Amazing. Spans the entire modern Chinese history. Also very engaging despite its massive length and being a historical thesis essentially.

4.5 Stars - taken me a while to get through this one and will take equally long to process. An incredible book which covers so many aspects of Mao’s China without losing the personal stories which make this read so affecting.

This terrifying, cathartic and utterly gripping book - still officially forbidden in mainland China, where communists prefer to sweep the past under the rag - appears initially as a personal, family saga, where in fact it represents multi-layered depiction of last hundred years in society that went trough huge metamorphosis. Jung Chang is surprisingly open and clear-eyed, considering her upbringing discouraged any show of affections - allegedly she left the past behind and didn't even want to think about it, until mother visited her and for the first time disclosed until never discussed stories about hardships. Chang herself was battling breast cancer at the time, so there might have been a sense of urgency to tell the story.

I have encountered the expression "cultural revolution" only just recently, during my visits to Shanghai and local museums, where curators pointed that these ancient art objects somehow miraculously escaped being destroyed during 1960s - it piqued my interest, so I checked out disturbing "Red scarf girl" and now "Wild Swans" that profoundly shook me to the core. If the title suggest women's novel, it just appear so on the surface - this is a epic saga covering last hundred years in China and how the ordinary people lived, died and coped trough fall of the empire and rise of communism. From time to time I thought this was too brutal to even contemplate but I couldn't stop reading it - it is very disturbing, mostly because its all new to me - I vaguely knew about political pogroms in Stalin's Russia, but nothing about recent history of China, so this was really eye-opening experience. There are million unforgettable details that will forever stick in your memory - too many to count here - but it all comes down to how the whole society can suddenly become brainwashed and sink into collective psychosis, the mobs mercilessly taunting any individual careless to stick out too much out of line, politics going so far to actually rule people private's lives (imagine the state where married couples have to live apart and can spend twelve days together per year, private kitchen are forbidden, meals are only served in public canteens, children are made to denounce parents, screaming paroles are being shouted trough loud speakers everywhere, etc, etc) and of course some distant Big Brother figure looming on the horizon (in this case, Mao Zedong with his vindictive wife in the background).

If the first part ("Grandmother's story") is at first a bit shaky, its only because hers is a story completely alien to modern readers, some other, distant time when daughters were considered so insignificant that they would not even get the proper name ("daughter nr.2") and packing her off as official concubine was the only thing the whole family aspired to. That initial introduction was not very exciting, but once I continued with "Mother's story" things picked up immediately - we arrived in modern era and post-WW2 China, where new regime replaced the old, lives are centred around communist party and atmosphere of prosecution gradually builds up to a fever pitch. With "Chang's story" I found myself totally enthralled and involved - at this point it was impossible to put the darn book down and I just couldn't wait to get back to it. If I had my way, I would probably read it at work somewhere under the counter. I have just finished it today and my head is still buzzing. If you are interested, you can hear Jung Chang herself as celebrity guest on classic BBC4 radio program "Desert Island Disc" where she explains how and why she wrote this book - her speaking voice is just as lovely as one would expect:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0088vmz

So Wild Swans got a reprieve. After failing to get passed page 416 last time, I discovered my mum had actually been reading it on her kindle, which I believe she actually loves more than anyone else in the family at the moment.

So mum bought be Wild Swans in paperback and I carried on from where I left off, just as the horror of the cultural revolution was starting to sink in. I can’t conceive that if this book had not been real, that someone could have made it up.

At first I thought Mao was loony, but slowly I realised he was actually quite clever, a Diabolical Genius in fact. He controlled millions of people by constantly changing the rules and put himself above them in an almost God like status. hmm, maybe not clever, Manipulative. He as ably assisted my Mme Mao, who seemed to share his controlling vindictiveness, sharpened with the cunning and pettiness of an insecure woman.
As I read more the estimation fell further, he was driven, but remarkably short sighted. Issuing orders and decrees that would either be mis-interpreted or taken to extremes that he would then have to ignore, as much as he could, the consequences of.
His Machiavellian approach of removing anyone whose power could potentially threaten his own not only asserted his vice like grip on the country, but also kept the population constantly unbalanced, turning people from good revolutionaries one week, to capitalist roaders the next.

