Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Jul 25, 2008

Martine rated it:

Wild Swans may well be the most depressing book I've ever read. Don't let that keep you from giving it a try, though, for by some strange mechanism, it also ranks among the most uplifting books I've read, chronicling as it does a courage, resilience and will to survive which are nothing short of riveting. I could sum the book up by saying it's the greatest ode to courage and resilience ever written, or that it's one of those rare books which make you despair of humanity and then go a long way to More...

6 comments like (30 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2008

Trina rated it:

We bought this book before a trip to Beijing in 2005, but Amazon was particularly slow with their delivery and it arrived just a couple of days before our departure. My husband began reading the book on the plane (and even though the book is banned in China, our bags weren't searched so our copy made it into the country without any problem), but didn't finish it until well after we'd returned home. At that point, my interest had waned a bit. In addition, I just don't like to read "sad" More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

May 20, 2008

Jeff rated it:

I started this book because I had to, not because I wanted to. But before I was half-way through it, I was reading it and recommending it because I loved it, and felt very close to the three women chronicled in it.

It's been a long time since I was a political science undergraduate studying constitutional formation in transitional totalitarian societies, so a lot of the detail about this book escape me. Nevertheless, there's a lot that still stands out and makes me mention this book More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 30, 2008

Corinne rated it:

One of the most fascinating books I have ever read. Not only do I feel I got an honest history of communist China, its story plays out like a novel - I never wanted to put it down. Chang excels at pulling it together for you - showing you the differences between her Grandmother's life, her mother's life and her own, moving chronologically in a manner that makes such good sense. I completely followed it despite my absolute dearth of knowledge on the subject of China. I wept with her and felt an a More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jun 24, 2008

Lesleylarson rated it:

A book about three generations of women in China, written by a woman who was in her early twenties when Mao died. The perspective she shares on life during Imperial China, and then Mao's communist China kept me riveted, hardly noticing the book was 500 pages of pure history. This is worth-while exposure to facts about an entire century that have only recently seen daylight in the West, and perhaps still haven't in parts of modern China. I think I finally understand why someone would accept (and More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Alisha rated it:

This book just felt like anti-China propaganda. While what the author presents may be true and may have actually happened, all it does is paint China in a very negative light. I just feel like there is so much being published these days that says that China is a bad place and has been for years, and I can't entirely agree with that. I guess I should have known better than to actually give someone money for this book. But it was in Shanghai and I was desperate for English books written after Sha More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 03, 2008

Christine rated it:

My heart ached every time I picked up this book to read. It rang page after page of unspeakable acts delivered to and through the everyday lives of the people of China under the rule of Mao. The only real hope conveyed in the book was Chang's beautiful depiction of the places where she, her mother and her grandmother had lived. She captures the smallest detail and creates a clear picture for her reader. I believe this book grants us a view of what it is like to live in a Godless society.

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Mar 04, 2009

Cheryl S. rated it:

Incredible! I am overwhelmed with feelings of inadequacy when comparing my life with Jung Chang and can only marvel at the strength of this woman and her family. For the first time I may have some small understanding of what it was really like to live under the rule of Mao. I never cease to be amazed at how a megalomaniac can gain control of a country and no matter how ridiculous or insane his policies are manage to control a vast population by the use of fear.

5 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Martha rated it:

Although I sometimes teach World Civilization, I don't know very much about lives of the people in China during the communist years under Chairman Mao. This book provides a lot of those answers. It's tough to read, but it is very informative and inspiring.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 21, 2010

Ed rated it:

What an incredible memoir, covering three generations: the Grandmother, mother and the author herself. Beginning in 1924 and continuing to 1978, it included the Japanese invasion, the Communist victory in 1949 and the Cultural Revolution and its immediate aftermath.

It is almost impossible to comprehend what these people went through and still managed to survive. What is even more astounding is that in many ways they were better off than their compatriots. In U.S. terms they were a More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 17, 2008

Queen rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 23, 2008

Vanessa rated it:

Wild Swans is primarily an autobiographical account of her life in Communist China until shortly after the death of Mao. Jung Chang also tells her mother's story, which gives you an understanding of China during WWII and the early days of the Communist Revolution, as well as her grandmother's life story, which gives you a taste of China before WWII. It's a very interesting read, and you learn a lot about how people suffered under Mao. Although through the inclusion of her grandmother's story, yo More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 22, 2008

Jenny rated it:

I've never felt so sad to reach the end of a book in all my life. This book is truely amazing and is well and truely the best book I've ever read! I even had the urge to start reading it all over again as soon as I'd finished.

