One of my favorite books, someone should make it into a movie

books:

	• 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

One of my favorite books, someone should make it into a movie

"Wild Swans" by Jung Chang is a very fascinating and informative first hand social history of modern China. The book is exceptionally well written and is hard to put down. The true stories of three generations of Chinese women and their families are presented against the backdrop of many of the important events in the last hundred years of Chinese history.

Jung Chang's grandmother and her parents are the most memorable persons, in my opinion, in "Wild Swans." Her parents were dedicated Communists, genuinely striving to better the lives of the Chinese people. It is very tragic and sad how their dedication to the improvement of China and its people, was betrayed by Mao's foolish, malevolent policies. "Wild Swans" conveys in graphic details the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, initiated by Mao partly or largely in his attempt to regain control of the Chinese government and society.

I sometimes wonder why "Wild Swans" has not yet been made into a movie. While I doubt if it could be filmed in China in the near future, the right director and cast could produce a great movie based on this exceptionally fine book.

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Open up

This is really a great read for someone interested in getting an overview of the last 90 years of mainland Chinese history. It was suprisingly easy to digest quickly - a real page turner. Particular interesting was the focus on classism and women's rights in China.

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Flowing history and the human spirit endures

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.

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wonderful

I have often been interested in Eastern culture, since most of our schooling focuses on Western history (obviously, since that is where we live). I can easily say this book is an amazing piece of work. I learned more reading this book then I learned in some of my college classes. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning about Eastern history. The personal details and accounts give this non-fiction piece a distinctly human feel, and teaches a lot about how China ended up where it is today. It saddens me to know that a lot of aspects of Mao's legacy still exist in China today.

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

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