BOOK. Rereading "Wild Swans" surely isn’t boring. However, it surely isn’t pleasant either.
As most of you will probably know, the book “Wild Swans”, written by Jung Chang, is not exactly a ‘new kid on the block’. So why throw myself into reading 600something pages of old news - and presenting it here?
To tell you the truth I can only think of three reasons: 1) I accidentally found it on my bookshelf last year when going through all my historical books. 2) I couldn’t remember much of it (only the highlights). And 3) I got curious to see if those Swans would still absorb me completely, as I remember they did when I was in my 20s.
As an answer to “3)” I can tell you that reading it all over again surely wasn’t boring. However, it surely wasn’t pleasant either.
A deep-dive into the archives
Now, how was it exactly to live a life as a “normal citizen” in China from the early 1900s until the late 1970s? Well, Jung Chang surely knows after she has been deep-diving into the archives of her grandmother’s, her mother’s, and her own personal story.
However, when you go through the result of all the material she has gathered - aka the book - you’ll know that it not only paints a picture of the private spheres of these “3 daughters of China”. It also describes the leading political ideas and laws and how they unfolded at the time in this huge piece of land. ‘Cause in this corner of the world, Chang lets us know, the individual and the state were so closely knitted together that it almost became one. Through its politics the regime dictated what ordinary people were allowed to do - and not allowed to do. Even on micro level.
A concubine with bound feet
Jung Chang tells the women’s story in chronological order, and so we start hearing about her grandmother. As the last emperor of China was overthrown when ‘grandma’ was at the age of c. 3, it is hardly a surprise that her path through life was strongly influenced by the ways of the old regime. We are for instance told how her feet are bound - a mark of beauty and status - and how she lives her life as a concubine for some years.
All in all the conditions under which the grandmother lived seem very old fashioned. Rich men were holding all the important positions in society whereas the women were busy finding themselves a powerful man and marry him as soon as she had the chance.
However, when Chang’s grandmother is entering her 40s a new era begins. Mao Zedong and the Communist Party take over the political scene, several years of war and struggle is over, and in 1949 Mao announces that China is now a communist country. Bye-bye old oppressive rulers and hello to a life where everybody has equal chances of making it in this world - even the women.
Living a Communist life
At this time Jung Chang’s mother has grown to become a young woman. She is a strong believer in the communist ideas, and so is her husband, Jung Chang’s father, and the two of them throw themselves into the political program with great enthusiasm.
In 1952 Jung Chang is born, and to her the Communist way of living is completely normal. That is how the world looks like, and that is how it is supposed to be. No private ownerships - private-owned companies had been bought by the state. No private cooking - all had to get their food from the public run canteens. And no self-made, individualistic views on life - ‘cause you had to follow the thoughts laid out by Chairman Mao and the Communist Party.
Chang’s parents are climbing up the social ladder at a steady pace and start to hold quite high positions in their governmental jobs. Actually it seems as if the whole family is doing rather well during the 1950s till start 60s - even though the Communist Party held its citizens in a short leash.
But sadly the good times came to an end, and what was next was a dark chapter in the history of China, filled to the brim with fright, pain, and terror.
The Cultural Revolution
“This book is a long list of horrors!!” I wrote in my Wild Swans reading notes, and to this I’m sure you’ll agree. Particularly when you get to the (long) passage that circles around the so-called “Cultural Revolution”.
As Jung Chang has written this book as a personal telling, she delivers some very unique - and terrifying - details on these revolutionary years. Let me just say that it takes quite a strong stomach to read about what she and - not least - her parents had to go through from c. the mid-1960s to mid-1970s.
Capitalist roaders
The first time the Cultural Revolution lashes out at Chang’s family is in 1966/67 when her parents are accused of being ‘capitalist roaders’ - i.e. persons who were acting against the ideas of Chairman Mao and the Communist Party.
This was of course total nonsense as both her mother and her father were strong believers in China Communism and always had followed orders from the Party strictly to the letter.
However, seen in hindsight bright lights, the Cultural Revolution was not about following the original China Communist ideas, no, it all had to do with Mao increasing his political power.
To reach his goal Mao had a plan which - in short - was to replace the existing politicians (who weren’t as devoted to him as he needed them to be) with persons who would follow him blindly. Also he needed all the support from the ‘common people’ he could get.
Mao figured that he stood a good chance if he mobilised teenagers and illiterates (because they were easy for him to manipulate) and/or people who for some reason were motivated to remove old unit leaders such as Jung Chang’s parents.
The role of the new supporters was to act as Mao's local henchmen and overthrow anyone who stood in the way of his project.
And so the Cultural Revolution started rolling across the nation and terrible things began to happen. Here’s a list.
