Review: 'Wild Swans' by Jung Chang

The book ‘Wild Swans’, written by Jung Chang is a passionate biography/autobiography that illustrates the lives of past generations of Chinese men and women. The book explores several key events in China’s history such as the instalment of Mao Zedong as leader of the Communist Party of China and The Great Leap Forward. The book is written in the perspectives of the author’s grandmother, mother and herself. As the author is drawn into the world of communism she starts to question her beliefs as her friends and family are persecuted arbitrarily. This book is unique in that the reader gets to understand what China was like back in the days where Mao had absolute power, in the perspective of someone who has powerful parents, but is still persecuted nonetheless. The story showcases several key ideas, with the most prominent being that even if you’re powerful you can be disposed of. This has been demonstrated several times in the book, with prime examples being the author’s parents, who were high ranking officials in the communist party. This book has made me think about Mao’s rule more critically and negatively. The atrocities committed by him demonstrate that he is more of a dictator then a leader, and even if he helped modernise China the things he has done have also set it back as well. The book ‘Wild Swans’ has a negative depiction of Mao and his work, and illustrates that to Mao, everything besides his own beliefs is inconsequential.  

By Sakar Gurung, 10F.