Wild Swans follows the journey of three generations of women, from the same family, through the tragic history of twentieth century China.

I felt almost ashamed that I wasn't aware of hardly any of China's recent history. I picked the book up as I was More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 17, 2010

Pipitta rated it:

Buku ini saya beli 8 Oktober 2006, dan entah kenapa sama sekali gak saya sentuh. Mungkin karena covernya yang gak banget yah, hihih.. abis apa menariknya buku tebal warna coklat tanah dengan cover perempuan pakai seragam tentara jadul begitu.. :P

Akhirnya karena kehabisan bahan bacaan, minggu lalu saya baru mulai baca bukunya dan... ternyata isinya sangat menarik! Memang sih, yang saya baca hasil terjemahan, tapi bahkan terjemahannya pun cukup bagus dan enak diikuti.

Berka More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 05, 2008

Matt rated it:

A great book from the perspective of everday people in three generations of Chinese history. Wild Swans offers the reader a chance to really understand the sequence of events that led to Mao's rule starting with a Manchurian emperor followed by Japanese occupation, Chiang Kai-Shek, and finally Mao Zedong. Not only do you go through the entire period of Mao's rule through a first hand account, but you see how people welcomed Mao with the history of the author's mother and grandmother suffering More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 28, 2008

Lynn rated it:

I wanted and expected to love this book. I gave it the ole college try. 100 pages should be enough to know if it's going to be a good book. Unfortunately, those in my bookclub who finished it said it took 200 pages to get to the wonderful part of the book. Apparently, the author does a much better job writing when she speaks of her own life. The lives of her grandmother and mother in China were written simply as very detailed and boring history. The author was unable to get into their hear More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jul 20, 2009

Paul added it

I ground to a halt on this one, it's good and all that, but it's such a misery memoir & not only that a Chinese Communist misery memoir. Only one thing worse would be an Irish Chinese Communist misery memoir. But seriously, I must plug on.

On a personal note : I live with a person who regularly visits China and, given the grisly state of capitalism and our own English domestic troubles (Google "MP's expenses" and also "Gordon Brown's a loser la-la-la-la") thinks d More...

8 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 05, 2007

Paige rated it:

This book is about 3 generations of women in China, spanning approximately the last 100 years. It teaches a lot about the various political parties as they came and went.
This book is eye-opening & shocking, really. I'm glad that I read it, because I learned SO much from it about history. It really caused a paradigm shift in my thinking, as well. I find myself mentioning it quite a bit because it made such an impact on me. The political madness of Mao has especially caused me to think More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 13, 2008

Andrea rated it:

This book helped me tie together the pieces of China history that I had difficulty understanding in the past. It was brillant of her to tell first her grandmother's story, then her mother's story, and then finally her own. So much changed happened in so little time. When I lived in China it was so hard for me to understand the Chinese mentality and why they did the things that they did. This book helped answer so many of my questions. The descriptions of torture, starvation, and destruction More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 06, 2008

Bruce rated it:

A lucid memoir of quite mad times. The astute decision to chronicle three generations aids immeasurably, as the hardships faced by Chung's grandmother show plainly why any change to China's established order would be welcome, and justifies her mother's idealistic commitment to the Communists despite worrying signs of the nightmares to come. I've some qualms about employing omniscient narration for events passed down in family lore or gleaned from history books, but that's a quibble compared to More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 18, 2008

Kathryn rated it:

This is the true story of three generations of Chinese women living as Communism gets its stranglehold in China. It is absolutely fascinating to see the degree of control the Communists take & the willingness of many to sacrifice for "the greater good". Amazing.

The last third was harder to read as this poor family's situation just got worse and worse. I also thought the ending was a bit abrupt. It really made me want to learn what communist China is like today.

