Wild Swans

Three Daughters of China

Jung Chang

• Publisher: William Collins
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9780007441860
• eBook ISBN:
  9780007379873
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

OVER 13M COPIES SOLD – THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING PHENOMENON – NUMBER 8 ON SUNDAY TIMES BEST OF THE BESTSELLER LIST

Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular bestseller which has sold more than 13 million copies and a critically acclaimed history of China; a tragic tale of nightmarish cruelty and an uplifting story of bravery and survival.

Through the story of three generations of women in her own family – the grandmother given to the warlord as a concubine, the Communist mother and the daughter herself – Jung Chang reveals the epic history of China's twentieth century.

Breathtaking in its scope, unforgettable in its descriptions, this is a masterpiece which is extraordinary in every way.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Praise
• Dedication
• Contents
• Family Tree
• Chronology
• Author’s Note
• Map
• 1 ‘Three-Inch Golden Lilies’
• 2 ‘Even Plain Cold Water Is Sweet’
• 3 ‘They All Say What a Happy Place Manchukuo Is’
• 4 ‘Slaves Who Have No Country of Your Own’
• 5 ‘Daughter for Sale for 10 Kilos of Rice’
• 6 ‘Talking about Love’
• 7 ‘Going through the Five Mountain Passes’
• 8 ‘Returning Home Robed in Embroidered Silk’
• Plates Section 1
• 9 ‘When a Man Gets Power, Even His Chickens and Dogs Rise to Heaven’
• 10 ‘Suffering Will Make You a Better Communist’
• 11 ‘After the Anti-Rightist Campaign No One Opens Their Mouth’
• 12 ‘Capable Women Can Make a Meal without Food’
• 13 ‘Thousand-Gold Little Precious’
• 14 ‘Father Is Close, Mother Is Close, but Neither Is as Close as Chairman Mao’
• 15 ‘Destroy First, and Construction Will Look After Itself’
• 16 ‘Soar to Heaven, and Pierce the Earth’
• 17 ‘Do You Want Our Children to Become “Blacks”?’
• 18 ‘More Than Gigantic Wonderful News’
• 19 ‘Where There Is a Will to Condemn, There Is Evidence’
• 20 ‘I Will Not Sell My Soul’
• Plates Section 2
• 21 ‘Giving Charcoal in Snow’
• 22 ‘Thought Reform through Labour’
• 23 ‘The More Books You Read, the More Stupid You Become’
• 24 ‘Please Accept My Apologies That Come a Lifetime Too Late’
• 25 ‘The Fragrance of Sweet Wind’
• 26 ‘Sniffing after Foreigners’ Farts and Calling Them Sweet’
• 27 ‘If This Is Paradise, What Then Is Hell?’
• 28 ‘Fighting to Take Wing’
• Epilogue
• Afterword
• Index
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• About the Publisher