubine to a warlord (translate gangster) general twice her age. She spent very little time with him but did conceive one child, the author's mother. She then marries a Manchurian (Manchuria a place more foreign that China if that is possible) doctor, has some frightening experiences with both the doctor's family and then during the Japanese invasion in the 1930s.
The author's mother, Bao-Qin, is an early convert to communism. It is not hard to understand how communism engaged the people of China. The repressive nature of the Nationalist regime and the obscene difficulty of life (famine and starvation were common, women were held as property) made the communist movement an attractive egalitarian choice. The author's father, Wang-Yu, is also with Mao early in the communist movement. He actually makes The Long March with Mao. Her father dedicates his life to the principles of the communist movement, an allegiance later betrayed. Both of her parents are senior officials, intellectuals and enthusiastic nation builders as the communists take over China and try to improve conditions for the populace. The early years of the communists are good, and much of China thrives. The government evolves into a personality cult of Chairman Mao and the country essentially falls apart in the 60's. I found the descriptions of the events of the Cultural Revolution horrifying. Mao did not persecute the country using government agencies but he incited the people to turn on one another. It was heartbreaking and frightening to see the evil that people inflicted on their friends and neighbors. The author's family survives this period, but barely. Her father who had dedicated his life to the communist agenda is denounced and arrested when he takes principled stands against corruption. He is "relocated" to the countryside for years of "reeducation". He suffers a nervous breakdown and is dead at the age of 54. Her mother is also denounced and relocated. The author recounts her time as a Red Guard and her very gradual disillusionment with Mao and his actions. The Cultural Revolution which started slowly in the late 1950s doesn't really end until 1975 - almost 20 years of torture for China.
The book ends when Chairman Mao dies, the Cultural Revolution is over and some semblance of normalcy returns to China. Education at all levels had been suspended for 8 years and is slowly reestablished. The author is able to leave a factory job and through merit become a university student studying English.
This is not a book to be read in a short sitting. You really could walk away from it for a couple days as some of the scenes are very intense and gripping. It can be hard to believe you are reading non-fiction. The author clearly and interestingly tells you the story of her family. I think though it is an important book giving witness to cataclysmic events through the eyes of three incredibly strong women. I was familiar with much of this history but had no understanding of the Chinese people and what they have endured until I read this story. I'd recommend it for anyone traveling to China or interested in Chinese history. I was in China in 1984 and would have loved to have had read this story before that assignment.
Book Review: The reality of China for three generations of women
Summary: 5 Stars
Some books are to be savored slowly and take me months to finish. Other books, like this one, are a delicious overindulgence of reading, the narrative sweep so compelling that I gobbled up all 505 in almost one fell swoop. Subtitled "Three Daughters of China", this 1991 autobiography is the story of 20th Century China itself. Here we meet three women, the grandmother and mother of the narrator, and the narrator Jung Chang herself, each experiencing the reality of China unique to her particular generation.
Born in 1909, the grandmother lived with the physical pain of her childhood footbinding, was forced to become a concubine to a warlord, and suffered all the indignities shared by women of her generation. The mother was born in 1931, lived through the Japanese occupation of her Manchurian town and the war between Nationalist and Communist China. She became a true believer in Communism, and she and her husband often put the needs of the Communist party above their own. She bore five children, one of whom is the author of this book, who grew up watching her parents become victims of the Cultural Revolution and undergoing torture and imprisonment as the politics of the nation changed. Through hard work and luck and more changes in China, Jung Chang was one of the lucky ones and was able to go to a University in England in 1978.
This book is more than the sum total of its parts however. It is the story of three women against the backdrop of history. I identified with each of them and was saddened and horrified at the details of their lives. In a funny way, while I was reading the book, I felt I was, myself, right there with them, going though the glories and misfortunes of China as it erupted in its dramatic changes. There was joy, there was pain, and there was avid patriotism. Especially though, there was a sense of family and honor that is very uniquely the Chinese. Sometimes I smiled but mostly I was saddened. And the fact that these stories were true made a tremendous impression upon me.
I've read other books about China. If they were fiction, I could get a sense of China, but I only have a limited emotional attachment for fictional characters. I've also read books about travel, mostly written by westerners, and these books were interesting inasmuch as I could see myself as the traveler, the observer. I've also read non-fiction about footbinding which made me grit my teeth a bit but the practices didn't relate to any specific person. All of these books were good, I reviewed them and gave them good ratings, but, frankly, Wild Swans was different. Here were real people against a backdrop of history. The writing was excellent and filled with facts which gave a context to their lives. I was sorry the book ended and I wanted to read more. I wanted to know what happened to Jung Chang after 1978. Of course I went to the internet where I discovered that she has stayed in England, is married to a Brit, and has recently wrote a book with him entitled "Mao.". This is a perfect topic for her. She and her family lived through Mao's greatest glory and his greatest excesses. I even found a webcast in which she talks about the book. She's middle aged now and she has a British accent and I am ordering "Mao" from Amazon today.
Read Wild Swans! You will come away with an understanding of China in a way not possible through the news stories. It's also impossible to put down. I give it one of my very highest recommendations