Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China
by Jung Chang
|
List Price: Our Price: $8.89 You Save: $8.10 (48%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.83 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China
Book Review: Wild Swans
Summary: 4 Stars
This book was recommended by our Chinese tour guide when I visited China in Summer 2005. She was very knowledgeable about Chinese history and said the cultural revolution years were very bad and she had to wait 10 years before she could go to college.
The author, Jung Chang, now lives in Britain. She gives us an inside look,into the life an ordinary Chinese family who embraced communism wholeheartedly,and looked forward to a better life for all. Chairman Mao made some horrendous decisions, caused a famine by insisting that even farmers make steel instead of raising crops! Madam Mao and the Gang of Four were even worse. Perhaps, deep down in the psyche of the Chinese, they were still "Emporer-minded", with Mao only too willing to take that position in the minds of the people. He used their own weaknesses against them,giving authority to greedy,immoral and vindictive people. These policies were devastating to the Chang family, who had served the party willingly and wholeheartedly and were basically good,honest people.
Book Review: Engrossing
Summary: 5 Stars
An engrossing and deeply moving book about life in China before, during, and after the Communist takeover. Jung Chang tells the story through the lives of her grandmother, her mother, and herself, painting a deeply personal and evocative portrait of the tremendous, tumultuous and chaotic forces shaping and rocking the country. The harshness of the Great Famine and the terrifying chaos of the Cultural Revolution are starkly portrayed, as are her parents' suffering as they are branded as counterrevolutionaries and tormented. One of the most evocative and harrowing images (in a book filled with evocative and harrowing images) is Jung Chang's childhood memory of her father sobbing brokenly as he is forced to feed his priceless antique book collection into the flames by the Red Guards; Jung Chang believes that this event helped to trigger her father's eventual breakdown. Must reading for anyone interested in the history of modern China.Book Review: Wild Swans, by Jung Chang
Summary: 5 Stars
The well-written, eye-opening Wild Swans grabbed my heart as it delved into the raw hardships that especially Chang and her relatives personally experienced in an earlier China. It's a page-turner, and thankfully a long one.
How awful it must have been to live in an era where destructive ideology seeped into the abysses of the very mundane elements of private life. Self-criticisms. Hardships. Suppression. Hunger. Control. Control. Control...
The story takes place in earlier years, but people are people. I can see a little of me in the story and in Chang's parents. And it can bring perspective to learn about others' sufferings -- even though I can think I have it rough, I don't have bound feet. I have food to eat. I am not a concubine. The government does not force me to adopt particular political ideology.
I definitely recommend this book, but be aware that the content is not light.
Book Review: Simply Beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars
Historical scholarship is tragically lacking in carefully detailed accounts of modern (twentieth century) Chinese history, but Jung Chang's book, Wild Swans, makes up for that. It is basically a history book, carefully chronicling the major events in China once Mao Zedong rose to power. Chang uses her grandmother and her mother to move the narrative along and give some personal accounts of the Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, etc. These personal touches make the book readable, while the historical information give it its substance.
This book is great for anyone who wants to really understand modern China, although it is probably not the best read for someone who wants a more personal narrative. This is definitely a historical study with some personal details interwoven in the timeline, but it is nonetheless a beautifully written and engaging book. A must read!
Book Review: Eye-opening to say the least
Summary: 5 Stars
More moving than any textbook could be, Wild Swans is an amazingly detailed firsthand account of the struggles of 20th century China. I feel foolish for not knowing more about Communism, Mao, the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution before now. Chang does a great job of drawing you into this world by telling the stories of her grandmother, mother and herself and the horrific violence and political turmoil they lived through which affected their lives to a great degree as it did all Chinese during this time. This is not light reading - it is chalk full of detail to convey the stories, culture, and most of all the sense that life, liberty and knowledge are not to be taken for granted even in this day and age. I was admittedly fascinated by the fact that this book is not allowed in mainland China and made me want to read it all the more - and came away not disappointed.