The Sinica Ultimate China Bookshelf Tackles a Big Beast….Wild Swans…

Book #49 in the Sinica Ultimate China Bookshelf is now up on the Sinica Substack… Jung Chang’s Wild Swans (1991).

A massive international best-seller detailing three generations of Chinese women in twentieth-century China — Chang’s grandmother, mother, and finally herself. Chang paints a portrait of the political and military turmoil of China in this period, from the marriage of her grandmother to a warlord (薛之珩 Xuē Zhīhéng), then her own mother’s experience of Japanese-occupied Jinzhou, and finally her own experiences of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Wild Swans has been translated into 38 languages and sold well over 20 million copies. It is reportedly banned in mainland China.