 Book: Wild Swans
Title: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
Author: Jung Chang
Genre: Non-fiction, personal history
Pages: 650
From the back of the book: "Jung Chang's grandmother's feet were bound as a child and she was given to a warlord general as a concubine. As the general lay dying, she fled with her infant daughter. That daughter grew up to become active in the Communist movement's civil war against the Kuomintang. Following the Communist victory in 1949 she and her husband become senior officials. Jung Change, their daughter, was raised in the privileged circles of China's Communist elite, but was to take the unimaginable step of questioning Mao himself. Her parents were denounced and tortured, and she herself was exiled to the edge of the Himalayas."
This fascinating narrative is a MUST READ. It is not an easy read in the sense that it contains some heart-rending accounts of torture of individuals and of the entire population. Near the end of the book, the author asks how could 5 second rate tyrants have held 900 million people down? But they did for nearly 30 years. The book is depressing in that way, but such an important piece of history that I'd say we would be remiss if we didn't read it. It has important considerations for us today given that many believe that socialism is the way to go for America.
It is startling to think that a regime thought they could control everything and everyone right down to what was in people's cooking pots. And for a year, they did. Then famine hit because of the stupidity of thinking that food would always magically appear without anyone working to produce it. Such craziness was the life of China for more than 20 years and was called the Cultural Revolution.
This isn't a book for the very young, but I think all adults should give it a read. It is too important not to.
Last edited by Erudite; 06-23-2010 at 12:22 PM.
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06-22-2010, 11:35 PM
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