Wild swans : three daughters of China

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INITIAL_TITLE_SRCH:

Wild swans : three daughters of China

Author:

Chang, Jung, 1952-

ISBN:

9780743246989

Edition:

First Touchstone edition

Physical Description:

xxiv, 562 pages, [16] pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 22 cm.

Publication Information:

New York : Touchstone, 2003.

Publication Date:

2003

General Note:

Includes index.

Summary:

A Chinese woman chronicles the struggle of her grandmother, her mother, and herself to survive in a China torn apart by wars, invasions, revolution, and continuing upheaval, from 1907 to the present.

Format:

Book

Publisher:

Touchstone,

Subject:

China -- Biography.

China -- History -- Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976 -- Biography.

Chang, Jung, 1952-

Yang, Yu-fang, 1909-1969.

Xia, De-hong, 1931-

NB Format:

BOOK

Holds:

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Library	Collection	Call Number	Status
Searching... Central	Nonfiction	920.051 CHANG	Searching... Unknown

The story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history--a bestselling classic in thirty languages with more than ten million copies sold around the world, now with a new introduction from the author.

An engrossing record of Mao's impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring 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 in gripping, moving--and ultimately uplifting--detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.

Author Notes

Jung Chang was born in Yibin, Sichuan Province, China, in 1952. She left China for Britain in 1978 and obtained a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of York in 1982. She is the first person from the People¿s Republic of China to receive a doctorate from a British university. She lives in London with her husband, Jon Halliday, with whom she wrote Mao: The Unknown Story. Her non-fiction book, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, was a New York Times bestseller in 2014.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Bursting with drama, heartbreak and horror, this extraordinary family portrait mirrors China's century of turbulence. Chang's grandmother, Yu-fang, had her feet bound at age two and in 1924 was sold as a concubine to Beijing's police chief. Yu-fang escaped slavery in a brothel by fleeing her ``husband'' with her infant daughter, Bao Qin, Chang's mother-to-be. Growing up during Japan's brutal occupation, free-spirited Bao Qin chose the man she would marry, a Communist Party official slavishly devoted to the revolution. In 1949, while he drove 1000 miles in a jeep to the southwestern province where they would do Mao's spadework, Bao Qin walked alongside the vehicle, sick and pregnant (she lost the child). Chang, born in 1952, saw her mother put into a detention camp in the Cultural Revolution and later ``rehabilitated.'' Her father was denounced and publicly humiliated; his mind snapped, and he died a broken man in 1975. Working as a ``barefoot doctor'' with no training, Chang saw the oppressive, inhuman side of communism. She left China in 1978 and is now director of Chinese studies at London University. Her meticulous, transparent prose radiates an inner strength. Photos. BOMC alternate. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Library Journal Review

An excellent work about China as seen through the eyes of women of three different generations: the author, who left China in 1978; her mother, a revolutionary who married one of Mao's soldiers; and her grandmother, concubine to a warlord. Although aimed at the general reader, parts of this will be rewarding for specialists, especially those interested in Chinese social history during the decades leading up to the Communist revolution. For example, during the war period, the author's family was usually ``behind the lines'' (of the Japanese, then of the Communists), about which little has been written in English. Later parts of the book would be valuable to anyone especially interested in Sichuan province. Less ``new'' are the general events of 1949-78, including the horrors of the Cultural Revolution. Particularly well portrayed are the efforts of the Communists to change the Chinese social system. An often fascinating narrative, though one often yearns for a map and family tree. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/91.-- James D. Seymour, Columbia Univ. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Library Journal Review