More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Beth (M) rated it:

Chang is the granddaughter of a general's concubine and the daughter of devoted communists. She describes growing up as a Red Guard and the humiliation and suffering endured by by her parents and many others who were devoted to Mao. Mao is portrayed as a sociopath who only wanted power and who fomented violence and brutality among his followers. A must-read for anyone interested in China. Note: writing style starts out wooden in the family history section but becomes compelling when she relate More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2012

Frederick rated it:

An engrossing book. It concerns three women, a grandmother, mother and her daughter who are born and grow up in China. The story is written by the daughter and covers three generations of incredible change. The grandmother is born in 1909, just after the end of the last imperial dynasty. The book ends in 1978 when the daughter leaves China for Britain. The book takes us through the warlord period, the Japanese occupation, the second world war, the nationalist period and finally the communist tak More...

0 comments like

Oct 08, 2011

Nerida rated it:

If you're looking for an engaging story, this book would be a bit too detailed and slow-moving for you, but if you are interested in Chinese history, Wild Swans, by Jung Chang, is an intriguing history book.

Wild Swans is a memoir chronicling the lives of the author, her mother, and her grandmother. These three generations span almost the entire twentieth century - until the 1980s. The author's goal is to demonstrate to the reader how the lives of the Chinese people changed as its government cha More...

1 comment like

Aug 11, 2011

Robyn added it

This is a long, hard-hitting, jam-packed book which requires a serious amount of concentration and a good memory for unfamiliar names. The lack of dialogue compared to description is often difficult to read, but Chang is not a trained author, and what she lacks in technique, she makes up in powerful honesty and gripping description. If you can bring yourself to read her tale - much of which is disturbing, if not horrifying - then you will find yourself reading an incredibly intimate view of a More...

0 comments like

Mar 13, 2009

Sullyfitz rated it:

Although oddly spare in emotion and not particulary eloquently written, this book is a nonfiction account of three generations of women in China during the 20th century but is primarily about the Cultural Revolution and its effects on every day life in China from a very personal perspective. Having grown up during this era and being approximately the same age as the author (the granddaughter) I found it fascinating to realize how little I knew about the era. China was a closed country during thi More...

0 comments like

Feb 17, 2009

Marilynmayer rated it:

The best book on 20th century China that I've ever read. I read this book 15 yrs. ago, and I still have vivid recollections of many scenes from the book. From the opening scene describing how her grandmother's feet were bound, through her parents revolutionary zeal for the Communist Revolution, and through the Cultural Revolution, one comes away with a thorough understanding of how China plunged from the corruption of its dynastic history to the failed policies of Mao. Thirty million people d More...

0 comments like

Jan 25, 2009

K. rated it:

Wow!

Note to Stephanie Francom: I think you might want to pick this book up...

For a sum-up, from Amazon.com: "In Wild Swans Jung Chang recounts the evocative, unsettling, and insistently gripping story of how three generations of women in her family fared in the political maelstrom of China during the 20th century. Chang's grandmother was a warlord's concubine. Her gently raised mother struggled with hardships in the early days of Mao's revolution and rose, like her More...

6 comments like

Dec 01, 2008

Dina P. rated it:

Buku ini merupakan otobiografi sang penulis, Jung Chang, sekaligus biografi ibu dan neneknya yang dilatarbelakangi perubahan-perubahan sosial dan kenegaraan di China.

Cerita yang disampaikan benar-benar menggambarkan perubahan-perubahan tersebut secara nyata. Mulai dari awal abad ke-20 saat nenek Jung Chang dilahirkan, di mana kekuasaan berada di tangan tuan2 tanah dan "warlord" (yang salah satunya adalah Jendral Xue, kakek Jung Chang).

Setelah itu, jaman berubah, More...

0 comments like

Jan 30, 2012

Natalia added it

The stories of the three women from different generations,

the integration between 3 individual biographies, interconnecting and combined into one biography that is Wild Swans. Giving an insight into 20th century China, I think that its fascinating how these women go through life during a time like this, where the political state of the country is (tense). Jung Chang has cleverly portrayed three distinct perspectives through her mother, her grandmother, and herself, allowing the read More...

0 comments like

reviews