Juan Chang's Wild Swans: three generations of Chinese women

¶ … Wild Swans Three Daughters of China

Juan Chang's Wild Swans Three Daughters of China is a delightful combination of a historical epic of China from 1924 to 1978 and a novel that unfolds the story of 'Three Daughters' (Juan Chang herself, her mother and maternal grandmother) within that same historical period.

The book begins by giving the reader a view and insight into life in China in the 1920's through the simple device of narrating Chang's grandmother's experiences as a concubine to a powerful Chinese warlord and the story of her eventual escape. From the 1920's through to the 1960's, the history of early 20th century China and Communist China under Mao unfolds as Chang continues on her quest to chronicle the life and times of three generations of her own family. The 1940's, 50's and 60's act as a setting to the life story of Chang's mother.

The story of Chang's mother and her involvement, along with her husband's, with the communist movement in China gives the reader a vivid look at the life and times of Maoist China tracing the movement from idealistic conviction to disillusionment and finally fear and terror. Chang's own parents are seen going through the same curve, beginning with firm belief in Mao's ideology and their enjoyment of "power and privilege" to confusion and fear and finally spiraling downwards to imprisonment.

Juan Chang herself goes through allegiance to Communism before she gets disillusioned after witnessing her parents' degeneration from a position of power to becoming the victims of their own movement. Going on the good old adage that nothing substitutes for 'personal experience, Chang describes The Cultural Revolution and the horrific consequences of Mao's policies and excesses such as his vicious purges in the 1970's through recounting her own personal and painful experiences with the Red Guards; her forced stints as a farm and factory worker; the odds against which she and her mother struggled to rebuild their lives after her father's death; till her departure to England in 1978.

Three eras of Chinese history depicted through the day-to-day experiences of three generations of women within one family is what makes Wild Swans such a compelling read. Although Juan Chang's style of prose is rather restrained, it only serves to add starkness and poignancy to the lives of those who lived through the troubled and turbulent times that she recounts in her book.