Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China
by Jung Chang
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Book Reviews of Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China
Book Review: A riveting book and one that gave me a deep sense of appreciation and...
Summary: 5 Stars
A riveting book and one that gave me a deep sense of appreciation and admiration for the hundreds of million of Chinese people who lived through the 1920's to 1970's. By sharing the life stories of three generations of women, herself included, Chang takes you through China's horrendous political upheaval over the last century.
I'm preparing to move to China, and reading this startles me as I realize many of the people I will meet also experienced famine as well as the melting of all sorts of iron, even cooking pots, to increase the country's steel production in the Great Leap Forward from 1958-1961. Additionally, more will have survived the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, which attempted to purge the country of capitalism, "class enemies", and independent thought. Schools largely disbanded and children denounced and physically brutalized teachers. Chang brought out the events of their lives with vividness and humanity that kept me wanting to read more.
I feel a great appreciation for my opportunities growing up when I read as Chang reflects her youth including as the Red Guard, full of young people, exhorted terrifying power:
"A schoolfriend of my mother's was hounded to suicide because she wrote 'Heartily love Chairman Mao' on a wall poster with one brush stroke inadvertently shorter, making the character 'heartily' look like the one meaning 'sadly.'"
Just one of many examples, which, to the unfamiliar, will grab you and pull your imagination into that era.
As Jung Chang reflects upon the death of Mao in 1976, it gives us today a perspective on governments and society:
[Mao] ruled by getting people to hate each other. In doing so, he got ordinary Chinese to carry out many of the tasks undertaken in other dictatorships by professional elites. Mao had managed to turn the people into the ultimate weapon of dictatorship. That was why under him there was no real equivalent of the KGB in China. There was no need. In bringing out and nourishing the worst in people, Mao had created a moral wasteland and a land of hatred. But how much individual responsibility ordinary people should share, I could not decide.
"The other hallmark of Maoism, it seemed to me, was the reign of ignorance. Because of his calculation that the cultured class were an easy target for a population that was largely illiterate, because of his own deep resentment of formal education and the educated, because of his megalomania, which led to his scorn for the great figures of Chinese culture, and because of his contempt for the areas of Chinese architecture, art, and music, Mao destroyed much of the country's cultural heritage. He left behind not only a brutalized nation, but also an ugly land with little of its past glory remaining or appreciated."
This is both a terribly sad and inspirational book. It shows the love of a well off family under forced labor, denouncements, beatings, refused medical care, and separation, but through that Chang brings out a hopeful reminder of the capacity of the heart to preserver and triumph.
I highly recommend this book for a page turning experience to learn about the modern history of China. And, I request any other to-read recommendations as I prepare to move there in the next few months. I am looking at: China Road, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Mao: the Unknown Story (also by Jung), The Party, Life and Death in Shanghai.
Book Review: Flowing history and the human spirit endures
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a phenomenal book that describes life in China from the 1910's through the 1970's as viewed by the author, her mother, and grandmother. The author writes and describes the events around their lives vividly and with clarity. The first chapters describing her grandmother's life is remarkable and the reader is able to learn so much about Chinese culture and history.
Her mother's life is truly cinematic in nature, going through the most unstable years in China from World War 2, the Chinese Civil War, and then Mao's disastrous economic and social policies. Her mother is truly a heroic character in this book, trying to care for the family and others around her while the country descended into internal chaos during the Red Guard years.
The author is very vivid on how she describes growing up as a "privileged" child, both her parents were Communist Party members, her father a senior one in the province. The author also describes the cult of personality that brain-washed her into believing and following Mao as a god while attending school. Then the Cultural Revolution came about and the suffering and persecution of innocent civilians, teachers, college professors, and fellow Communists party members were done based on loyalties and family heritage. It was during this period where the author describes first hand the suffering and the loss of millions of people due to the wide-spread failure of Mao's social, political, and economic policies that ruined and set back the country from the late 1950's until his death in the late 70's. This became the period of time that the author saw the criminal and insane leadership of Mao and how Communism, despite of its ideals, can be corrupt and oppress the people they are suppose to represent.
It is very educational reading on how after Mao died that many detained Communist officials were released and later absolved, to include Deng Xiaoping who led China back into the modern world once the Gang of Four was arrested for the crimes against China.
The author's and her family's first hand experience and suffering brings out the truth about what happened in China during the Cultural Revolution, a period not fully covered or described in many history books.
Simply an amazing book where I learned about Chinese culture and traditions, the vast intricacies of the Communist rule in China in the 1950's, and the starvation, suffering, and death of millions in the 1960's and 1970's due to failing social policies that led the country to ruin.
The most important story of the book is how the human spirit endures, despite the dangers and hardships, when the family stays together and continues to love and care for each other. Another theme is that a mother will give all she can to care for her family, so that her children will have the best opportunity to succeed in life. The author's grandmother and mother gave all they had in love, support, and care for her and her siblings. They have done well and this book honors their memories and love of the family.
Book Review: Excellent historical account
Summary: 5 Stars
This book does something that most people don't get around to doing when they say this or that about China: Provide historical detail. Specifically of interest:1. The reason that the Kuomintang was not successful in China was constant corruption. Some people have suggested that Chinese people love tyrants (Jasper Becker, "The Chinese") and this is the explanation of why they rejected what would have been a democratic government for an authoritarian government. This is partially true, but the Kuomintang blew any chance that it had at legitimacy with its rampant corruption.
