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Summary: Oh--I lived so happily ignorant of such inhumanity.
Review: I sat in school while we took up our old history books and sent them to the black high school and never thought anything about it. Before that millions of Jews were killed in Germany and I never knew. And now, all this went on in China while I lived so happily ignorant of such inhumanity. In my lifetime, all of this has occurred and still people don't understand how easily it can happen again. Please read this book and agree with me that humanity is too precious to waste, too fragile to hate and "too wonderful to realize" (Wilder). Jung Chang, her grandmother, mother, father, aunts, brothers and sisters--I salute you for your courage, your stamina and your neverending hope. I am forever changed by your story, forever knowedgeable, ignorant no more!
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Summary: very intriguing look at life in china
Review: the book progresses through the three generations that saw tremendous social changes in china. the three generations of women all responded with spirit and courage to the challenges of their times.
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Summary: This is not just a "women's" book!
Review: I read this book in December 1998 while visiting my parents on their farm in rural Maine. As interesting as I found the progression of the personal story through three generations of strong, admirable Chinese women; I found that the message most emphatically planted in my mind was the extent to which Communism destroys all that is beautiful in a society's culture. This is not just a story of female endurance; it is a story that everyone should read so that brutal, irrational thinking is never allowed to take the upper hand in anyone's world.
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Summary: A must-read for women
Review: My mother gave me this book, which she had read and loved, and when I have a daughter I will give it to her. I thought I knew quite a lot about modern Chinese history, but _Wild Swans_ made me realize how little I really understood about the cataclysmic changes in China's society over the past 100 years. Even if you don't think you're interested in history, read this book: it is, to paraphrase C.S. Lewis, more exciting than most fiction and truer than most history! As the story of a family of women, it is still more fascinating -- women's stories are so rarely told, especially with so much intelligence and power, that this one takes your breath away. I have to also say that the historical and family photos add so much to the book; it was great to be able to _see_ the people, scenes, and events I was reading about.
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Summary: A brilliant narrative of real life horror.
Review: Wild Swans is one the most moving books I've ever read. Chang writes in a very matter-of-fact manner to convey the horror suffered by her family, but I think this style makes her story seems more horrific and true. I've read a lot of novels set in Communist China, and Wild Swans is, by far,the hardest one to put down..
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Summary: Amazing personal courage, and frightening inhumanity
Review: I found the life stories in this book very moving. I was touched deeply by both the extremes of courage and personal integrity, and by the sheer inhumanity of the times. Those with the strongest inner integrity were ultimately destroyed, either mentally, physically or both. For me the mass delusion of Mao's followers and the terrifying consequences for particular individuals was quite chilling. More so because this epoch was just one episode in a cycle of similar events in China's long history. Reflections of what I would do in similar circumstances left me feeling unsettled and perhaps that I would lack the inner strength of some of those of whom she writes. Strangely, as compelling as I found the first two-thirds of the book, which I read relentlessly, I did not finish the last one-third. I have no idea why that was the case, but therefore from my perspective I rate the book 4-stars not 5.
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Summary: An excellent and highly enlightening read.
Review: This book opened my eyes to a history and culture I knew very little about. Before reading this book words like "concubine," "the Cultural Revolution" and "the Red Guard" were just vague foreign concepts to me; now I know what these Chinese institutions were and of their brutality and inhumanity. I couldn't put this book down and was sorry when it ended. After you finish reading Tom Wolfe's or Tom Clancy's latest, read this. You'll be just as riveted, and you'll be enlightened as well.
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Summary: This is an amazing book
Review: This is one of the best books I've ever read. It should be standard reading for every American. It makes you realize how good you have it, and also is a great way to learn about a culture absolutely opposite to ours. That's actually the part I found most fascinating. China really is another world. I read it for a college world civ class and couldn't put it down. The fact that it's told from a female perspective just adds another unique element to this book. The way these women's lives have intertwined with history makes it a case where truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Don't let the size scare you off. You'll turn page after page. When you finish reading this, you'll feel like if you ever met one these women you'll be able to talk to them as an old friend. Everyone should read this book. Period.
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Summary: UNDOUBTEDLY THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ.
Review: Recommended to me by a teacher, this has undoubtedly been THE best book I have ever had the pleasure of reading. With an incredible fascinating story to tell, Jung Chang narrates it to the reader in a way that everyone can understand exactly what horrors they experienced. Previously to reading this book, I had no personal interest in China's history, especially with the lack of encouragement to learn about other cultures' pasts at school, yet 'Wild Swans' has change this, and now I am fascinated to learn more about China and other places. The pain families, especially the women, had to put up with, touches every readers heart, and the book comes across as a truely emotional story of life in China's past. It's a book I couldn't put down, and took with me everywhere possible, and a book that has been, and deserves to be, recommended or read by all, if not for the leisure side of it, then for the historical side of it's story. I urgently recommend all who haven't had the pleasure of reaing it, to do so.
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Summary: rich saga
Review: In this review, I hope you'll come with me to China, as my mind is brimming full of memories from my vacation there this summer, and also of images from Jung Chang's moving, detailed, and perfectly crafted memoir, Wild Swans. The book uses the lives and experiences of Jung, her mother, and grandmother, to tell the story of China during most of the 20th century. The story begins with Jung's grandmother, who grew up during the feudal era. Her feet were bound, as were her horizons; she was sent off by her father to become a concubine to a General and lived the life of a bored housewife, seeing the General only the barest number of times over the years. Ten years later she was able to marry for love, though her husband suffered ridicule, disapproval, and ostracism by his children, in part because he was so much older than his bride. Jung's mother was born and raised during the Japanese occupation, and both she and Jung's father became devoted high-ranking Communist officials. Unfortunately, as these things go, Jung's mother was distrusted, investigated, and detained, and she and her husband were later branded "enemies of the people". Jung herself was raised during the Cultural Revolution, exiled, and eventually left China to begin studies in the U.K. Jung's mother is in many ways the primary protagonist of the book, as her lifetime spanned some of the most turbulent years in China this century. At first she embraced the Communist cause, leading a chapter of the youth league while the concepts were still new and exciting, and being tested and tried. Later while raising her children she began to feel some doubts creep in, as her husband embraced the revolution so passionately that he allowed for no individual thought or consideration for his family. One sees over and over the bewilderment, tension, and disappointment she felt; on the one hand, she fervently believed in the goals of the revolution herself and yet, on the other, she felt that her husband's zealotry reflected a lack of feeling for, or even a betrayal of, herself and her children. It is Jung who became the most disillusioned as she began to perceive the excesses to which Mao's policies were being taken. If the results were not so painful it would almost be comical to read about farmers who might initially have been willing to tell the truth (that policies were leading to shortages, starvation, and decline in agricultural production), but who under pressure end up chanting wild-eyed that their produce weighed 10 pounds, 100 pounds, 1000 pounds and more. The denouncements, the purges, and the efforts at thought control are astounding. It goes without saying that this book is written by a young woman who has left the communist way of life, and this should be kept in mind. But for those who would enjoy a painstaking and fascinating re-telling of Chinese history through the eyes of three generations of Chinese women, I cannot recommend this book more highly.
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