Kindle
$16.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$31.34
Paperback
$12.99
Buy new:
-41% $12.99
FREE delivery Thursday, May 16 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$12.99 with 41 percent savings
List Price: $22.00

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Thursday, May 16 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 8 hrs 10 mins
In Stock
$$12.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$12.99
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day easy returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$7.16
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Shows signs of wear. Jacket may be torn, cover may have creases, pages have some writing and highlighting. May have some water damage. May be a former library book. Ships direct from Amazon! Shows signs of wear. Jacket may be torn, cover may have creases, pages have some writing and highlighting. May have some water damage. May be a former library book. Ships direct from Amazon! See less
FREE delivery Monday, May 20 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$12.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$12.99
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Jung Chang
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China Paperback – August 12, 2003

by Jung Chang (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 9,340 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$12.99","priceAmount":12.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"12","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"MdGvAkAANCVeoeJkA5AeoYkUlNVNAtg%2BXnH%2FhhSGwP42QgF4dXp9yedkz8EvwUn%2BmZ617repMcMDbEuJF2e8sT69c1Kc%2FVGibGzgA0mo1eSnOoNVKtgRE%2FgAcNtEvPWm89F0MYHXfM4%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$7.16","priceAmount":7.16,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"7","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"16","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"MdGvAkAANCVeoeJkA5AeoYkUlNVNAtg%2BWvfgO6rbXvSKo6wslx2%2BoTMI%2BauGgIeizvgaeDHRuIRQ8SQxTwwMP1pKu7ZHo%2FRQQR4igA36Ui1qk%2B6h57kGGGQ99imvZrylV11WptIrTjWlzett0aTUlNGtZ%2BDYHA04KxM5Omb9wIaSGqPVMvYDSA%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

The story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history—a bestselling classic in thirty languages with more than ten million copies sold around the world, now with a new introduction from the author.

An engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents’ experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution.

Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a “barefoot doctor,” a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving—and ultimately uplifting—detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    538 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    August 12, 2003
  4. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1.5 x 8.44 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0743246985
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0743246989
  7. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now

Frequently bought together

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
$12.99
Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Mao: The Unknown Story
$16.74
Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Empress Dowager Cixi
$23.78
Get it as soon as Friday, May 17
Only 2 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by Prime Deals, USA and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.
Popular Highlights in this book
What are popular highlights?
Previous page
  1. The whole nation slid into doublespeak. Words became divorced from reality, responsibility, and people’s real thoughts. Lies were told with ease because words had lost their meanings—and had ceased to be taken seriously by others.
    Highlighted by 637 Kindle readers
  2. The need to obtain authorization for an unspecified ‘anything’ was to become a fundamental element in Chinese Communist rule. It also meant that people learned not to take any action on their own initiative.
    Highlighted by 634 Kindle readers
  3. He understood ugly human instincts such as envy and resentment, and knew how to mobilize them for his ends. He ruled by getting people to hate each other. In doing so, he got ordinary Chinese to carry out many of the tasks undertaken in other dictatorships by professional elites. Mao had managed to turn the people into the ultimate weapon of dictatorship.
    Highlighted by 513 Kindle readers
Next page

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wild Swans is riveting. It's blindingly good: a mad adventure story, a fairy tale of courage, and a tale of atrocities. You can't, as they say, put it down." ― Newsday

"Her family chronicle resembles a popular novel that stars strong, beautiful women and provides cameo roles for famous men....But Wild Swans is no romance. It's a story...about the survival of a Chinese family through a century of disaster." ― The New Yorker

"A mesmerizing memoir." ― Time

"An inspiring tale of women who survived every kind of hardship, deprivation and political upheaval with their humanity intact." --Hillary Clinton, O, The Oprah Magazine

"An inspiring tale of women who survived every kind of hardship, deprivation and political upheaval with their humanity intact." ― Hillary Clinton, O, The Oprah Magazine

About the Author

Jung Chang was born in Yibin, Sichuan Province, China, in 1952. She left China for Britain in 1978 and obtained a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of York in 1982, the first person from the People’s Republic of China to receive a doctorate from a British university. She lives in London with her husband, Jon Halliday, with whom she wrote Mao: The Unknown Story.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (August 12, 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 538 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0743246985
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0743246989
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.5 x 8.44 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 9,340 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Jung Chang

Jung Chang

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Jung Chang (simplified Chinese: 张戎; traditional Chinese: 張戎; pinyin: Zhāng Róng; Wade–Giles: Chang Jung, Mandarin pronunciation: [tʂɑ́ŋ ɻʊ̌ŋ], born 25 March 1952) is a Chinese-born British writer now living in London, best known for her family autobiography Wild Swans, selling over 10 million copies worldwide but banned in the People's Republic of China.

