Paperback, 665 pages
English language
Published 2003 by HarperCollins Publishers Limited.
Fer books have ever had such an impact as Wild Swans. Since its first publication it has been translated into 30 languages and sold more than 10 million copies. Through the story of three generations of women in her own family - grandmother, mother and daughter - Jung Chang reveals the whole tragic history of China's twentieth century.
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 became senior officials. Jung Chang, their daughter, was raised in the privileged circles of China's Communist elite, but was to take the unimaginabe step of questioning Mao himself. Her parents were denounced and …
Fer books have ever had such an impact as Wild Swans. Since its first publication it has been translated into 30 languages and sold more than 10 million copies. Through the story of three generations of women in her own family - grandmother, mother and daughter - Jung Chang reveals the whole tragic history of China's twentieth century.
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 became senior officials. Jung Chang, their daughter, was raised in the privileged circles of China's Communist elite, but was to take the unimaginabe step of questioning Mao himself. Her parents were denounced and tortured, and she herself was exiled to the edge of the Himalayas.
Wild Swans is a tale of extraordinary cruelty and bravery, of death and survival. Breathtaking in its scope, unforgettable in its descriptions of China's long nightmare, it is both an important work of history and a remarkable human document.
Genuinely so interesting and as it’s more of a memoir than a history book, it’s quite accessible
Eine grandiose Familiensaga, die sehr viel über die chinesische Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts vermittelt. Die Autorin schafft es Privates und Gesellschaftliches in perfekter Form zu verknüpfen.
Besonders die von Mao initiierten Verbrechen der Kulturrevolution sind im Westen wenig bekannt (und werden im heutigen China ignoriert). Im Endeffekt war Mao ein Monster wie Pol Pot, Hitler oder Stalin.
