Wild Swans: Three Generations of Women in Mao's China

Overview of Wild Swans and Its Three-Generation Structure

Wild Swans is the story of three generations of women in China in the twentieth century. The author is Jung Chang: her autobiography comprises the final third of the book, while the first two sections are devoted to the stories of her grandmother Yu-Fang and her mother Bao Qin. Rather than writing a straightforward autobiography, Chang chose to begin her story two generations back—the purpose being to provide not only personal historical context but also a sense of the cultural and historical context in which her family came into being. By opening with the statement that her grandmother "became the concubine of a warlord general" at the age of fifteen, Chang immediately gives her story a sweeping, grand epic backdrop: she is no mere commoner of humble origins but rather a figure whose family stood at the very heart of the swirling chaos that was China in the first half of the twentieth century.

By situating her book in the past, Chang allows her story to breathe, to come to life, and to focus on the real events that represented three distinct periods in China's history—the pre-Mao period, the Mao period, and the post-Mao period. Mao Zedong had such an enormous impact on China, its culture, and its people that the beauty of Chang's book lies in the long view it offers: the China that immediately preceded Mao's rise, the China ruled by Mao, and the China that emerged following his death. Though the story eventually leads the reader westward—to England, where Chang received a scholarship to study—the book presents three very distinct visions of a China undergoing considerable transformation. The women of Chang's story—Yu-Fang, Bao Qin, and Chang herself—embody those changes in their very persons and experiences.

Including the mother and the grandmother also fundamentally changes the nature of the book. What might otherwise have been a straightforward autobiography is made more compelling by the inclusion of these earlier stories. They provide a sense of place and of history that would not otherwise have been possible, and they also lend the book a majestic quality. Chang demonstrates that the story is not hers alone but rather a story of womanhood, a story of China, and an intimate story of her family. Including these earlier generations also allows the book to focus on the revolutions that defined the spirit of twentieth-century China, with each woman experiencing those upheavals in a unique way that illuminates a different side of the much larger story unfolding in the East.

Revolution Through the Eyes of Each Woman

The revolutions were played out within the family in a number of ways. For Yu-Fang, revolution swirled all around her as a young girl. Her family was from Manchuria, and her father—Chang's great-grandfather—had been a police official. But with the old institutions collapsing, as Chang describes, an intense power vacuum formed that was filled by regional warlords. They represented authority—a kind of power that the hastily established republican government had attempted and failed to project on its own. With the overthrow of the child emperor in 1911, the land was ripe for the taking, and the warlords took it. As a police official, Chang's great-grandfather had limited influence in society, but he had connections, and his connection with the warlord to whom he offered his daughter as a concubine proved pivotal: from that union would come the seed of the next generation—Chang's mother, and ultimately Chang herself. Thus, Yu-Fang was shaped by the early stages of revolution.

Her daughter would be shaped by the middle stages. As a worker for the Communist Party of China and for Mao's Red Army, Bao Qin was fully immersed in the world of the Revolution. She rose through the ranks and met Wang Yu, Chang's father. After suffering a miscarriage brought on by the grueling conditions under which she was forced to relocate following a transfer, Wang Yu became more considerate of his wife even as the Revolution pressed on with its often inhumane approach to remaking China—particularly through the Cultural Revolution, which Chang herself experienced as a teenager.

Chang was thus shaped by the Revolution as it fomented a disturbing spirit of cruelty. She had joined the Red Guards but was shocked by the brutality of her peers. Her own father was critical of Mao and suffered persecution as a result. In this way, Chang witnessed the full effects of the Revolution come full circle, as it began to consume itself and turn into a caricature of a real society—with everyone performing their part, acting out their love for Mao and mistaking their grief for him upon his death as genuine feeling.

Personal Reflection on the Red Guards and Trauma

While Chang willingly joined the Red Guards, it is difficult to say with confidence that I could have done the same—though it is hard to place myself truly in that situation. Looking back with the knowledge of what the Guards became makes it easy to say no. But had I been Chang's age, unaware of the shocking brutality to come, I myself probably would have joined willingly, eager to demonstrate devotion to the Revolution. When you are young and living inside that world, it is one thing; when you are removed from it by decades of time and distance, you look at it through entirely different eyes. Yet, as a young teenager in those circumstances, who can really know? I may well have joined—but, hopefully, like Chang, I would eventually have seen the tragedy of it all.

Coping with tragedy and trauma is not easy. Trauma unquestionably shapes a person: you carry it with you, and it can manifest in serious ways, including conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder. It does not matter who you are—trauma can affect everyone differently. Gender, age, and social status may all be variables that help a person cope, but many other factors are also at play, including whether a person has a support system capable of helping them process and work through the experience.

For Chang, dealing with the trauma of the Red Guards and experiencing a gradual disillusionment—as her father was persecuted for his beliefs and his criticism of the barbaric manner in which Mao governed—allowed her to process more deeply the sweeping changes occurring in her country and, in a more intimate way, within herself. Mao sought to recreate life in China according to his own Romantic-Revolutionary vision, with little regard for life as it actually and naturally is. Chang began to perceive this contrast, and it awakened her to the reality of the terrible experiment her country was enduring.

Works Cited

Chang, Jung. Wild Swans. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1991.