Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

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	• Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China Jung Chang Touchstone, 2003 - 544 pages average customer review:based on 353 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Clearer Understanding

Through her easy to read and hard to put down narrative of three generations of Chinese women, Jung Chang has helped me to get a clearer understanding of the reason Mao was able to be embraced as a great leader. All three women are so beautifully described - I felt as though I really knew and understood them even though their lives were all so very different from mine. An excellent book.

Who?

I have taught English in several universities in southern China, students and adults. When Chinese students ask, "What do Americans think of China?", I reply that "We learn about China from writers like Jung Chang". I show them my copy of Wild Swans. None of the students have ever heard of Jung Chang, but they seem eager to read it. Recently, I saw four copies in an English language bookstore in Guangzhou. I found the book very depressing to read: page-after-page of the Chinese being cruel to each other.

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This hit me hard

I've read many well-written books about the Cultural Revolution, but this one really hit me hard. My emotions were all over the place. When this was happening I was raising 2 small children and worrying about what outfits to dress them in for the day.

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

Fascinating reading. Higly recommeded to us and definitely worth reading.

Mao's China-Tales from the Dark Side

If you've never encountered a full historical biography of what China was before, during, and after Mao, then, this is the book to read. I was suprised at the level of violence against its own people, under the disguise of the "Cultural Revolution", the "Great Leap Forward", and other such titles. China did not have a much better "quality of life" prior to Mao (many warlords fighting over territories, women treated as possessions, etc), but it did not get that much better with Mao heading the Red Guards, or their numerous cultural "cleansings". Millions have died under dire circumstances, and we are only now beginning to realize the inhumane treatment brought on by the mind of one man. Communist China was an experiment, of the most sordid kind. The writer points out how they just "stopped thinking", they just obeyed "the system" because it had been engrained in their brains by so much propaganda, that they just repeated the slogans and no longer thought if they were true or not. It is surprising to me, that this "experiment" was brought onto so many millions of people, albeit, the vast majority illiterate and peasants. This is why the "peasant revolution" caught on... I could not tear myself away from this book, from this well told story of three generations of women (and their men), with their unfortunate set of circumstances, and their small but meaningful victories. Their voices deserve to be heard. The uncompromising ideals of one man eventually have the ability to sink the whole family into chaos. It is from this chaos that the offspring realize that there must be more to the "revolution", than the level of sacrifice and commitment asked of them, which seem insane. It is also the realization of the parents, that bought into the "revolution" that is so poignantly told in this story. The awakening of the ideas, of the self; amidst all the collective sharing and the collective appartus, which was really the mask of Mao (again, one man).
No matter how much the self gets trampled on, it prevails in this story, in this last daughter. By persevering, she manages to brake away from her oppressing world, while conserving those things she loves about it. Her family, her respect of her elders, her love for her country, no matter how poorly it has treated her and her beloved. A must read.

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reviews: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, page 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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