Mao’s Red Guards was formed, founded by aggressive teenage-children. The Red Guard’s slogan (and mission) was: “We vow to launch a bloody war against anyone who dares to resist the Cultural Revolution, who dares to oppose Chairman Mao”. Jung Chang’s family felt the effects of the Red Guards when her grandmother’s brother and his wife were beaten up by members of this ‘teenage-army’ (like thousands of others) and afterward deported to somewhere far away.
Everything ‘old’ - public and private-owned - had to be destroyed. Buildings, interiors, antiques…..and books. If books didn’t have a Mao-quote on every page (which they didn’t if they were written before the Cultural Revolution had started) they were considered ‘poisonous weed’ and should be burned straight away.
‘Relaxation’ was now seen as an outdated, capitalist concept. Parks were desolated and vandalised, its flowers and grass had been uprooted and the birds and fish killed. Films, plays, and concerts were banned. Sports, cards, chess, teahouses, and bars - all had disappeared.
And the list continues.
Torture and humiliation
The worst part for Chang’s family in this period was when her mother and father, being so-called ‘class enemies’, were taken away to somewhere and tortured. And when they were being punished in public. And when posters telling about their anti-Mao behaviour were hung upon walls across town in order to humiliate them.
Well, actually I believe that the above-mentioned hardships weren’t even the worst, ‘cause around 1970 both of her parents are put in each their camp placed somewhere in the countryside in rural, desert-like surroundings. Out here they had to perform a daily program that consisted of hard - really hard! - manual work during the day and gatherings in the afternoon where they were humiliated and/or tortured. Need I say that the housing in these camps was miserable and the food scarce and that it was all one big nightmare? No, I didn’t think so.
Jung Chang is now around 19 y.o., and she too had to go to the countryside to work although under much less strict conditions. However, just like her parents’ situation, this arrangement was to last ‘forever’. But luckily the political situation slowly started to change. Mao had realised that he needed the old governmental employees and all their great skills and experience to make the country running.
The end of the Cultural Revolution was now near and when Mao dies in 1976 (and his closest accomplices, ‘the Gang of Four’, are arrested) the days of terror are finally over.
At the very end of the book Chang starts studying English at the university and she even wins a scholarship that takes her to a university in London. Here she ends up settling down, and eventually she writes her book “Wild Swans”.
In My Opinion
⭐ What I really like about the “Wild Swans"
It simply IS a unique look into the way of life in China in the 20th century. There are so many details that you could never find anywhere else.
As the book is told from a personal viewpoint you feel close to the people described. You can almost see them before you and you really g e t what their lives (and sufferings) were all about.
Jung Chang weaves the story of her family into the story of the official political happenings in China and shows us that the two are inseparable. That is a clever detail (and must have taken her through quite a lot of research!). Actually I’d say that the book is almost just as much a biography of the politics of China as it is a personal story of the lives of the three Chinese women. After re-reading Wild Swans it suddenly made perfect sense to me why Chang later wrote the biography: “Mao - The Unknown Story”, 'cause I guess her drawers were already filled to the brim with research-info on the subject.
And last but not least - the book gives you an explanation as to why on earth the people of this country continued to support Mao, even after all the terrible things he’d done - which is a question you naturally start asking yourself only a few pages into the Cultural Revolution.
📝 Some notes I made
There are a lot of details describing the lives of the three women and their families. Sometimes too many for my taste. However, if you arm yourself with patience then you are rewarded. When Jung Chang enters the story herself things start to flow in a more easy way.
Sometimes it’s a little hard to figure out where in the ‘general history of China’ we are exactly - although it helps to look at the list of chronology placed in the front of the book.
I missed a bigger map of China - and that the places mentioned in the book were marked here (colours would be nice).
However, no matter what I have written above, know this: This-Book-Is-A-Must-Read. A Classic. So read it, read it, read it. Even re-read it if you must. And make sure that everyone you know read it too. Thank you.
F U N F A C T S
🗓 “Wild Swans” was first published in 1991.
📚 It has sold over 13 million copies.
🌏 It is translated into 37 languages.
🇨🇳 It is (still) banned in China.
🏆 It has won the NCR Book Award (1992) and the British Book of the Year (1993).
🇬🇧 The author, Jung Chang, still lives in London.
📕📙 She has also written and published “Mao - The Unknown Story”, “Empress Dowager Cixi - The Concubine Who Launched Modern China”, and “Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China”.
👩🏻🎓 She is the first person from the People's Republic of China to be awarded a Ph.D. from a British university.
💻 Her website is worth visiting. You’ll find it here www.jungchang.net
📺🎤 She was once interviewed by the BBC, telling about the ‘Cultural Revolution Nightmare’. Part of it you can watch in the video below👇
See you next time.
Majken xx
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This book review is based on Wild Swans - Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang. Flamingo, HarperCollinsPublishers, London, 1993.
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