However, the book is more than just an account of the horrors of the Cultural Revolution and of the Great Leap Forward. Although raised by a committed Communist family and deeply embedded in the Party elite, Jung Chang grew to challenge both the regime’s ideology and Mao himself.Ĭombining the experiences of these three generations, the author provides a deep insight into 20th-century Chinese history, vividly explaining how communism was consolidated in China and what events and ideologies laid its foundations. The reminiscence then continues with the story of Jung Chang herself growing up in Communist China. After the triumph of communism on the mainland, Jung Chang’s mother and father became senior members of the Communist Party of China, or in other words, the elite of the ‘new’ China. Her daughter, Jung Chang’s mother, grew up in the troubled, revolutionary China, actively participating in the Communist movement, fighting against the Chinese Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang.
Given to a warlord General as a concubine at an early age, Jung Chang’s grandmother fled with her baby in her arms when the General was dying. The memoir starts with Jung Chang’s grandmother, who lived in the late imperial or pre-Communist China. In the book, the author, Jung Chang, guides readers through the extraordinary lives of three generations of Chinese women. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang is a family memoir that gives a powerful insight into 20th-century Chinese history.
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