He also ordered the extermination of grass, which killed off my genius theory. He was just diabolical.

“The more books you read, the more stupid you become” (Mao, June 26th 1965)

Mao’s fear and mistrust of what he didn't know or hadn't had was dangerous in the hands of someone with absolute power. He tried to create a nation of peasants that would do his bidding, attacking each other as they bid to please him, while never challenging his authority. Had he succeeded fully, it is difficult to see what his long term aim was, unless he somehow believed he would live forever, it’s hard to see what he wanted or thought would happen after his death. In the end it was Mme Mao and the gang of four who goaded the masses into a leaving Mao’s era behind.

But to be fair concentrating on Mao would be missing the point of the book. Jung Chang’s family are remarkable. Her Grandmother seems to be around for hundreds of years, but barely makes it to her sixties. Her mothers indomitable spirit is matched by her fathers rigid principles and Jung’s own realisations about how she feels about Mao, a constant in her life, despite coming slowly, offer bits of driftwood to cling to as you read, awash on a sea of incomprehension and horror.

It is while you are adrift on the waves of vindictiveness, denunciations, relentless suicides and indoctrination that kindness shown to Jung and her family are beacons of hope. That while others will use any situation as a means to their own ends, the are still those who will retain their humanity and will stubbornly hold onto it, no matter the cost.

It is Jung’s father who perhaps travels the most in his life. A firm believer in Mao and the party, his rigid principles push up a barrier between him and his entire family, that he himself eventually tears down as he is worn down by the Cultural Revolution, although, even though it caused him great pain, and perhaps to the credit of his character, he never fully relinquished his principles. If her father travels the most it is Jung’s mother who is the home, the nest. Virtually unsupported by her husband, it is her resourcefulness and Herculean strength that help the family when his principles threaten the well being or future of the children.

It is portrayed as a rarity in the book, but it is through the strong family bond that they survive as well as they do, and it was touching to read that it was Jung’s mother desire to talk about her life, that enabled Jung to write what is an incredible memoir on a closed world.
blog review here)

Fascinating story of a three generations of women raised in China before, during and after the cultural revolution. I had resisted reading the book because it looked rather daunting (long) but it is a beautiful account of their lives under rather harsh circumstances. To me the real hero is the Grandmother, once the very young concubine of a Chinese War Lord who walks across China in her bound feet to be with her daughter who married a communist revolutionary and help raise their children (including the granddaughter/author. Want to understand China, communism and humanity better? Read this book.

It felt like a feat to complete this book. I had a hard time reading more than a few pages at a time because it was emotionally taxing. I was completely ignorant about Chinese history before reading Wild Swans, so it was definitely worth reading -- just unbelievable how much those people had to endure.

Without reading this memoir written by someone who lived through it, I don't think I would ever have been able to understand why the people continued to follow Mao when he was making such insane policies (The Great Leap Forward, the Red Guards, the Cultural Revolution). The cult of personality was so powerful. No one knew where they stood, no one allowed themselves to question what was happening lest they speak out and bring about their own ruin.

It definitely made me want to learn more about China.

A classic, documenting the biography of three generations of women from China, including the author herself. This book has a stellar reputation, and it's true that it is an interesting first (or for the earlier sections, almost first) hand account of life in 20th century China. For me though it was undermined by some of the moral judgements Chang makes throughout.

Much of the first part of the book is full of complaint that Chang's father refuses to use his position as a senior Communist Party official to acquire privileges for his wife and children. The second half of the book is full of complaint that the life chances of ordinary people are largely determined by their access to the personal support of Communist Party officials, in other words by corruption. Chang can't seem to see the contradiction verging on hypocrisy of these two positions. This, coupled with how unreasonable she feels that she had to share the life of the rural peasants who formed the majority of the population of China for some of her teenage years made it hard for me to truly empathise with Chang and her family - despite the cruelties and idiocy of the Cultural Revolution which she documents.

So in short this account is interesting but, for me at least, significantly flawed.

I admit to never quite finishing this book - but enjoying what I did read.