Wild Swans

Wild Swans is a biographical/autobiographical account of modern Chinese history. Author Jung Chang shows us the many changes, trials and tribulations that China faced in the 20th century, telling us the story in a very personal way through the eyes of her grandmother, her mother and then herself.

Chang starts the story with her grandmother, a Warlord's concubine in the early days of post-Imperial China. We're given an intensly re-created vision of early 20th century China and follow the rise of Communism and the supplanting of the near-feudal regimes that existed before it. From here the story follows Chang's mother, a Maoist who rose to a prominent position within the government before falling prey to the Cultural Revolution. Chang herself was also a Maoist devotee and member of the Communist Party, and the book's retelling of events takes us up to her own disallusionment with Communist China.

If you only have a passing familiarity with recent Chinese history then I could not reccommend this book more... Chang's vibrant and journalistic writing style ensures that boredom never sets in and everything is shown to the reader from scratch and from an easily identifiable and accessible point of view. By focusing on the women of her family Chang is able to show us the more familial aspects of Chinese culture and its errosion under the regime of Chairman Mao. Most heartbreaking of all, Chang's own family was consumed by the many insecure purges instigated by Mao in his desperate attempts to hold onto power. In light of this, some of the events that transpire in this book are horrific, which makes it all the more uplifting that Chang has such a strong will to tell this story.

If you already know a fair bit about Communist China than this book is still well worth reading for its informative biographical examination of the country's history as seen by three generations of women in the one family. Chang is an adept writer and her descriptions brought the various periods and locations in China alive in my mind. I never understood the horror of the Cultural Revolution until I saw it in this book.

Wild Swans won the prestigous NCR and British Book awards, is currently banned in China, and was critically acclaimed throughout the world upon its release. I read it in school and I maintain that this is the best book I ever read during my various English classes. Chang also followed this novel up with an incredibly in-depth biography of Chairman Mao.