Book Review: Wild Swans

The subtitle for Wild Swans is “Three Daughters of China” and is the account of three generation of women starting with the oldest, Yu-Fang, in the era when the Kuomintang ruled China. The entire story is told from the perspective of the youngest Jung Chang. It tells the account of one family’s history through the fall of the Kuomintang and the entire era of Maoism. The book is everything you expect from a good storyline, tales of love, courage, hardship. It is also a very accurate and unflinching account of much of what went on in the Communist Revolution.

The Communist Party was supposed to be the answer to the corrupt practices and exploitation of the Kuomintang. It started out with many devoted loyalists. Anybody who wants to understand how a populace with such loyalty and fervor can slowly be manipulated into the atrocities that occurred under Maoism should read this book. It is as much about human nature and what drives people on a large scale as it is about the three women.

The book is also well-written and enjoyable to read. There are so many passages and stories; it’s hard to pick one that describes its essence. The following passage gives a good sense of the author’s style, as she sums up the effect of the Cultural Revolution.

“Wherever we went as we traveled down the Yangtze we saw the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution: temples smashed, statues toppled, and old towns wrecked. Little evidence remained of China’s ancient civilization. But the loss went even deeper than this. Not only had China destroyed most of its beautiful things, it had lost its appreciation of them, and was unable to make new ones. Except for the much-scarred but still stunning landscape, China had become an ugly country.”

There’s a lot more waiting for the interested reader. This book does not disappoint.