Reviews

• 三代に渡る中国人女性の壮大な物語

  祖母、母、本人と三代に渡る中国人女性の壮大な物語。 三人とも、時代の波に翻弄されながらも、必死で自分の人生を生きようとする。 その姿は闘争と言っていいくらいのもので、同じ女であっても私ののほほんとした人生とはまるで違う。 特に本人は幼い頃から毛沢東の政策の中で生きてきて、文革の中で青春時代を過ごす。 歴史を知るためにも、女性たちの生きざまを知る意味でも、価値のある本だと思う。 オススメです。 英語は所々難しい単語はあるものの、言い回しが易しく、表現が分かりやすい。 私は他人の英語をどうこう言えるほど語学力がある訳ではないのだが、それでも、著者の英語は美しいと思う。

• 面白いです

  ワイルドスワンははじめ日本語で読みました。何年も前です。 英語版もアマゾンで買えると知り、注文しました。著者のドラマティックな 人生に圧倒されます。同じ時代を生きているのだと思うと、私も死ぬまで どんなことでも出来ると思えます。

• A Chinese woman's life of ups and downs

  It was a used book but in good condition. I was quite happy about the price and the delivery as well. The story is quite long as the book has about 700 pages. I was gonna finish it in a month but I've been reading this book on and off for about 10 years and still not finished it yet. I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in Chinese history that deeply affected the heroine's life. The old days in communist China were quite surprising and unimaginable to me.

• 中国の近代史（特に文化革命）や共産党，そして大衆コントロールに関する知識を深めるのに貴重な本

  海外永住を決めた著者，そして共産党で重要な役割を担ってきた母親が全面的に協力したからこそ，世に送り出せた本だと思う。中国本土での販売が禁止されているほど，共産党や一部の人にとって都合の悪い事実も述べられている。また，しっかりした英語で書かれており，読みやすい。恐らく著者の夫（イギリス人の歴史学者）が力強くサポートと思われる。 この本の内容について述べると，祖母・母・著者と３代の女性という，ミクロな視点から書かれた本。その方法が中国の近代史や共産党を深く知るのに適した方法の一つであることを実感した。この本を通じて，どこまで自分の信念を貫き，どこで妥協すべきかとかも深く考えさせられた。また，どのように大衆がコントロールされていくか，そしてその時のメディアの働きなどについても知ることができた貴重な本だと思う。 量が多いし，地名・人名等の固有名詞も漢字で理解してから英語を読んだ方がわかりやすいので，日本語の訳本を読んでから，このオリジナルに挑戦するのがおすすめ。

• 体験に基づく中国共産党と中国の歴史

  190円だったので遅まきながら読んでみました。 1920年代の国民党時代の中国から共産党との内戦、毛沢東政権の暗黒時代、そして文化大革命の終焉までを著者自身と母親の体験を基に記しています。 歴史本や外国メデイアのニュースとはかけ離れた想像を絶する凄まじい体験が語られています。多少の伝聞や想像も交じっているのでその部分を割引しても、毛沢東が推進し三千万人を餓死に追いやったとされる大躍進政策や貴重な遺産や知識を破壊した文化大革命がどれほど中国を疲弊させたかが理解できます。 国が大きいだけに、ひとたび踏み外すとその影響も計り知れないものになる、と感じました。 それから余計なことですが、読んでいる途中で購入してから二年以上経ったkindle paparwhiteのソフトが自動バージョンアップしてめっぽう使い勝手が良くなりました。

• ２０世紀中国に関する、中国人作者による手記の代表

  中国の近代・現代史については、中国内外、左や右やら様々な立場の人が色々なポジショントークを行うので、なかなか掴みづらいです。しかも、素晴らしい労作が登場しても、それに対する評価がまちまちで、毀誉褒貶定まらないことも珍しくありません。その中でこれは、多くの関係者が良い本、信頼できる本だとする数少ない本です。内容として、政治や政客について云々することなく、（少なくとも表面的には）筆者とその母、祖母の３人の個人的な経験の描写にだけ徹しているからかもしれません。当時の状況について色々学べるだけではなく、文章もかなり読ませるように書かれているので、お勧めです。 筆者は英語を母語としてはいませんが、しっかりとエディターのチェックが入っており、名文とまでは言えないものの、とても読みやすくできています。量はある程度ありますが、興味がある人が読み出したら、すぐ読み終わってしまうでしょう。

• The ticket to the true North Eastern Asia

  A remarkable number of people have read or heard of Jung Chang’s classic book, “Wild Swans.” A worldwide bestseller, it made a deep impression on Western readers and captured the imagination of people across the globe. “Wild Swans” is a non-fiction work about a Chinese woman, her daughter and granddaughter. The author skillfully weaves a tapestry of recent Chinese history into the narrative, setting the story against a backdrop of the wars, revolutions and social upheaval that China suffered through from the late 19th century through most of the 20th. Drawing upon this history of conflict, Chang asks, “Where is China heading in the 21st century?”—a theme that resonates throughout the book. The main character is a Chinese woman from a rich family, who lived a tragic life during wartime. Through the course of the story, her daughter becomes a communist leader, and her granddaughter immigrates to the UK. These three women represent three generations of Chinese women, and they will take you on a dizzy adventure in modern China, making you wonder about the future of this fascinating country.

• Searching for the soul of Lieu Shaoqi.

