Three generations of women, a grandmother, a mother and a daughter, live through a century of upheaval in China
Three women, one century
Jung Chang tells the story of her grandmother, her mother and herself, three women whose lives span most of China's twentieth century. Her grandmother had bound feet and became a warlord general's concubine as a teenager; her mother joined the Communist movement as a young woman; and Jung Chang grew up in the Mao era, was briefly a Red Guard and eventually left China to study in Britain.
Who will enjoy it
Readers interested in modern Chinese history, family sagas and powerful true stories of endurance.
What you will get
A sweeping, deeply personal family history that makes a century of Chinese history vivid through the lives of three remarkable women, full of courage and endurance.
Wild Swans Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Nonfiction · China · Family history · Memoir
Length
544 pages · ≈ 16 h
More about this book
The book begins with the grandmother, who was born in the early twentieth century, had her feet bound as a child and at fifteen was given as a concubine to a powerful general. After his death she escaped with her baby daughter and later married an elderly doctor. The story moves through the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and the civil war, as Jung Chang's mother grows into a determined young woman who joins the Communists and marries a dedicated, principled official.
The second half follows the family after 1949. Jung Chang's parents rise as officials in Sichuan, but loyalty to the system does not protect them. During the Cultural Revolution, her father is denounced for refusing to bend his principles, both parents are persecuted, and the children are scattered. Jung Chang herself joins the Red Guards briefly, is sent to the countryside, works as a barefoot doctor and an electrician, and slowly stops believing the official story of the times. She eventually wins a scholarship to study in Britain. The writing is clear and calm, and the hardships are described honestly without melodrama.
Long, absorbing and unforgettable. About 544 pages in the Simon & Schuster paperback, with maps and family photographs.
The Good Earth
Educated
Night
Barbarians at the Gate
A Moveable Feast
Black Hawk Down
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
Twelve Years a Slave
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
When Breath Becomes Air
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Endurance