Jung Chang: Fly, Wild Swans. 2025
Ljudbok (BookBeat)

”At the age of fifteen my grandmother became the concubine of a warlord general . . .” So begins Jung Changs epic family memoir, Wild Swans, which defines a generation. The book ends in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping opened the door of Communist China, and Jungtwenty-six years old and unstoppably curious, despite years of brainwashing seized the propitious moment and became one of the first Chinese to leave the tightly sealed country and come to the West. Fly, Wild Swans chronicles her journey and that of her family, along with that of China, as it rose from a decrepit and isolated state to a world power challenging American dominance.

During those decades, although she lives in the West, Jungs life intertwines with her native land in unexpected ways, a rare relationship made more complex because all her books are banned there. Her family story mirrors the ups and downs of Chinas transformation, right up to today, as it enters another watershed. Chairman Xi Jinpings attempt to return China to the anti-American Maoist past has a devastating impact on Jungs life: She is unable to go to her mothers deathbed.