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  • Wild Swans

  • By: Jung Chang
  • Narrated by: Pik-sen Lim
  • Length: 27 hrs and 15 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (182 ratings)

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Wild Swans

By: Jung Chang
Narrated by: Pik-sen Lim
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Publisher's Summary

Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular best seller and a critically acclaimed history of China that opened up the country to the world.

Through the story of three generations of women in her own family - the grandmother given to the warlord as a concubine, the Communist mother, and the daughter herself - Jung Chang reveals the epic history of China's twentieth century.

Breathtaking in its scope, unforgettable in its descriptions, this is a masterpiece that is extraordinary in every way.

©1991 Copyright © Globalflair Ltd 1991, 2003 (P)2015 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic Reviews

"Immensely moving and unsettling; an unforgettable portrait of the brain-death of a nation." ( The Sunday Times)
" Wild Swans made me feel like a five-year-old. This is a family memoir that has the breadth of the most enduring social history." ( The Independent on Sunday)

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  • Dr
  • 01-04-2018

Not for history buffs

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

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I had just finished reading the historian Frank Dikötter's ‘Mao's Great Famine'. An outstanding diligently produced work, scientifically researched and humanely written.
I was looking for corroborating 'grass-roots' accounts and came across this book and was initially excited at the idea of such an auspicious cross-generational account.
This book is filed in the Amazon store as [#4 in Books > History > Asia > China], [ #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Asia > China] and [ #15 in Books > History > World > Women in History].

In reality, to me this is a 'movie script' with the usual cliché proviso, 'based on real events'.
After enthusiastically launching myself into the book, by the end of the first third I had had enough. This humourless, tedious book obviously bypassing any editorial competency had by then established itself to me as an utterly self-serving contrived account targeted towards a perceived market niche. I forced myself to throw in good-time-after-bad to finish it in the vain hope it would turn eventually get better. It didn't.

The preposterous level of detail of second and third party accounts, not just in actions but in 'what they were thinking and feeling' smacks of a level of embellishment that probably works well in the English Chardonnay-drinking post-modernist scene where anecdotes are inseparable from factual history.

You would probably enjoy this book enormously if you knew nothing about China, its history, people, their past-and-present education systems, their culture or language and always had that fascination with red flags, bicycles and fanatical pictures of Mao (and a penchant for women's magazine articles).

If on the other hand, you were middle-aged, lived and worked and taught there, married into the culture, had a good grasp of the language, had an extended family of in-laws many of whom had lived through this period who were now in their 80's, had spent numerous hours interviewing them, you might be a bit more circumspect in separating detail from spin.

The underlying unlikely self-importance of the writer's family and herself written in a neo-Charles-Dickensian tone, the constant equating of her Chinese life to English cultural and literary clichés is laughable. It almost makes me doubt the authorship. While being careful to portray and translate her and her family's 'model Chinese values' within the context of the madness of the time, the noble monocular interpretation of her accounts (such as that of her father's fanatical stupidity) is a frustrating read, despite understanding her cultural need for filial piety.

The notion of the author, a teenage culturally enlightened red guard 'Scout Finch' ignorant of and isolated from the monstrosity and brutality around her while secretly occupying herself in 'Chekov' and writing poetry (none of which seems to have survived) may go a long way to (shall we say) 'abstract' her from those and the events that happened around her.

As an aside, a Chinese teenager brought up in the fanatical environment of xenophobic Chinese countryside of Sichuan during the 70's passionately reading Chekov is somewhat akin to a 70's teenager from say, the mountains of 'Arkansas' claiming to understand the collected works of 'Li Bai' and then putting that on their CV. Actually, banning Li Bai in advance would be necessary to make it closer to the book.

The problem books such as this that mix embellished anecdotes with known factual general knowledge is that they dilute, cast doubt and get a 'free ride' over the hard-won historical accounts. The painstaking researched accounts and records that belong to humanity and deserve preservation and should instruct and warn humanity never to make the same mistakes. in China's current climate, the re-emergence of isolationism, xenophobia and communist conservatism coupled with tendencies towards nationalist policies, deification of 'Xi think' and massive use of technology for control should indicate that China has 'peaked-out' in its own version of post-Deng 'perestroika' (if there ever was one).

One area avoided at the end of the book which had my curiosity aroused more by its omission than by any expectation of a meaningful account was why and how she 'jumped ship' to stay in the west. Perhaps it might have been hard to fit that into the train of 'idealised events'.

If this book wasn't put forward as so-called history, I wouldn't be as indignant in my review. If a similar book emerged from some turnip-boy escaping a communist backwater of post-war Europe, it would hardly have been held in such high historical regard. But because it’s China, we want to believe almost anything because ‘they are so different’.

If you're only looking for a story, or a 'ripping yarn' I guess this book would be fun. Sort of like 'Memories of a Geisha' or Tony Blair's biography which I once saw a shopper mercifully drag over from the 'biography' section and put on the 'fiction' shelf at an airport bookstore. If on the other hand you're looking for objective accurate researched history and lasting meaningfulness to society, read something by Frank Dikötter instead.

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3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating

This book is very long but flows well as you listen to it. The history described is fascinating and a very interesting, personal insight into the situation over this near 100 year period.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The original tell-all story of 20th century China

I read this book in school 20 years ago, and now I’ve listened to it again. Nothing else I’ve read in between provides such a vivid and personal insight into the turmoil and pain of China’s recent history

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • pk
  • 11-08-2023

Cautionary story about life in extreme ideology

Must read book. Great personal account of how cult of peronlity combined with extreme ideology ruined millions of lives. That should be a school obligatory book to read so people don't make the same mistakes.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Opening the forbidden china

Very interesting. Very intriguing book. Well read
This book opens up a new world to me

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Moving

Great work easy listening very moving book. Amazing strength and determination of the women portrayed in this autobiography. Thought provoking.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Guy
  • 07-07-2021

Fantastic

Really enjoyed the book from a historical and human perspective. I got a greater understanding of China and it’s politics.
Highly recommend.

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Wow! what an eye opener.

This book has really opened my eyes to communist China and it's history. It's absolutely terrifying! A really well written work with a great balance of historical context and story. it's been a few months since I read this and I'm still reflecting. The narration works well also and adds to the vibe.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

How the sculpture knife of the history crafted us

As a Taiwanese, modern Chinese history we received from the school wasn't provide the whole picture as if other nations. However, Wild Swans revealed some missing part and helped me to understand how the past events reformulated the charisma of Chinese, Taiwanese, Hongkongnese and maybe far more then we can image. I have developed a deep sympathy about the aftermath of the cultural revolution, especially how it affects people's personalities. As well as glad we are able to speak and read freely in Taiwan.
This is the book more than history, it is about to gain the basic idea of the people who share a similar cultural root. How we think, react and living life.
Highly recommended.

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Highly recommended read!

I love this book, I have read it previously but the insights in this book always teach me something new.
I went to China after reading this book and I was amazed at how little of the history seemed to be known or at least talked about by the Chinese people I met.

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