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Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
 
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Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China (Paperback)

by Jung Chang (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (103 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 688 pages
  • Publisher: Flamingo; New Ed edition (14 Jun 1993)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0006374921
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006374923
  • Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 12.4 x 5.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 31,006 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

J.G. Ballard, Sunday Times
Immensely moving and unsettling; an unforgettable portrait of the brain-death of a nation’

Synopsis
Through the lives of three different women - grandmother, mother and daughter - this book tells the story of 20th-century China. At times scarcely credible in the details it reveals of the suffering of millions of ordinary Chinese people, it is an unforgettable record of tyranny, hope and ultimate survival under conditions of extreme harshness. In 1924, at the age of 15, the author's grandmother became the concubine of a powerful warlord, whom she was seldom to see during the ten years of their "marriage". Her daughter, born in 1931, experienced the horrors of Japanese occupation in Manchuria as a schoolgirl, and after their surrender joined the Communist-led underground fighting Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang. She rose to be a senior Communist official, but was imprisoned three times. Her husband, also a high official and one of the very first to join the Communists, was relentlessly persecuted, imprisoned and finally sent to a labour camp where, physically broken and disillusioned, he lost his sanity. The author herself grew up during the Cultural Revolution, at the time of the personality cult of Mao and the worst excesses of the Gang of Four.

She joined the Red Guard but after Mao's death she was to become one of the first Chinese students to study abroad.

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Customer Reviews

103 Reviews
5 star:
 (88)
4 star:
 (12)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (103 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping, terrible, beautiful story, 29 May 2004
By A Customer
I've been glued to this book for the past fortnight - it is so vivid that it feels like you're actually there, in China. Calm gardens, with streams, peach blossoms and flowers form the back drop to many of the scenes, and this beautiful natural landscape contrasts with the mindless violence and disorder of the human world.

Jung Chang's writing is deceptively simple and you truly relate and identify both with the narrator and her family. This means that it's like a gripping novel, as well as biography.

Plus, this book gives you an insider view of the irrationality of Chinese Communism and shows George Orwell's nightmare vision of '1984' to be more accurate than ever. Yet, the book never lapses into tedious explanations or arguments, teaching us history without any effort.

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Power is an end, not a means, 26 Oct 2005
By Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Jung Chang's unforgettable masterpiece says more about modern China than all ideological or political disputations together. It is history with a moving human touch, a gripping physical tale.
As an example, her analysis of the Cultural Revolution is outstanding: A bunch of arrogant children of high CP officials creates a pro-Mao movement. The master manipulator Mao uses them for the creation of a youth army and for the smashing of his political opponents. Millions of innocent Chinese are slaughtered, crippled or humiliated in an eight year wave of senseless (not for Mao) turmoil and social upheaval ( no doctors, no teachers, no scientists, no musicians...).
The CR shows that for Mao individual lives (except his own) were totally unimportant. Paramount was that he retained his power.

Jung Chang's book is a history of old and new feudalism. In the old one, there were warlords (and before, an emperor), in the new one, a party leader.
In both feudalisms, power was a synonym for survival in the struggle for life. It meant food, shelter, women, an army, loyal followers, perfect bureaucrats. The most 'cunning' survived in the brutal power struggles.
The author's portrait of Mao's character is profoundly characteristic: 'He was a restless fight promoter. He understood ugly human instincts such as envy and resentment and knew how to mobilize them for his ends. He ruled by getting people to hate each other. Mao had managed to turn people into the ultimate weapon of dictatorship.'

The missionaries of the communist gospel, like her father, a loyal and honest party bureaucrat, were killed (literally or psychologically) by the opportunists, careerists and cynics, who instinctively understood that power is an end, not a means, for instance, to better the living standard of the population.

During Mao's reign the overall atmosphere in China was FEAR ('people did not dare even to think'). In Mao'a paradise (not that of his subjects) disinformation and total censorship were the law in order to keep the Chinese population under his yoke.

The similarities with Stalin's Soviet Union are all too evident.

Jung Chang's mighty portrait of three generations of female victims of dictatorship (today still the most common form of government in the world) is an indirect cry for democracy.

This book is a must read.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This has to be read to be believed, 7 Dec 1999
By A Customer
Wild Swans is a magnificent book, telling the story of a family over three generations from the Boxer Rebellion, to the Peoples Revolution and the Cultural Revolutions. It can be said that China has a most colourful history, but this story is very very black in parts. Wild Swans will bring you on a journey of love and hope, and it will also throw you into a pit of dispare. Jung Changs experiences through her own eyes and that of her family are brought to life in this book. The imagery is vivid and the emmotions will grab you and tie you down. Whilst reading Wild Swans I felt anger and hatred at Mao and his minions.I found the events of the cultural revolution insane, Why? I must have asked this a hundred times. Yet Changs explains Mao's magnetism, his ability to manipulate the masses, and the fear he drove deep into the peoples hearts. With one hand he would offer hope and with the other he would bring suffering. Wild Swans is a prime example of the fight of the human spirit. It is within us all and Changs has brought her familys spirit to life in this book. If you are considering going to China read this book. It gives a great insight into the minds of the Chinese people. All though times have changed, they are still a tough, hardworker and honest people who simply hope for a good life.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Very interesting read - not super great but if you want a personal insight into China's recent past then defintely worth a read.
Published 10 days ago by V. MALHOTRA

5.0 out of 5 stars Staggering
Quite simply, a staggering biography of three generations of Chang's family in communist China. the detail is painstaking, the horror of what happened is palpable. Read more
Published 22 days ago by Lala B

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldnt put it down, mindblowing!
This true story if absolutley facinating, beyond the realms of possibilty within the western world, a true insight into the chinese world and culture. Read more
Published 24 days ago by amelia b

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone should read this book!
I feel a lot of the 5 star reviews sum up what I want to say about this book already, and much more eloquently then I ever could. Read more
Published 1 month ago by A. Thorn

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely interesting book
Fascinating insite into the history of China and how the Chinese people( particularly one family,) coped through the Mao era. Very well written.I could not put it down. Read more
Published 5 months ago by H. Lux

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written
Fantastic - This is a true story of Jung Chang's life and it gives you a huge insight to chinese history.
Published 5 months ago by Lisbet Bowler

5.0 out of 5 stars A fable for the twentieth century, brimming with pain and sorrow
This haunting personal odyssey through the political and social convulsions of twentieth century China should carry a health warning: This book will linger in the mind for months... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Trevor Coote

5.0 out of 5 stars The most amazing history lesson I have ever had!!
I've never felt so sad to reach the end of a book in all my life. This book is truely amazing and is well and truely the best book I've ever read! Read more
Published 8 months ago by J. Julian

5.0 out of 5 stars An accessible history
One of the best books I have ever read.
Touching and heartfelt, yet matter of fact and never sentimental. Read more
Published 8 months ago by M. Rooney

5.0 out of 5 stars worth it
Firstly I will admit it's been a few years since I read this and a friend has it now so I can't skim through it to refresh my memory. Read more
Published 9 months ago by OK

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