Rating: 
Summary: Superb
Review: Jang Chung's superb tale of her family's courageous struggle to survive tragedy, civil war, and dictates from Kuomintang, Japanese and Maoist rulers illustrates human folly and why China is a compelling land of great tragedy. Women really connect with "Wild Swans," but it's magnetic for both genders. I was reading this book while visiting China, then hid it when our tour guide said it was officially banned. Readers might also enjoy "Red China Blues" and the China chapters of "In Search of History."
Rating: 
Summary: China's tragedy
Review: Jung Chang has written her family's story. Ordinarily this would not attract particular notice, but they lived in China in the 20th Century. With the possible exception of the nations of the former Soviet Union and the Jews, surely no people have suffered as the Chinese. The tragedies that befell China are now well known, and this is the overriding theme of the book, but it is also about people and two aspects of human nature dominate, one despicable the other uplifting. The narrow-minded cruelty of the puppets of the state (in whatever form, be it the Kuomintang, the Japanese or the Communists) and the courage in adversity displayed by her family (particularly her mother) when faced with inhuman barbarity and disaster. A superb book, long, but not difficult to read.
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Summary: The world before I was born...
Review: It was after reading Yeh Mah's Falling Leaves that I decided to read "Wild Swan", a book about three daughters in twentieth century, China. Amazed am I to know the life my parents and my grandparents used to lead before I was born. This shadow of history is lighted by Jung Chang, who evokes my feeling from her heart, making me feel sorry for her and to realize the happy life that I have been given after those dark years... Being a secondary student who takes English as a second language, this book is the thickest English novel I have ever read. Yet, it is finished with no sweat. Some stories make me anger to such a extent that I will strike my fist on the table... The only disadvantage is I feel the book can still be shortened. The reason is that some description is not really necessary. Anyway, the success of Jung Chang's book is and will always be a source of encouragement for me. She, being a person who is exposed to so little opportunity to practice English, yet being capable of producing such a wonderful book is my mentor. The effort she has put in will echo from my ear to ear...A book worth reading... over and over... with different stories bringing you to a focus point - the main idea of the story.
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Summary: This book story would make an excellent Spielberg movie
Review: Jung Chang and I are nearly the same age, but (luckily?) I grew up almost priveleged in the American mid-west. My story isn't nearly as gripping as hers. Chang is a woman who deserves incredible honors for her ability to chronicle such tormenting and inspiring personal history. I was completly absorbed by the drama in the lives of these very sensitive and real people. I don't think that western writers have ever really understood the personal toll of the grim and chaotic history of China. Jung Chang has given me a priceless treasure of perspective, insight and understanding through this book. I will buy anything she chooses to write. Would someone please suggest this book to Steven Speilberg?
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Summary: A compulsory read
Review: A powerful, thought provoking experience. Modern history brought to life. Wild Swans has broadened my mind and appreciation for other people and cultures. Thank you Jung Chung for opening my eyes to such experiences so that I may never take anything for granted again.
Rating:
Summary: Truly touched and inspired
Review: When I sat down with Wild Swans, I had no expectations but to be informed and entertained by what I hoped would be a good book. I read to gain a personal understanding of the world in which we live through accounts and examples given by others of things I would never be able to experience first-hand. Never have I read a book that drew me in so powerfully and personally as Ms. Chang's Wild Swans. Wild Swans is epic in it's historical backdrop moving untirelessly through the last century of China, roughly between the years 1911 and 1976, but this is no textbook. You will never feel as though you just entered a lecture hall and are sitting through a journalistic or pedantic analysis of these turbulent times. This is the story of the author Jung Chang, her mother, and her grandmother. It is through their lives that history unfolds and is exposed. From the end of Imperial China, through Japanese occupation, the Nationalist movement, the Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communists, Communist takeover, Mao's Great Leap Forward starving tens of millions to death, the Cultural Revolution turning a national identity upon it's head and breaking it's collective spirit in the process, to Mao Zedong's death, you will be amazed at what you learn in this book about the capacity of the heart to perservere and triumph. I couldn't help but to feel ashamed at the provincial life we are handed in our land of freedom, and at once be thankful that we are so endowed. Jung Chang explores her family so deeply that her subjects, such as her stoic father, a true beliver in the Communist cause, and her grandmother, a veritable symbol through her bound feet of a time and place long gone, become indelibly etched upon the mind of the reader. By the end of Wild Swans, you will feel you know China and Ms. Chang and her family intimately. This book fulfills whatever you set out to obtain or attain when you devote time to reading. If you have never been afraid to crack a book, let this fall into your hands, enter your heart, and enrich your life and in the end, thank Jung Chang for opening your eyes. Thank you, Chang Jung.
