Essay - Book Review - 'Wild Swans Three Daughters of China' Juan...

Book Review - "Wild Swans Three Daughters of China"

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

The book begins by giving the reader a view and insight into life in Ch*****a in ***** 1920's through the simple device of narrating Chang's gr*****mother's experiences as a concubine to a powerful Chinese w*****rlord and the story of her eventual escape. From the 1920's through to the 1960's, ***** history of early 20th century China ***** Communist ***** under Mao ***** ***** 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.

***** ***** of ***** 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 ***** ***** Maoist China tracing the movement ***** idealistic conviction to disillusionment and finally fear and terror. Chang's ***** parents are seen going through the same curve, beginning ***** firm belief in Mao's ideology and their enjoyment of "power and privilege" to confusion and ***** and finally spiraling downwards to imprisonment.

***** Chang ***** goes through allegiance to Communism before she gets disillusioned after witnessing her p*****nts' degeneration from a position of power to becoming the victims of their own movement. Going on the good old adage that nothing substitutes for 'pers*****al experience, Chang describes The Cultural Revolution and the horrific consequences of Mao's policies ***** excesses such ***** 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 mo*****r struggled to rebuild their lives after ***** father's death; till her departure to England in 1978.

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

Wild ***** is a re*****ding experience in how a ***** can skillfully allow a remote third p*****rty to vicariously live out ***** *****s, hopes and disappointments of people in a f*****r off land w*****h a completely different 'foreign' culture and environment. The author's own stated objective in writing this book was to tell the world how the ***** of China, ***** in particular the women ***** her own family, ''fought tenaciously and courageously against impossible odds."

After reading the book, I would say that Juan Chang has more than met her objective because she has not only *****ld