| Plot Summary of Wild Swans |
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"This inspiring biography tells the story of three daughters of China and their struggle and survival against Communism in China.
Beginning in the early 1900's and ending in 1978, it chronicles the endless struggle of China as a nation to find it's place in the world, the countless suffering of its people and the evil and terror that reigned and almost destroyed the nation.
From concubines, to the Japanese invasion, to the Red Guards of China, from denunciation meetings, gulags, humiliation, poverty and disease, there is also a theme of loyalty and love."
Brigitte Jocubeit, Resident Scholar
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"Wild Swans is a biography that follows the life of three different people. It starts off with the grandma of the author who is sold as a prostitute in order to escape the rigors of peasantry. She hates life and eventually escapes with her child. After marrying a wealthy doctor, she continues her life and raises her child. Her child is a happy girl who grows up for the most part normal until she starts getting into politics. She joins up with the Kuomintang party until the communists beat them out. Then she marries a "good" communist who puts the party before her.
He forces her to go on a march while, she was pregnant, of 1,000 miles. When the trip ended, she had a miscarriage and had doubts about whether she loved her new husband. As life went on, she became part of the communist party also. Life was good.
Several years later, she had a daughter named Jung Chang (the author of the book). She grew up through many of the hardest years of China. From the day she started school until she was about 16 years old, she was hardcore communist. She did however have doubts about certain things. First of all, her favorite teachers at school were being accused has having rightest views and were beaten nearly to death. Also, her father and mother were tortured into insanity because they held true to the original communist beliefs.
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Jeff Geddes, Resident Scholar
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