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Summary: Wild Swans - dramatic, honest and historical
Review: I had never been interested in Chinese history until I began reading Wild Swans, by Jung Chang. Now I can't wait to learn more about Chinese history and culture! This book, published in 1992, could be considered both a historical novel and biography. It is the story the author's grandmother, mother and her own life in China during twentieth century. Not only does the reader get a glimpse of what life was like in China, but they also get a very detailed and in-depth account of China's tumultuous history in this century. Because Wild Swans has two different focuses, on China and her family's history, the Chang's tone is very straight forward. She has a very strong voice that is prevalent as she described her personal life. There is quite a lot of description throught the entire book, but that only adds more dimension to the book and gives the reader a better look at the lives of the author's maternal relatives. The description includes great detail about the different governments that took power in China during the twentieth century and how her family was involved in those various regimes. The details about the government become lengthy and boring at times, but it was always interesting to see how Chang's family fit into the power of the times. One of the additions to the book that makes it more interesting is the way Chang incorporated so many Chinese quotes into the book, comparing them to the current times she and her family were facing. One of them that greatly affected the lives of all three generations of women in the book was "where there is a will to condemn, there is evidence". Ancient Chinese proverbs like this are used in the book to show how the Communists rearranged Chinese history to show that their regime was the best China would ever have. I have never thought about incorporating quotes in my writing, but this book showed me how that can be done, espescially when used a metaphor, like the example given. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. However, for those that don't have interest in history, this book might now be the one for you. It also is a biography of three women, so those that aren't interested in learning about the lives of women might be turned off by this book also. However, Wild Swans provides a detailed account of a culture and lifestyle that isn't as well known as other western civilizations, so those that are looking to find soemthing a little different in a book would probably be drawn to this book's story of three brave women living in during very trying times. I give this book four well-deserved stars.
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Summary: Review
Review: During dinner time one night, my sister and father developed a thoughtful conversation over the Communist revolution of China. My initial reaction was amazement. I had previously believed that my sister was like me: an American born Chinese completely unschooled in anything relating to our ethnicity. As I picked up scraps of their conversation, which coursed from the "Manchukuo" period under the Japanese rule to Mao's communist reign, I wondered how my sister had absorbed all of the information of this intensive period. To my relief, I discovered that I did not have to pick up a history text book in order to become familiar with Chinese history; I could instead visualize the past through a memoir of three generations of Chinese women in Jung Chang's Wild Swans. Wild Swans is insightful and descriptive in uncovering a tumultuous era that spans from 1924 to 1978. However, Wild Swans is more than a chronicle of China's events during this period; Chang's book is an account of how war and revolution personally affected Jung's grandmother, her mother, and herself. The moving stories of these courageous and characteristically different women bring life and meaning to China's twentieth century cultural revolution. Chang's chapter titles are clever; her writing style is direct, needing little embellishment in order to retell the fascinating lives of her family. Chang also discusses how the three women are molded by the societal trends of each generation. Educative and personal, Wild Swans is a tribute to family and friends, and a celebration of the lives of "Three daughters of China." I found Wild Swans to be captivating and emotional in its direct portrayal of the determination of these women to survive and adhere to their duties, whether they are to themselves, their loved ones, or to their country. Wild Swans may be at times difficult to read, due to vivid and sometimes graphic accounts of certain events, but it is equally heart warming in its account of victories. Wild Swans is definitely worth reading!
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Summary: Tremendous Book on Life in 20th Century China
Review: As an overseas Chinese, this book was an eye-opener for me. My parents' families were both very well off in China -- my great-grandfather was a military man with huge business holdings in the Northeast -- and both families fled to Taiwan before 1949. Growing up, I was fed a rather biased view of what happened in China. This book describes in great detail the injustices and anarchy in China in the earlier part of this century and the conditions that allowed the Communists to defeat the KMT. It then goes into what happened after the KMT were defeated and the insanity that initiated then. It is a *very* unbiased book that lays out the facts as they are. The overall story, the numerous anecdotes and the many characters are all gripping and memorable. Particularly unforgettable are the events that occurred after 1950 under Mao -- actual madness that make the fictional lunacy in "Animal Farm" and "1984" look very tame by comparison. "Wild Swans" is part history, part biography, and wholly educational and entertaining. I also highly recommend "A Single Tear" for another biographical tale of the derangement of China under Mao.
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Summary: Modern Chinese History from a Woman's Perspective!
Review: This book is an insightful glimpse into the lives of women in China, from the end of the Q'ing Dynasty in 1911 until the end of the Mao era, in 1976. Chang vividly recounts the lives of her grandmother and mother, as well as herself, in order to explain Chinese history. However, this is by no means an unbiased account of her family's experiences: her feelings about the wrongdoings of the Chinese Communist party run rampant throughout the latter half of the book. I found the book more real for this reason though. I couldnt keep the book down; it's a wonderful, gripping tale. Also, definitely easy to pick up after a few days of neglect...the story is by no means too complex to follow.
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