Wild Swans:
Three Daughters of China
Published 2003
By Jung Chang
Chang takes the reader inside China in this account of three generations of her family living in 20th Century China. Beginning in a feudal state ruled by warlords, her family experiences the arrival of Communism, the disastrous Cultural Revolution and its aftermath. With her sharp eye for human character and societal norms, Chang shows how Communism destroyed the traditional Confucian culture of her country, turning the young against the old, students against teachers. The consequence was the development of a grotesque new society in which family, friends and associates were turned into enemies who could turn on you and ruin your life.