Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China (Abridged)

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Summary: Great Book
Review: The previous reviewer has done an excellent job of reviewing the book, so I merely want to add that I read this book 10 years ago and to this day I think of it frequently. It's a book that had a real impact on me. Any book that I remember 10 years later deserves 5 stars! The story itself pretty well spans the 20th century and is well told. We seldom hear the stories of "real people" in Asian countries and so have little understanding. This book expanded my understanding greatly!

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Summary: The book I will recommend to my adopted daughter from China
Review: This book is an outstanding portrayal of 20th century China through the experiences of 3 generations of women. For those of us who have adopted daughters from China, we are interested in information about China that will help with the discussion of where they came from and why. This book describes the social/political background in which their biological parents made decisions. I believe this book will be critical to the discussion when my daughters reach the age when they are searching to understand their identity beyond the traditional chinese customs and culture they have been exposed to in early childhood. After this book I read "The Good Women of China" by Xinran. This is a great follow-up book to expand the stories of women from all classes in China--peasant to party leader wives.

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Summary: LOWDOWN ON THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION--AND THEN SOME
Review: If you want to know about China before, during, and after the Cultural Revolution, then read this book. The story starts in the era of the early 1900's and goes up to the present. The author's mother's name in Chinese means Wild Swans in English hence: reason for the title. Ms. Chang's parents were high up politically in China and she did get extra favors during her life, however, there was a lot of suffering goin' on due to Mao's policies. How a billion people can get sucked into ravaging a country points out the importance of educating and training the youth...properly with high values! This is one fine read.

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Summary: Wonderful book on communist China
Review: Easily one of the top 5 books I have ever read. A detailed family history of the author, it is well written and captivating. But more importantly, it gives the reader a clear window into the life of a Chinese citizen during the 20th century. I wish there were similar books for other times and places, but I have never read a book quite like this one. You don't have to know anything about Chinese history to follow the book, but you will learn much about the last 100 years of China, and how the China of today is a direct result of Mao's China. I highly recommend this book, clearly the author is wonderfully gifted at telling her story.

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Summary: phenomenal
Review: this book covers with great clarity the years of recent turmoil in china. the woman's perspective adds more understanding of what has gone on--and how it came to be. great read, fascinating subject.

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Summary: Excellent memoir
Review: Well I rate this book a five star since it is really an excellent
memoir. Being a Taiwanese, I have really found a lot about the
real China in the mysterious period in history. I truly like its
style. In this book we are urged to maximize our opportunities,
hopes and courage. Esp for those who want to know the real China,
this is the book that I will call a must!

Rating:
Summary: Riveting
Review: There seem to be two main types of Chinese authors on the market: those who denounce Chinese culture for the sake of making a few bucks, or those who brag about it until it becomes tiresom. Jung Chang did neither, but skillfully told the story of three generations of women in her family. The book also contained bits of humor, despite its serious and often immensely sad subject matter. Written with the description and a plot like that of a fiction story.

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Summary: Great personalized history that reads like a movie.
Review: Great personalized history that reads fast inspite of its size and is not a dry account at all but draws the reader into the society as if you were living it yourself.

Rating:
Summary: an extraordinary book- wild swans
Review: book review of Wild Swans:
I bought the book in an English language bookstore in the PRC. I mention this because it is certainly not available in China in Chinese, for it is very critical of the party and how it treats it's members. See the chapters about the author's father, his undying loyalty to the party and the years of mistreatment he received for his efforts. Told through the eyes of three generations of the author's family, from the footbound grandmother to the author herself, the first chinese woman to get a PhD in England. It mirrors the events of history in the tales told within her family. 'Soft' history, softened by family stories yet never mushy or overly sentimental, the book has my highest rating, for it simply pulls you into her family, into her Chinese culture. So that you really feel the history as it moves, at times literally over the bodies of it's victims. Unlike many biographies it doesn't have slow chapters where the author feels obligated to cover the years despite really having nothing to say. It is evenly written, with the best parts being how she matures through the cultural revolution to eventually getting a degree in English and going to England to study.
Knowing that millions of Chinese have similar stories of sadness and heroism, deprivation and the desire to flourish, stupidity and education, all mixed up and awaiting someone to sort the stories out and share them with the world, I am certainly glad this one reached my hands. I hope that someday it will be a best seller in Chinese, in China......You don't have to be a lover of China or the Chinese to get something out of it, just a student of human behavior and history. Where people like the author overcome enormous obstacles to shine, to rise above their past, showing all the rest of us the humanity that we all share, and how motivation is the greater part of success in all endeavors.
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Rating:
Summary: Wild Swans: Three Doughters of China
Review: It is one of the best books I have ever read. It really makes you aware of the horrors that the people of china have had to suffer.