A riveting, true story out of China
A friend of mine suggested “Wild Swans” (Simon & Schuster, Reprint Edition, 2003, 538 pages) and to say it did not disappoint would be an understatement. This family history is written by Jung Chang, who recounts the lives of her grandmother, mother and finally herself.
Taking place in 20th century China, this historical novel blends memoir and biography as it lays out the story of three generations during that turbulent time. The grandmother, Yu-Fang, lived during that last era of China before the onset of Communism. Yu-Fang had bound feet and was one of several concubines to a warlord general, Xue Zhi-heng.
Chang explains how at that time, both would have been an advantageous move for Yu-Fang’s social stability. The horrendous practice of feet-binding fortunately came to an end for subsequent generations; but during Yu-Fang’s childhood, it was a mother’s duty to bind her daughter’s feet, a continual process of tightly wrapping and ironing bandages on to keep the feet fashionably tiny. Sadly, if a woman were to grow up with normal feet, she would suffer harsh and extreme social consequences.
While being a concubine to our minds may sound miserable, for Yu-Fang it provided a boost in social status as well as a good quality of life. Although it was a decent move for a girl with a poor background, it was by no means a bed of roses. The lifestyle was fraught with loneliness, depression and fear of jealousy from the general’s wife and betrayal from the servants who wielded much power as the eyes and ears of the household.
Eventually Yu-Fang is able to make a home for herself and her daughter, Bao Qin. There her daughter grows up in a pivotal time, when the Chinese Civil War comes to an end with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) victorious over the Kuomintang government. By the age of fifteen, Bao Qin is working for the CCP and is passionate for the changes they promise. This historical novel shows clearly how those promises would end up being empty and how the CCP would become an inflictor of horror and tragedy for its citizens. However, there is much sympathy for people, especially women like Bao Qin, who watched the injustices her mother suffered and the lack of dignity with which she was treated, simply for being a woman. Sadly, the CCP would ultimately not do any better.
Bao Qin would climb the ladder in the CCP due to her diligent work in the Communist Revolution and there she met a high-ranking official, Wang Yu. They fell in love, got married, and he became the father of Jung Chang and her four siblings. As is expected in a Communist regime, family life is drastically subordinate to the state and choice is mostly an illusion. Both of Chang’s parents chose to continue working in the CCP — though quitting or decreasing hours to devote to childrearing never would have been an option. Because of this, the children’s grandmother, Yu-Fang, became a primary caretaker when they were not in school.
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When Chang was a teenager, Mao’s Cultural Revolution began. The personality cult around Mao was in full force for Chang and her peers. All of them were raised and brainwashed to consider him an omnipotent, benevolent, untouchable god-figure. Even in the secrecy of her ownvthoughts, Chang explains how questioning Mao’s intentions and goodness was a blasphemy and how it took time, and a lot of cruel bloodshed to witness, for her to do so.
Chang joined the Red Guards, a student-led, national movement encouraged by Mao to further the Revolution. All the “Kuomintang-traitors” must be hunted down and the capitalists eliminated from society. But in a Communist state where everyone is Communist, finding a new bourgeois was a wild goose chase. The Cultural Revolution was a horrific time, where much of Chinese art, literature and historical artifacts were destroyed and the owners were tortured and imprisoned.
In their search for “capitalist-roaders,” the Red Guards roamed with an iron fist, accusing neighbors, family and strangers of treason over the slightest comment or unfortunate distant bloodline. People lived in constant fear and would many times be beaten to death or abused for no reason.
The Cultural Revolution didn’t follow any logic and was filled with contradictions, since it never was for the people and only for the indulgence of Mao and his CCP cronies. Because of this, many of the CCP officials who had devoted their lives to the Communist Revolution came under fire and were tortured, executed or banished to work camps. Chang’s family experienced much of this, all under the guise of “re-education.”
Fortunately, Mao’s reign of terror would come to an end. Chang’s autobiographical portion of this novel gives fascinating insight into the miserable mental state Chinese people were in. Much of that is due to the fact that Chang had started in the Cultural Revolution as a well-favored Red Guard due to the high-ranking of boonth her parents, but ended up a victim who suffered greatly.
All in all, this story will have you on the edge of your seat. But more than just thrilling, this story provides priceless perspective and commentary on the realities of Communism and the resiliency of human nature.
(Anna Barren is a teacher and a lifelong lover of books. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
