Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China
by Jung Chang
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Book Reviews of Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China
Book Review: Heart-breaking, touching, riveting, inspiring
Summary: 5 Stars
Jung Chang tells the story of her family surviving the Mao years in China. An unexpected development - to me - was her father's character. While he was always moral and steadfast, I began by not liking him at all, and ended up venerating him for those very qualities. He exemplifies how a single human can maintain his dignity and standards in spite of the most horrific treatment. All his youthful ideals about the Communist party were trashed under Mao - as was his own reputation- yet Jung's father maintains his dignity and idealistic belief in what he perceived to be the humanistic goals of the Communist party until his very sad and unnecessary death. Jung's mother, who while under horrible treatment, was so kind to other people that she was called "Kuan Yin" or Goddess of Mercy. A true triumph of the human spirit.
Ms. Chang writes very dryly and dispassionately about her family's torment and trouble, I suspect because it is impossible for her to deal on an emotional level with the remembrance of such things as her mother's being made to kneel on broken glass. To write in a dry, these-are-the-facts style only enhances the horror of the treatment meted out not only to her family, but to many innocent people in China.
Yes, it IS history, and ought to be read as such, but it is also an affirmation of the survival of love, family, and the human spirit in incredibly tough times. It is not a romantic novel, nor a political polemic.
Read it if you want to know more about China and why she is how she is today, but also read it if you want to know the depths and heights to which human nature can plunge or soar.
Book Review: At once a moving tribute and a treasure to behold
Summary: 5 Stars
"Chinese lives are cheap", Jung Chang reflects on the widely-held sentiment in her introduction to this treasure. Although few of us would be willing to admit it, if you are as far removed from Communism and its ravages as most Americans are, it may not seem so unbearable for those who live and die under its rule. Jung Chang changes all of that. Wild Swans is a moving memoir that paints the lives of three very colorful women living in China across generations. Through Chang we get to see what it's like for three Chinese women to live first with oppresive ancient customs, through a revolution, under the tyranny of Mao, and finally trying to adjust to a life outside of China while relishing a level of human freedom unknown in a Communist society. We are given a glimpse into the everyday existence of ordinary people trying to survive under a tyrannical regime. The emotions of the three women and the tasks they are trying to complete are not unlike the ones we are faced with each day, making the contrast all the more powerful. Chang's narrative of her mother's life is particularly poignant. Her love and admiration for her mother is palpable as she describes her mother's seemingly continual heart break as she is disappointed in rapid succession at the desertion by the man she loves, the faltering of her naive ideal of the Communist Revolution and finally by trying to live under Mao's rule. Yes, Jung Chang dissolves any doubts we may have had about the brutality of Communism, and she does it in a very truthful, powerful and touching manner in Wild Swans. You really must read it; I anxiously await her biography of Mao.Book Review: No better way of understanding modern Chinese history
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't know why it's taken me this long to read this rather famous and wonderful book. Maybe because I've just started taking a serious interest in Chinese history. Apart from it being a heart wrenchingly written yet curiously dry-eyed and emotionally direct account of Chang's three generation family history stretching back to the warlord years of the 1920s, there's no better or more pleasurable way of learning about China's tumultous Mao years than from reading "Wild Swans". What you glean from the history books is corroborated and richly fleshed out by Chang in her detailed first hand revelation of the suffering and torment endured by her parents during the Cultural Revolution years when the country went totally berserk.
Chang's story is particularly memorable for the way it reveals the acute and palpably real sense of anticipation in the psyche of educated people like her parents during the onset of the post-1949 Communist years. Her father's unquestioning obedience to the dictum of China's socialist ideals at great personal cost to himself may raise a few unintended laughs among readers today, but that's how much people like him were willing to sacrifice for a better life for his countrymen. Her mother was a saint, considering how she had to uphold yet be content playing second or third fiddle to her husband's unwavering fervour for the communist cause. The outcome or pay off is tragic.
Read this if you're not a history student but want to understand China in the 20th Century. "Wild Swans" is a modern classic and a stupendous piece of work. Don't miss it !
Book Review: absolutely compelling, good overview of modern Chinese history
Summary: 5 Stars
Would you like to get the inside story on the Cultural Revolution and all that happened in China in the 20th century without slogging through a history textbook? This is for you. I picked this up to read on my flight to China, thinking it might be interesting and I might learn something -- Boy, was I in for a treat! This is a fascinating introduction to 20th century China, with more twists & turns than any novel, narrated in the first person by Jung Chang, who was born to Communist parents who ascended the ranks of the Communist party, served in positions of leadership, and later fell from grace. She (and her parents) lived primarily in privilege, but also in fear and occasional poverty, well in the grip of the fickle politics of Mao's regime. Before reading this, I knew a very little about Mao and the Cultural Revolution, but I was unaware of the extent of the attrocities that occurred during the Japanese occupation of China, the circumstances that permitted the rise of Communism, Mao's ascent, and the complete wackiness and horror and unpredictability of the Cultural Revolution.
Chang is a brilliant and thorough writer -- though her prose can be a challenging at times -- I had difficulty keeping Chinese names straight, and sometimes the author gets into highly detailed and somewhat tedious recitiations of specific conversations and events. The book required more attention (from me, at least) than most novels, as it is packed with detail, and I didn't want to miss anything important.
Overall, highly recommended
Book Review: Personal stories that tell the history of Maoist China
Summary: 4 Stars
Wild Swans tells the stories of three generations of Jung Chang's family. Any one of their stories would make fascinating reading. Chang ties them together and the result is a breathtaking and heartwrenching journey through 20th century China. Her grandmother, a concubine to the Beijing police chief, feet bound at age 2, escaped prostitution slavery with birth of her daughter. Both her mother Bao Qin, and her father Shou-yu were active members of the Communist Party and her father rose to become an important mid-level official. Chang honestly details his strict devotion to the Party at the expense of his wife's feelings and needs.
Chang grew up a privileged child of Party leaders and devotedly joined the Red Guard in 1966, but was alienated by the violent attacks on her teachers. Chang's parents had opposed Mao's economic policies after the colossal failure of the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950's and early 1960's. For a time during the Cultural Revolution her parents were able to stave off grave punishment through an almost feudal system of contacts within the Party. Eventually they were denounced, humiliated, ruined and imprisoned by the totalitarian Maoist state. Shou-yu's earlier loyal adherence to the Party line makes his ultimate denouement all the more poignant.
Finally thoroughly disillusioned, Chang left China (only possible after her father's post-mortem rehabilitation) for London in 1978.
Higly recommended for anyone interested in China in the 20th century and especially Communism under Mao.