Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China (edition 2003)by Jung Chang
Work InformationWild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
» 26 more Five star books (56) Unread books (88) Best family sagas (40) Top Five Books of 2017 (229) 1,001 BYMRBYD Concensus (165) Top Five Books of 2023 (356) Books Read in 2018 (542) Read This Next (13) Asia (41) Books Read in 2023 (1,755) BBC Radio 4 Bookclub (145) Entender el mundo (14) KayStJ's to-read list (864) All Things China (15) Women's Stories (84) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.
Here's what I wrote about this read in 2009: "Non-Fiction. Biography of the author, her mother, and grandmother from the final day of Imperial China through China post Cultural-Revolution. Educational, and ultimately inspirational due to the three women's strengths, capabilities, successes during a the highly turbulent years forming the modern China." Last year I read Mao The Untold Story by June Chang and could tell tight from the start it was a hatchet job. She was angry at the atrocities he committed and was out to condemn him right from the start. So what made reading Wild Swans such a surprising and fascinating read was that both Jung Chang and most of her family were actually high ranking officials in the Red Guard and devout followers of Mao. Watching them come to realisation that their idol was actually a sadistic monster gave this work a much more personal and compelling feel. I read this book on my iPad and Highlighted many troubling passages. I'll end with the one that frightened me the most "But Mao's theory might just be the extension of his personality. He was it seemed to me, really a restless fight promoter by nature, and good at it. He understood ugly human instincts such as envy and resentment, and knew how to mobilise them for his ends. He ruled by getting people to hate each other. In doing so, he got ordinary Chinese to carry out many of the things undertaken in other dictatorships by professional elites. Mao had managed to turn the people into the ultimate weapon of dictatorship. That was why under him there was no real equivalent of the KGB in China. There was no need. In bringing out and nourishing the worst in people, Mao created a moral wasteland and a land of hatred. But how much individual responsibility ordinary people should share, I could not decide." Remind you of anyone ? no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesKnaur Taschenbuch (77078) Has as a student's study guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
The story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history, now with a new introduction from the author. A record of Mao's impact on China, a window on the female experience in the modern world, and a tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord's concubine; her mother's struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents' experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a "barefoot doctor," a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history. No library descriptions found.
|
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)920.051History and Geography Biography, genealogy, insignia Biography General and collective by localities Of Asia ChinaLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
I knew next-to-nothing about life in China, & this was a marvellous, personal history, as Jung relates the moving stories of her concubine grandmother, communist mother, and herself as a follower of Mao.
The various tyrannies and brain-washings so shocking, tragic & unfair. Where politics are given more importance than the well-being of the populace. Has made me grateful that I was born in a country where free speech & thought - so far, is permissible. This book is so thought-provoking, I would encourage everyone to read it, especially those who support cancel-culture; to demonstrate what happens when blinkered, dogmatic self-righteousness becomes ascendant. ( )