2. That the Communist Party became popular because they promised to not be like the corrupt and crooked Kuomintang. Her father is an example of one of the wide-eyed idealists that really believed in his cause at the beginning and was left a broken man when he saw what actually became of this grand vision. People at Western universities are always attacking the West and praising the Communist ideology/ governent allocation of resources, and they haven't a faintest idea of the actual RESULTS of the intended programs. Nor do they understand the incentive structures that led to those results.
3. Historical accounts of the great famine. I can't believe that this very afternoon, there are still people trying to talk away this historical event in China and say that it was just a statistical illusion. This is the second author that I've read that gives historical accounts of people eating their children.
4. Demonstrating how the cult of Mao was created and maintained, as well as what were his motives in the various campaigns (Cultural Revolution/ The Great Leap Forward) that swept the country during his reign. Another author (Anhua Gao) has also noted that Mao generated a lot of morass in the country because the weaker the country, the easier it was to control. But her detail is not comparable to the author of this book. She showed the self-denunciation meetings and the stages of his campaigns to keep the country divided and fighting against itself. It may be another 200 years before China shakes off the residual results of his rule (such as overpopulation and then the resulting sex imbalance that has come about because of population control), but here in this is an example of WHAT happened, and HOW it happened.
5. Showing the highly ritualized behavior of Chinese people in things such as foot binding, etc. A lot of people may come to China and wonder where people here get their ideas from and why they are prisoner of them. This author demonstrates that it's been that way for a *long* time. And it may never change.
It's hard to recommend this book enough times for someone who wants *actual results* of what happens in the context of a Communist Revolution, as opposed to the vague ramblings of something like the Communist Manifesto or state-sheltered academics in Western universities.
Book Review: A must read non-fiction account of Cultural Revolution
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the gripping story of three generations of women. It is not only an autobiography; it is the story of China's past. This book, told in story form, is a first- hand account of the many changes and horrors endured by the Chinese people. The Author's beautiful grandmother, whose feet were bound at age two, became a concubine to a famous general in the warlord government. Her parents were high officials in the People's Republic. But their positions did not prevent them from torment. The Cultural Revolution and other historical movements impacted every member of Jung Chang's family in life altering ways. They suffered intolerably. The author describes the life of her mother who raised her children without emotional support from her husband or from the Communist Party, to which both parents at the time belonged. Jung Chang is the third generation daughter of China in this personal story. The reader will learn about the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek, the Japanese invasion, the famines, land reforms, denunciations, Red Guards, Chairman Mao (who made such declarations as the burning of books and art, pulling out grass, destruction of temples, etc.) and Mme. Mao who made cruel commands of her own. There are lessons to be learned in reading about masses believing whatever their leaders tell them and following their dictates unquestioningly. It is frightening and compelling at the same time.
Although many of the author's accounts of atrocities perpetrated on the populace are difficult to comprehend and uncomfortable to read, it is a valuable book for those who want to know more about the history of a country where a fifth of humanity lives in our shrinking globe and now has one of the fastest growing economies; China currently holds a trillion dollars in U.S. securities. Reading Wild Swans is a good way to understand the Chinese culture in the 20th century and the generations who endured great hardships at the hands of those described in this book. It is uplifting to see the influence of Chang's parents in her decision making and read of her own acts of bravery and compassion. I won't divulge the ending, but Chang does find happiness.
It was inspiring to read about the personal integrity, ethical standards, courage and moral values in the face of incalculable brutality, degradation and mindless destruction of real people, not fictional characters. Jung Chang spared no detail in describing these virtues and vices in telling her story. If you want better insight and understanding of China, for a firsthand account -Read Wild Swans! This is a very significant book and I highly recommend it.
Book Review: Autobiography cum heartwrenching Chinese history
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a gripping tale of the history of twentieth century China told with a human touch. Essentially an autobiography detailing the lives of three women spanning three generations from the era of warlords in the early 20th century to Communist China under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, "Wild swans" is a must-read for any who want to experience vicariously, through the eyes of Jung Chang, the atrocities of life undergone by millions of Chinese in the last century. "Wild Swans" did not disappoint me. It is not simply a recounting of events, political campaigns and hard facts in chronological order. It includes human interest anecdotes, stories which are not usually found in history books, thus giving a different perspective to the subject. Not only will you read about about the Cult of Mao, the Cultural Revolution, the Rise of the Chinese Communist Party, but also lesser events like the marriage to a warloard general, the learning of English in Mao's Wake and life as a peasant and a barefoot doctor in Mao's China. There were points in the book that tugged at my heartstrings, especially so after I read about the tragic death of Jung Chang's grandmother. One particular episode provided food for thought. Jung Chang's husband was a firm advocate of Communism, who refused to bend the rules even for his suffering and dying wife, for he claimed that as an official, he had to set a good example. That brought a question to mind. Which is more important - rules or humanitarianism? The book ended on a high note, with the ushering in of the reign of Deng Xiaoping, who showed more tolerance towards democracy and capitalism in Communist China. It was especially uplifting to witness the triumph of "good over evil" and the final emergence of the silver lining beneath the dark clouds that have loomed over China for long. The author and her family now lead pleasant lives, though most of them have forsaken their homeland to live in the West. The stifling oppression for decades have sparked off in them the desire for autonomy and freedom, something severely lacking in China thirty years ago.
My interest on Chinese history was piqued after reading "Ten Thousand Miles without a Cloud". I must say reading "Wild Swans" has consolidated that interest and left me craving for more. It has given me a fantastic overview of the history of modern China - a platform from which I can continue to explore this intellectual interest. Do not treat this book as a mere autobiography, for it is more than that. Part memoir, part history book, part travelogue, "Wild Swans" promises to inspire and mesmerize.