Her 832-page biography of Mao Zedong, Mao: The Unknown Story, written with her husband, the Irish historian Jon Halliday, was published in June 2005.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Guy Aitchison from London, UK (Names not numbers Uploaded by Snowmanradio) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
9,340 global ratings
I really enjoyed her book
5 Stars
I really enjoyed her book
I read this banned book while traveling in China. It leant important perspective to the development of the "New China". I really enjoyed her book.
Hide
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

standardpoodlesrock
5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful read
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2024
Verified Purchase
Wild Swans is an excellent way to see what three generations of women in China had to endure. Well-written and engaging. Character development was excellent giving the reader a chance to share an assortment of feelings with each daughter.
Helpful
 Report
Litr8r
5.0 out of 5 stars For Real, Chinese Desperate Housewives!
Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2008
Verified Purchase
Irony, hypocrisy, suffering, famine, a multitude of tragedy, and a touch of insanity. No, it's not Desperate Housewives re-runs--it's Jung Chang's Wild Swans. The only thing missing is sex, and the reason why is of course a story in itself. If you're looking to kick-off your China reading experience with an essential novel, Wild Swans is for you. First published in Britain in 1991, the novel provides an eye-opening look at China's cultural history between 1900 and 1990 so truthful and thorough that censors have not yet approved it for publication in its original form in mainland China. That alone should make you want to pick up a copy.

In seeking to ameliorate the past and to make sense of her life, Chang delves into her family history, providing a brutally honest portrait of three generations of women. What is truly amazing about Chang's family chronicles are the wealth of hardships Chinese women have had to endure.

The book begins in the early 1900s, with her grandmother's (Yu Fang's) marriage at age 15 to a warlord general. She battled bound feet, loneliness, and the challenges of managing her reputation against conniving servants while isolated in a gilded prison awaiting a husband who might show up for only a few days or a week, once in six years. Once she was required to reside with the general's wife and other concubines, her and her daughter's--Bao Qin's--fates were in the hands of the first wife. Yu Fang had to struggle through the pecking order of the household's women. The details of the customs and rituals of well-to-do lives are quite interesting. Her second marriage was as the second wife of a well-regarded Manchu doctor. He re-names Bao Qin as De Hong, meaning wild swan of virtue.

De Hong, Chang's mother, grew up during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, during the 1930s and 1940s. She refused to marry a man she did not love and could not respect, so she left home to study at a teacher's college, where she developed communist sympathies. In stark contrast to the pomp and circumstance of her mother's arranged marriage, De Hong had to apply to the party for approval to marry a fellow communist in a binding that didn't even include a real ceremony and had minimal refreshments. They had no honeymoon, but returned to work. De Hong endured terrible emotional and sometimes cruel physical hardship as a result of her husband's party ideals and ambitions. Though she eventually had four children, she was tragically required to give all her time and attention to the party, which persecuted her despite her loyalty. Becoming a communist, she noted, was an "agonizing process." De Hong had little choice but to suffer in silence, as leaving the party would cause her family terrible problems and complaining would bring its own share of woe. Eventually her husband was unfairly and illogically destroyed and betrayed by the system he worked so hard to help create.

Jung, born in 1952, grew up with the privileges of party officers' children. But these privileges brought with them contradictions, confusion, and emotional challenges. Jung attempts to survive, fulfill her dreams, and make sense of the destruction of the topsy-turvy world of the Cultural Revolution and still emerge with something to live for.
When the schools are closed in 1966, Jung is sent into the countryside to learn how to be a peasant. While there, she is assigned work as a doctor and later an electrician--without any training, she was expected to learn by doing. Her first love is destroyed by revolutionary ideals. Despite her lack of formal education, Jung is accepted into university in 1973 to study the English language. Oddly, after university, students were not given degrees and were supposed to return to whatever jobs they had previously held! Her mother's guanxi helps Jung to secure a job for which she was far better suited--a teacher. As time goes on, she grows more disillusioned with the government and its leader and begins to question all that she has been taught to think all her life. After Mao's death, she enters an academic competition for which the prize is funding to study in the West. In 1978, she goes to London to get a Ph.D., where she remains teaching and writing to this day. A "wild" life, indeed.

Having completed making peace with family history by writing Wild Swans, Chang's next project was of course her myth-busting biography of Mao, published in 2005.
24 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Phyllis L. Schneider
4.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive history of pre-Red China and Red China.
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2024
Verified Purchase
True story that reads like a novel... The descriptions of Mao remind me so much of a couple of current political leaders... The book is fascinating...and, sometimes, horrifying.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Baseball Fan
5.0 out of 5 stars A View into China's Fascinating, but Tumultuous History.
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2011
Verified Purchase
"Wild Swans", by Jung Chang, is a sophisticated and substantive biographical-historical novel about life and events in China during 1909-1978. The story centers on Chang's parents' lives, her own life, and those of her siblings; and it is told against the backdrop of significant historical events: the Sino-Japanese war, the Russian occupation of China, Koumintang rule (under Chiang Kai-shek), the civil war between the Koumintang and the Communists, The Long March, and Communist rule (under Mao Tse-tung). Chang indicates that the names of the public figures as well as the members of her family are real; but the names of other figures have been changed. [Note: Speaking of names, Chang's older sister's name is Xiao-hong---`hong' means `Wild Swan'. Also, Chang's birth name is Er-hong which means `2nd Wild Swan'. They also have three younger brothers named, Jin-ming, Xiao-hei, and Xiao-fang].

