Reviews

Wilde zwanen: Drie dochters van China by Jung Chang

monicaa_d's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

An incredible story of a family and their experience with communist China. The author and her relatives all endured unthinkable hardships as a result of China's political upheaval, and showed nearly unwavering strength and resolve. 

The best and the worst of humanity is lain bare for the reader. The author spells out the difficulties her family went through, while acknowledging that they were luckier than many- stories of other families destroyed are plenty, and details are not spared. 

The overall narrative not only helps identify how and why the Communist party came to power and the effect on the people, but is a fascinating story of a family through the generations. 

Readability ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
Impact ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

chekareadswhat's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

mgaunty's review against another edition

4.0

I really can't express the amount of love I have for this book. The amazing story of Jung Chang's family history kept me immersed like no other book has before, it taught me so much about the Chinese Revolution in a fantastic way.
I admit the amount of pages gave me a sense of dread as I'm a reader who finds it a challenge to stick with lengthy reads, but I truly wasn't able to put this book down. Couldn't recommend it more.

jmarchek's review against another edition

4.0

I missed this discussion for book club, but I really loved the book. It was especially great to have read before traveling to China myself. You see aspects of each of the women's lives as you travel across China. This is a long, yet fascinating book.

luvterature's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

"Father is close, Mother is close, but neither is as close as Chairman Mao." 

When I had first picked it up from my university library, I had no idea what the book was about. Having read it now, one word to describe it is ... depressing. Wild Swans present the story of three generations of a family, also summing up the political, social and economic changes occurring in 20th century China. 

The portrait revolves first around a young concubine with bound feet and no power to a zealous woman working alongside her husband for the Communist Party and for the good of her people then to the granddaughter who is the first of her generation to study abroad. It must have taken a considerable amount of courage on the author's part to come forward with this since it's not only the story of a changing China under Mao Zedong but that it also directly affected her family. 

WildSwans kept me up at nights, replaying the cruel and arrogant regime of Mao. It was absolutely horrifying and the hold that he had on Chinese people was so strong because I immensely felt what Jung said about people crying at his death. They were so used to it that they didn't know whether their tears were genuine or false. 

Conclusively, I'd like to add that this book is very beneficial for people who are interested in 20th century Chinese history, especially if aiming to read about how it affected the common people. 

ashes2003's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

21st Century China is one of my dream countries to visit, due to its cultural history and its ability to become one of the leading economies in the world. I however knew very little of Maoist China and was very saddened at how much history and culture was destroyed in his claim to power. This was a very important read for me and will probably stay with me for the rest of my life. 

fairchildone's review against another edition

5.0

As compelling as any fiction I've read and an important window into Mao's China. I read it as a warning about authoritarianism, extremist ideology, cult of personality, and the subversion of an entire people, all portrayed within the lives of three different women from three separate times and cultures. It's hard to sum up the scope and impact of the book, but I highly recommend it to everyone. I think we should be reading far more history.

patrick_dale91's review against another edition

3.0

Certainly a very illuminating book about a subject I knew embarrassingly little about, though a bit of a slog at times. It tells the story of 3 women in a family: a grandmother, mother and daughter (who is the author herself) and through this captures the history of China in the 20th century. When it's good it's excellent, balancing the personal stories with the political and social: the spectwcular rise of communism is told well through the experiences of the author's mother and father, who were both early supporters, and blends in the wider picture. The author particularly details well the early optimism of communism and how so many of its supporters truly wanted to make a better life for many in China; she also depicts the eroding of this optimism, again showing how her family suffered and the people of China suffered through the brutal regime of Chairman Mao. However, I do feel it gets too bogged down in some of the personal stories that I feel were a bit irrelevant and occasionally boring. I think the book would have profited greatly from being a little bit less of a memoir and more a general history of China. In fact, I think a book I read recently managed to blend the personal with the historical perfectly: Patrick Radden Keefe's Say Nothing. So, I am grateful to this book for educating me, but I think it falls ultimately at being the great book I wanted it to be.

pragreads's review against another edition

5.0

The more I learn about the world outside my little bubble, the more I realise how little I know.

cdel1313's review against another edition

4.0

I loved this book, but it was definitely a challenge for me to read. I knew little to nothing about Mao's China, or the Cultural Revolution, so I found myself struggling to understand the overwhelming political feeling of the time, along with trying to understand the characters.

This was a very powerful read.