Wild Swans Three Daughters of China

by Chang, Jung

• ISBN13: 9780743246989
• ISBN10: 0743246985
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-12
• Publisher: SIMON & SCHUSTER

Summary

Blending the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history,Wild Swanshas become a bestselling classic in thirty languages, with more than ten million copies sold. The story of three generations in twentieth-century China, it is an engrossing record of Mao's impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love.Jung Chang describes the life of her grandmother, a warlord's concubine; her mother's struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents' experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a "barefoot doctor," a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving -- and ultimately uplifting -- detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.

Author Biography

JUNG CHANG was born in Yibin, Sichuan Province, China, in 1952. She left China for Britain in 1978 and obtained a Ph.D. in linguistics from York University in 1982, the first person from the People¹s Republic of China to receive a doctorate from a British university. She lives in London and has recently completed a biography of Mao.

Table of Contents

"Three-Inch Golden Lilies": Concubine to a Warlord General (1909-1933)	p. 21
"Even Plain Cold Water Is Sweet": My Grandmother Marries a Manchu Doctor (1933-1938)	p. 43
"They All Say What a Happy Place Manchukuo Is": Life under the Japanese (1938-1945)	p. 62
"Slaves Who Have No Country of Your Own": Ruled by Different Masters (1945-1947)	p. 75
"Daughter for Sale for 10 Kilos of Rice": In Battle for a New China (1947-1948)	p. 94
"Talking about Love": A Revolutionary Marriage (1948-1949)	p. 115
"Going through the Five Mountain Passes": My Mother's Long March (1949-1950)	p. 140
"Returning Home Robed in Embroidered Silk": To Family and Bandits (1949-1951)	p. 151
"When a Man Gets Power, Even His Chickens and Dogs Rise to Heaven": Living with an Incorruptible Man (1951-1953)	p. 170
"Suffering Will Make You a Better Communist": My Mother Falls under Suspicion (1953-1956)	p. 191
"After the Anti-Rightist Campaign No One Opens Their Mouth": China Silenced (1956-1958)	p. 204
"Capable Women Can Make a Meal without Food": Famine (1958-1962)	p. 220
"Thousand-Gold Little Precious": In a Privileged Cocoon (1958-1965)	p. 240
"Father Is Close, Mother Is Close, but Neither Is as Close as Chairman Mao": The Cult of Mao (1964-1965)	p. 256
"Destroy First, and Construction Will Look After Itself": The Cultural Revolution Begins (1965-1966)	p. 273
"Soar to Heaven, and Pierce the Earth": Mao's Red guards (June-August 1966)	p. 297
"Do You Want Our Children to Become 'Blacks'?": My Parents' Dilemma (August-October 1966)	p. 282
"More Than Gigantic Wonderful News": Pilgrimage to Peking (October-December 1966)	p. 308
"Where There Is a Will to Condemn, There Is Evidence": My Parents Tormented (December 1966-1967)	p. 323
"I Will Not Sell My Soul": My Father Arrested (1967-1968)	p. 341
"Giving Charcoal in Snow": My Siblings and My Friends (1967-1968)	p. 362
"Thought Reform through Labor": To the Edge of the Himalayas (January-June 1969)	p. 379
"The More Books You Read, the More Stupid You Become": I Work as a Peasant and a Barefoot Doctor (June 1969-1971)	p. 406
"Please Accept My Apologies That Come a Lifetime Too Late": My Parents in Camps (1969-1972)	p. 429
"The Fragrance of Sweet Wind": A New Life with The Electricians' Manual and Six Crises (1972-1973)	p. 444
"Sniffing after Foreigners' Farts and Calling Them Sweet": Learning English in Mao's Wake (1972-1974)	p. 458
"If This Is Paradise, What Then Is Hell?": The Death of My Father (1974-1976)	p. 475
Fighting to Take Wing (1976-1978)	p. 495
Epilogue	p. 506
Index	p. 509
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.