'Fly, Wild Swans' is Jung Chang's painfully personal tribute to her mother
NPR • • world
Key Points:
- Jung Chang, a London-based historian of modern China, explores her personal history and career in her new book, Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China, serving as a sequel to her 1991 bestseller Wild Swans.
- The book focuses on Chang's relationship with her nonagenarian mother and details the hardships her family endured during China's Cultural Revolution, as well as the increasing restrictions and surveillance Chang faced while conducting research in China.
- Chang expresses remorse for the risks her work has posed to her loved ones in China, especially her mother, who has endangered her own safety to support Chang's career abroad.
- Fly, Wild Swans blends memoir, journalism, and history, offering insights into elite Chinese politics, Communist history
