We are told first hand of the mistrust under the heavy surveillance and controlled of the Mao regime, brutal attacks by young revolutionaries and how politics resulted in many being treated as second-class citizens.Ĭhang despite being highly intelligent is not initially allowed to go to university, working as an electrician before being able to learn English in Sichuan.
Born in the Cultural Revolution, at a time when her family were considered capitalist roaders due to her father’s opposition to the sufferings of the Chinese people, which he believed were caused by ineffective policy.Ĭhang herself dislikes Mao, but the cult of personality meant it was only after his death things began to sink in. The book then follows Chang’s autobiography. The two start as firm ideological communists and loyal servants to the Revolution, though personal interests within the local party branch and ideological clashes result in the ostracisation of Wang Yu. It begins with the tale of how Yu-fang was married off as a concubine to a high ranking general, and eventually married a doctor in Manchuria.īao Qin joins the Communist Party at the age of 15 and eventually meets Wang Yu, Chang’s father. Jung Chang narrates the biographies of her grandmother, Yu-fang, her mother Bao Qin and herslef. Translated into 37 languages, Wild Swans tells the story of 20th Century China from the last days of Imperial China to the Japanese Occupation, Civil War, Revolution and post Mao era.
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