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Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
by Jung Chang

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1848.Wild_Swans_Three_Daughters_of_China?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1158959961m/1848.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1848.Wild_Swans_Three_Daughters_of_China?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1237.Jung_Chang">Jung Chang</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9494021?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars 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 to anyone and everyone I meet with the least bit of interest in China.
 
 "Wild Swans" is the story of three women, the author (a naturalized American citizen whose whose life is the last one chronicled in the book), he mother (a Maoist revolutionary whose life is the the second chronicled in the book), and the author's grandmother (born before the Chinese Revolution, and raised to be a foot-bound concubine of any Imperial aristocrat who would take her).
 
 If these women and the lives they lived sound exotic, and even a bit erotic by Western standards, its because they are. If one were to imagine their life and the lives of one's parents and grandparents juxtaposed against an historical tapestry of revolution, invasion, civil war, and Bob Jones/David Koresh-style cults dictating everything from styles of dress to national policy for generations at a time, then you'll begin to understand and appreciate the women in this book and the incredible lives that they lived.
 
 I haven't read "Wild Swans" in fifteen years, so I'm not going to attempt to describe the highs and lows that these women experienced in detail. Instead, I will offer a bullet-list of things that I can still recall from the book, along with a hearty encouragement for anyone who is interested in surviving what is sure to the the "Chinese Century" to read the book!
 
 * Although it involves a lot of pain, dead skin, and odor, 19th and early-20th Century Chinese men thought foot-binding was sexy.
 * Despite claims to the contrary, the Revolution was still run by a bunch of chauvinist assholes.
 * Mao wasn't gay, but any port in a storm would do.
 * "Landscape paintings" aren't things you hang in your living room; they're what you do to political enemies with a straight razor!
 * Muslims and Republicans don't have a monopoly on chauvinism; try living in a country where parents either murder their female offspring or raise them to be whores!
 * In Maoist China, grass was "bourgeois."
 * During the "Great Leap Forward," China destroyed much of its industrial capacity in the name of building it!
 * It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice! 
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/26469?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Jeff's review
rating:

bookshelves: memoir
recommended for: Anyone, Sinophiles
status: Read in March, 1993

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 to anyone and everyone I meet with the least bit of interest in China.

"Wild Swans" is the story of three women, the author (a naturalized American citizen whose whose life is the last one chronicled in the book), he mother (a Maoist revolutionary whose life is the the second chronicled in the book), and the author's grandmother (born before the Chinese Revolution, and raised to be a foot-bound concubine of any Imperial aristocrat who would take her).

If these women and the lives they l...more 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 to anyone and everyone I meet with the least bit of interest in China.

"Wild Swans" is the story of three women, the author (a naturalized American citizen whose whose life is the last one chronicled in the book), he mother (a Maoist revolutionary whose life is the the second chronicled in the book), and the author's grandmother (born before the Chinese Revolution, and raised to be a foot-bound concubine of any Imperial aristocrat who would take her).

If these women and the lives they lived sound exotic, and even a bit erotic by Western standards, its because they are. If one were to imagine their life and the lives of one's parents and grandparents juxtaposed against an historical tapestry of revolution, invasion, civil war, and Bob Jones/David Koresh-style cults dictating everything from styles of dress to national policy for generations at a time, then you'll begin to understand and appreciate the women in this book and the incredible lives that they lived.

I haven't read "Wild Swans" in fifteen years, so I'm not going to attempt to describe the highs and lows that these women experienced in detail. Instead, I will offer a bullet-list of things that I can still recall from the book, along with a hearty encouragement for anyone who is interested in surviving what is sure to the the "Chinese Century" to read the book!

* Although it involves a lot of pain, dead skin, and odor, 19th and early-20th Century Chinese men thought foot-binding was sexy.
* Despite claims to the contrary, the Revolution was still run by a bunch of chauvinist assholes.
* Mao wasn't gay, but any port in a storm would do.
* "Landscape paintings" aren't things you hang in your living room; they're what you do to political enemies with a straight razor!
* Muslims and Republicans don't have a monopoly on chauvinism; try living in a country where parents either murder their female offspring or raise them to be whores!
* In Maoist China, grass was "bourgeois."
* During the "Great Leap Forward," China destroyed much of its industrial capacity in the name of building it!
* It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice!
...less

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