  The Wild Swans should be one of the trilogy of the modern history of China. Another two are the Sorrow Mountain by Ani Pachen and the Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng. These era of the Chinese history had been strictly in concealment and covered with severe censorship. This book is a history of a family of three generations and from their points of view, we could watch hear and feel the intolerable horror that had happened everywhere in China. Starving to death, torturing to death and being killed without any reason, everywhere everyday on every people. Now Miss Jung Chan would guide us into the black hole China. Could you keep yourself calm enuogh to read on? For your relief, I would say that a little great man has saved the people from those confusion and made the foundation of prosperity now in China. If the book belongs to you, you may cut it into three pieces. So handy. With woulｄ-like-to-write-like-this english, a little British taste, she had just tried to put on her family history methodically and that made this book the best outstanding and trustworthy gate into the black hole China. Searching for the soul of Lieu Shaoqi.

• Brilliant inside look at history-making events

  For those of us in the West it is difficult to understand what it was really like to live through the Chinese cultural revolution. Was it the oppressive regime our news media portrayed? Or did it liberate women and the working poor? This book provides some answers. Wild Swans is the tale of three generations of Chinese women, starting with a village beauty who has her feet bound to make her more marketable. Thanks to her crushed foot bones she attracts a wealthy suitor who makes her one of his concubines. The next daughter is a brave revolutionary who risks her life to fight the cruelty of the Japanese invaders. She and her husband are loyal communists set on liberating peasants and women from oppression. At first this daughter is rewarded for her loyalty, but the communist party ends up turning on her and her family. In the third generation is the storyteller Jung Chang. Surprisingly her story is the least vivid. Was it harder for the author to bring her own story to life? Even so, this is lucid, insightful and incredibly readable. I am so grateful to the author for giving me Chinese history in such a riveting story. Brilliant reading.

• How did we not know !!

  I was young and politically active during the 60es and 70es, yet I had no idea of what happened in China during those years. This book has moved me a lot, and I can't stop talking about it. And I am truly upset with the intellectual elite of that time who strongly supported the events in China and who saw China as the model for the western world I truly recommend the book to anyone interested in history and how it relates to our world today

• Incredible stories!

  Fascinating read! Don’t be put off by the length, because it goes very quickly. It’s a good mirror of what is happening in the US toady as well.

• Do read it

  Classical great book unraveling a family saga against the backdrop of 1930s-1970s China, featuring beautiful family relations between the author and her mother and grandmother

• Review

  The author was born in 1952 to Chinese Communist revolutionary leaders. In this beautifully written and revealing 1991 biography she traces the lives of her grandmother, her mother and herself through the historical period of warlords, Japanese occupation, rightist armies of Chiang Kai-shek, rise of Communism, Cultural Revolution, and beginnings of modern China. This is a must-read book. I don’t know how I missed it earlier. It is good literature and it is important history. The author has created an intimate and loving portrait of a close-knit family of individuals with strong character and ideals living in a world often dominated by petty and vengeful characters – taken to an extreme of horror under Mao’s malevolent Cultural Revolution. Written in a straightforward, highly observant and detailed style, it creates a powerful history of that period. The theme of surviving in a petty and jealous environment shows up early on. The grandmother grew up with bound feet as her father schemed to marry her to a warlord general. As the warlord’s concubine “wife” she rarely saw him, but bore him a daughter, and was later hounded by jealous other wives and concubines. After his death she married the well-respected Dr. Xia. To escape his jealous family, they moved away with her daughter leaving all his property and money behind. Living simply, they sheltered others in the threatening climate of the Japanese occupation and then the Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-Shek. The mother grew up sensitive and outspoken. Chang carefully sets the stage for her parents’ engagement in Communism, and she delicately paints the picture of her well-educated father’s stubborn adherence to ideals and the difficulties experienced from it. They had five children (the author being second). As Communist values prevailed, the children were sent to live in nurseries, but eventually as elite revolutionary leaders they were allowed to live as a family and for a few years the children had schooling and relative security. But the mother’s past history of helping the wrong people and the father’s defiance brought downfall. Along with millions, they became victims of the Cultural Revolution. Chang provides a detailed account of this horrifying period in history and how the pettiness and jealousy of people was turned into a weapon. Mao’s programs had plunged the country into poverty and famine. Corrective measures taken by other Communist leaders helped end the famine, but then Mao took revenge and solidified his leadership by removing all former party members and arranging for their detention and torture. Gangs of youth (Red Guard) were formed to attack the enemies of the people and ran rampant through the streets. People were encouraged to inform on each other. Family histories were examined for any previous links contrary to Mao. Books were burned, schools were closed, and Mao propaganda was pushed through loudspeakers and reading material. Her parents were imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured. It was largely through her mother’s courage and resourcefulness that the family was held together and able to avoid the worst tortures, navigating through those who would turn on them and those who would help. This is also a story of Jung awakening. She describes herself as an unquestioning follower of Mao, as one of many who saw the leader as almost a god, while being distraught at the events around her. And then she relates how her eyes and mind began to open, to see and to question. To me this book has tremendous value in that it renders in intimate detail what it was like living in China under Mao, recording a history of how people of all classes suffered and died needlessly during his regime. And further, it has the literary value of relating delicate intricacies of living under such a regime and managing to maintain dignity and live one’s values.

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