Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1849 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 720 pages

The Times
`one of the most exotic and extraordinary life affirming journeys of the mind I have ever been taken on.'

Synopsis
A new edition of one of the best-selling and best-loved books of recent years, with a new introduction by the author. The publication of Wild Swans in 1991 was a worldwide phenomenon. Not only did it become the best-selling non-fiction book in British publishing history, with sales of well over two million, it was received with unanimous critical acclaim, and was named the winner of the 1992 NCR Book Award and the 1993 British Book of the Year Award. Few books have ever had such an impact on their readers. Through the story of three generations of women -- grandmother, mother and daughter -- Wild Swans tells nothing less than the whole tumultuous history of China's tragic twentieth century, from sword-bearing warlords to Chairman Mao, from the Manchu Empire to the Cultural Revolution. At times terrifying, at times astonishing, always deeply moving, Wild Swans is a book in a million, a true story with all the passion and grandeur of a great novel. For this new edition, Jung Chang has written a new introduction, bringing her own story up to date, and describing the effect Wild Swans' success has had on her life.

From the Publisher
The publication of Wild Swans in 1991 was a worldwide phenomenon. Not only did it become the best-selling non-fiction book in British publishing history, with sales of well over two million, it was received with unanimous critical acclaim, and was named the winner of the 1992 NCR Book Award and the 1993 British Book of the Year Award.

Customer Reviews

A fable for the twentieth century, brimming with pain and sorrow
This haunting personal odyssey through the political and social convulsions of twentieth century China should carry a health warning: This book will linger in the mind for months to come. Jung Chang recounts through personal memoirs and memories the turbulent and tragic lives of her grandparents and parents in Manchuria early in the century as the country desperately tries to shake off the brutality of the feudal warlord government. But no sooner had the Kuomintang arrived to unify most of China than the hapless population of Manchuria fell under the nightmare of Japanese occupation. Several years later and the brief and cruel `liberation' by the Russians is followed by the Kuomintang-Communist civil war. During the Japanese occupation many people had sided with the Kuomintang nationalists rather than the Communists as they appeared at the time to be in a better position to kick out the foreign oppressors. However, they were to pay for that allegiance once the Communist Party was in power.
The author was born into the People's Republic of China in Sichuan province. Her parents had been enthusiastic activists and supporters of the Communists but it didn't take long for the great socialist utopia under Mao Zedong to degenerate into an unutterably crass and barbaric regime hell-bent on manipulating, controlling and terrorising the population. Their actions cloaked in totalitarian doublespeak, Party officials invent, hunt down and persecute `class enemies', `counterrevolutionaries', `rightists' and `capitalist-roaders' in an endless cycle of murderous campaigns. Jung's parents, like millions of others, see their fortunes rise and fall with these campaigns at the whim of the Party because of their family's early association with the Kuomintang. They are periodically denounced, threatened, beaten, tormented, paraded, imprisoned and exiled, suffering every humiliation that could be inflicted on an individual. That suffering, told with an astonishing lack of bitterness forms the backdrop to Jung's early life.
As Mao's grip tightens his obsession with demonstrating the superiority of communism over capitalism results in the catastrophic Great Leap Forward when the labour of almost the entire workforce is directed towards producing steel while the countryside implodes resulting in an apocalyptic famine and the deaths of an estimated 30 million people. Incredibly, propaganda blamed this on bad weather and after a slight drop in his popularity Mao begins to engineer his own demonic cult of the personality, his deification coming easily to a culture that had been used to worshipping emperors as quasi-gods. Now Mao was to set about destroying the Party, the last impediment to his total personal power. The battered and impoverished Chinese people, desperately trying to recover from the horror of the Great Leap Forward, now had the Cultural Revolution unleashed upon them. During this collective spell of insanity Mao's Red Guards, consisting largely of schoolchildren and students on the rampage, were whipped into a frenzy to turn upon, humiliate, beat and destroy their teachers and consequently all education. In an attempt to edit the past out of existence, China lost almost its entire written heritage along with its religious and historical sites, statues, temples and old towns, everywhere destroyed. Eventually, with everyone denouncing everyone in order to survive the country had been turned into a `moral wasteland of hatred' and there was nowhere left to go.
This exquisite and powerful book follows the author and her siblings through these terrifying phases and is a compulsive page-turner written in clear, delicate English and brimming with pain and sorrow. I doubt if there has been a more honest and poignant portrayal of daily life under a totalitarian regime, where terror pervades every stratum of society, every family, every thought and deed.

The most amazing history lesson I have ever had!!
I've never felt so sad to reach the end of a book in all my life. This book is truely amazing and is well and truely the best book I've ever read! I even had the urge to start reading it all over again as soon as I'd finished.

Wild Swans follows the journey of three generations of women, from the same family, through the tragic history of twentieth century China.

I felt almost ashamed that I wasn't aware of hardly any of China's recent history. I picked the book up as I was doing a charity trek along the Great Wall in August 2008 and felt I should brush up on the history of the country. Although I had read wonderful things about this book I was prepared for a dull history lesson, one that I felt I had to put myself through. Sure it was a history lesson, but a breathtaking, extraordinary, unforgettable one. I struggled to remember that what I was reading was a true story, an account of three peoples' lives!

No one told me this book was banned in China. So in my hand luggage it went, luckily I, and the book, made it there and back safely. I wish I had managed to finish it before I left for China, but when I returned from my trip I was even more eager to learn about the wonderful country I had just visited!

This book is outstanding! It's not possible to put into words how much I enjoyed it. Please, just read it!!

An accessible history
One of the best books I have ever read.
Touching and heartfelt, yet matter of fact and never sentimental. This book is remarkably easy to read, I found it hard to put down. At once, this is the epic story of a family and a country. I could never have believed the amount of knowledge I accumulated from this book. The writing style of Jung Chang made it effortless.