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A review by shonaningyo
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
5.0
This book was intriguing from start to finish. When I first got it in the mail as required reading for my Ideology of the 20th Century class I thought "Damn, 500+ pages? I don't know if I can do it...". Large books are intimidating to me, no matter how intriguing a story may be.
Once I sat down and read it, the engaging prose appealed to me immediately. It was frank, honest, and yet empathetic to the lives of the author's family. Jung Chang did not incorporate any personal anger or frustration at the inequality and subjugation of the women in her family throughout their lives but simply stated it as objective fact and as the reality of Chinese culture. Because of this, I now hold this author in higher esteem and credibility than if she hadn't.
Because the stories of her mother and grandmother are secondhand, Jung Chang quite artfully did not incorporate any of her personal feelings to their biographies: Whatever feelings or motivations that were relayed to her was included and very little was left for personal interpretation except when reflecting on their actions in the grand scheme of their family's history.
What stands out above everything else is the love, loyalty, and sense of propriety that her family continued to stand by through all of their trials. With all of the suffering, rays of hope and the invaluable force of luck shine through in even the darkest of times. The grandmother's marriage to Dr. Xia was likely the first instance of this; despite the Manchurian traditions that he practiced, Yu-fang and Xia's relationship was one of deep emotional devotion, selflessness, and respect. These values were conveyed to Chang's mother Bao Qin who throughout the book almost never stopped working for the benefit of her children.
Chang's father is one of the most interesting characters I've come across in awhile. A man who was very convicted in his principles to the point of stubbornness for the goals of the Communist Party, yet all the same held the slightly detached, ponderous air of a poet that valued peace and tranquility. At times he was robotic and almost heartless in the eyes of Bao Qin but his love for her had never diminished throughout their marriage but instead had been somehow "forgotten" in the midst of his work for what he believed to be the greatest cause that would not only benefit his family but all of China. His sense of justice and morality was based on equality, which is theoretically what everyone wants until a person is forced to have those rules applied to them.
The source of all their troubles, Mao Tse-Tung and his Maoist policies, was a sight to behold in its logical-yet-illogical, fair-yet-unfairness.
From the beginning of the rise of the Communist Party and its policies I was at first like
and then I was all
but then the ball started to get rolling and I was like
and the whole time Mao's spiels about how the peasants know more about life and shit than people with actual education, I'm just
AND THEN THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION HAPPENED AND AS A HISTORIAN AND LOVER OF LITERATURE I WAS LIKE
Etc. Etc.
Oh and Mme. Mao? Oh don't get me started on that Dragon Lady. Apparently after Mao died she was found guilty of being a bitch (citation needed) and sentenced to life, but she was released because she was dying of throat cancer. She then committed suicide in 1991. Now I'm a vehemently against pressuring someone into committing suicide or telling someone to "kill themselves" but...if someone super shitty does it of their own accord, well...
My only critique or caveat with this story is that I wish that I could have read more about Jung Chang's experiences as a grown woman, like her life abroad. The book was written in 1991 but she said in the Epilogue that she had up until then spent 10 years in Britain. That must have been a culture shock! It would have been very interesting to read some anecdotes or her own personal experiences in such a drastically different world with different values, government, pop culture, people and clothing... Oh well.
Once I sat down and read it, the engaging prose appealed to me immediately. It was frank, honest, and yet empathetic to the lives of the author's family. Jung Chang did not incorporate any personal anger or frustration at the inequality and subjugation of the women in her family throughout their lives but simply stated it as objective fact and as the reality of Chinese culture. Because of this, I now hold this author in higher esteem and credibility than if she hadn't.
Because the stories of her mother and grandmother are secondhand, Jung Chang quite artfully did not incorporate any of her personal feelings to their biographies: Whatever feelings or motivations that were relayed to her was included and very little was left for personal interpretation except when reflecting on their actions in the grand scheme of their family's history.
What stands out above everything else is the love, loyalty, and sense of propriety that her family continued to stand by through all of their trials. With all of the suffering, rays of hope and the invaluable force of luck shine through in even the darkest of times. The grandmother's marriage to Dr. Xia was likely the first instance of this; despite the Manchurian traditions that he practiced, Yu-fang and Xia's relationship was one of deep emotional devotion, selflessness, and respect. These values were conveyed to Chang's mother Bao Qin who throughout the book almost never stopped working for the benefit of her children.
Chang's father is one of the most interesting characters I've come across in awhile. A man who was very convicted in his principles to the point of stubbornness for the goals of the Communist Party, yet all the same held the slightly detached, ponderous air of a poet that valued peace and tranquility. At times he was robotic and almost heartless in the eyes of Bao Qin but his love for her had never diminished throughout their marriage but instead had been somehow "forgotten" in the midst of his work for what he believed to be the greatest cause that would not only benefit his family but all of China. His sense of justice and morality was based on equality, which is theoretically what everyone wants until a person is forced to have those rules applied to them.
The source of all their troubles, Mao Tse-Tung and his Maoist policies, was a sight to behold in its logical-yet-illogical, fair-yet-unfairness.
From the beginning of the rise of the Communist Party and its policies I was at first like
and then I was all
but then the ball started to get rolling and I was like
and the whole time Mao's spiels about how the peasants know more about life and shit than people with actual education, I'm just
AND THEN THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION HAPPENED AND AS A HISTORIAN AND LOVER OF LITERATURE I WAS LIKE
Etc. Etc.
Oh and Mme. Mao? Oh don't get me started on that Dragon Lady. Apparently after Mao died she was found guilty of being a bitch (citation needed) and sentenced to life, but she was released because she was dying of throat cancer. She then committed suicide in 1991. Now I'm a vehemently against pressuring someone into committing suicide or telling someone to "kill themselves" but...if someone super shitty does it of their own accord, well...
My only critique or caveat with this story is that I wish that I could have read more about Jung Chang's experiences as a grown woman, like her life abroad. The book was written in 1991 but she said in the Epilogue that she had up until then spent 10 years in Britain. That must have been a culture shock! It would have been very interesting to read some anecdotes or her own personal experiences in such a drastically different world with different values, government, pop culture, people and clothing... Oh well.