According the Chang, during each of aforementioned periods the `rulers' committed numerous atrocities against the Chinese people. The Japanese were extremely cruel, particularly, to the Manchurians, relegated them to second class status, and committed numerous acts of torture. When the Japanese were eventually ousted, the Russians came in and committed many inhumane acts against the Chinese people. Under Koumintang rule, many Chinese were punished and executed. However, according to Chang, none of the aforementioned cruelties compared to the disaster created by Mao Tse-tung and his reckless policies---Chang describes Mao Tse-tung as a tyrant and a cult leader who suffered from delusions of grandeur, had no regard for human life, and was totally ignorant regarding economic policy.

More specifically, according to Chang, Mao's "Great Leap Forward" (which required the entire population, including farmers, to devote their efforts to making steel) led to a great famine which resulted in the deaths of some 30 million people. As a result of the disastrous famine Mao relinquished his position as President of China to Liu Shaoqi, and assumed a lower profile. However, Mao retained the more powerful position of Chairman of China's Communist Party and was still China's supreme leader. Once the famine was over, and under the more pragmatic leadership of Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping (general secretary), both the economy and the society became more liberal. According to Chang, Mao was unhappy with this approach---he wanted the Chinese to live a life based on conflict, struggle and violence, not harmony.

Mao began a comeback by promoting his own deification (e.g., issuing propaganda and slogans that glorified himself, further regimenting the population, encouraging people to spy on one another, mandating public self-criticism and denunciation of others, etc.). Then Mao launched the disastrous Cultural Revolution. According to Chang, the Cultural Revolution was essentially a `witch-hunt' and a `reign of terror' carried out (against teachers, intellectuals, `rightists', the `bourgeoisie', Kuomintang sympathizers, and ultimately Communist Party officials) by millions of Red Guards. The Red Guards were essentially teenagers (who typically were children of officials) and kids in their early twenties (who generally were not children of officials). All member of the Red Guard routinely carried copies of Mao's "Little Red Book' which contained slogans that deified Mao. The Red Guards were directed by the Cultural Revolution Authority led by Mao's wife, Chiang Ching. The Cultural Revolution and the Red Guards wreaked havoc on the Chinese society---they persecuted numerous people, conducting `home raids' at will. Mao's reason for launching the Cultural Revolution was to ultimately remove President Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping and to completely revamp China's Communist Party. The Cultural Revolution went on from 1966 to 1976, when Mao died. According to Chang, Mao was a cult leader who desired absolute power and control, "both on earth and in heaven."

I was extremely impressed with this work. The book provides deep insight into China's fascinating, but tumultuous history. Chang's presentation is sophisticated, and the material is substantive. She adeptly uses words to `paint a picture' in order to familiarize the reader with the intimate thoughts, feelings, and experiences of the individual characters, and skillfully interweaves the characters' lives with important historical events, thereby bringing these events to life. I was most surprised to learn the extent of Mao's disastrous policies, and the extent of control that he exercised over the Chinese people, including their innermost thoughts. Although I had previously read about the Red Guards in the newspapers, I hadn't previously understood Mao's motives for unleashing such devastation against his own people, or why they would have continued to support him.
10 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

jchebb
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and riveting from the first to last page
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 21, 2024
Verified Purchase
An intimate and humbling telling of a generational story of a remarkable family
Report
GLima
5.0 out of 5 stars Efficient delivery
Reviewed in Germany on October 7, 2023
Verified Purchase
Good book
Report
elaine scott
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good book
Reviewed in Spain on June 23, 2023
Verified Purchase
Very good book. An eye ooener
Report
Marilyn
5.0 out of 5 stars Very mportant book. China in 1967 is the US today
Reviewed in Canada on February 22, 2021
Verified Purchase
I got this book almost a year ago, from the library, at the beginning of the Covid Lockdown. Reading about what people went through, in China during their so called Cultural Revolution, before and after, and all the flip flops mandated by society and government, I was stunned to see the parallels as to what is happening today, that the US and other western countries are repeating these - sanctioned - criminal acts. This story - and it is not fiction - is a must read. Well written, compassionate.
4 people found this helpful
 Report
SANDRINE
5.0 out of 5 stars If you want to know more about China, you must read this book!
Reviewed in Mexico on January 5, 2021
Verified Purchase
I enjoyed this book so much that I have given it to a number of friends and went on reading more books from the same author. It is a great historical saga that covers three generations of the author’s family. You learn so much about China, a good base for a better understanding of what is happening today.
Report