Books by Jung Chang

On this last Friday of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2026, things are not going quite as planned.

I mentioned one category that I still needed to get to last week, but I did not say that it consists of books about complex parent-child relationships. Predictably, the material has gotten complicated.

However, two of the books ended up being more about history:

Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China 

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

Both are by Jung Chang 

When writing about my undergraduate degree, and the history aspect, I generally focus on African Americans in the American West. That was my seminar, so where I had more knowledge going and and doing a deeper level of research. The runner-up is history of China (followed by England and Ancient Rome). I took a whole year's worth of 300-level courses. 

Chung's books covered material that was familiar (thought it had been a while) and added a lot more, with clarity, organization, and fascination. 

In Wild Swans, Chung writes the story of her grandmother, her mother, and herself, with lives spanning the end of the Manchu Empire, Japanese occupation, the start of the Republic, the coming of Communism, and the various stages of that, ending with movement toward modernization. 

In a different family dynamic, Big Sister covers the Soong sisters, whom -- through their own influence, wealth and marriages (including Red Sister to Sun-Yat Sen and Little Sister to Chiang Kai-Shek) were intimately involved with China's journey through those same stages. 

Sometimes relationships get complicated, but nothing complicates their lives as much as those changes, especially under Mao. 

I found both of the books very interesting. I look forward to reading Chang's other books, one on Cixi and one on Mao Zedong.

I want to focus on one aspect of Wild Swans.

Chang was a teenager who started with an adoration of Mao, encouraged by a cult of personality. Even as disillusionment came on, it was hard to let go of that attachment and question the revolution itself.

One of the key means of control was turning people against each other. Ostensibly this was to weed out enemies of the state, but it was often used by people to resolve petty grievances and jealousy. 

Even if it was not always obvious how the spite benefited Mao, there were always plenty of examples of spite.

There were also people who tried hard to maintain their integrity -- Chung's father was a tragic example -- and people who remained affectionate and kind.

With one couple, noting their kindness and happiness, Chang concluded that happy people were kind.

I don't think she got it quite right, perhaps not surprising for a teenage girl. 

I think happiness can help one be kind and kindness can help people be happy. 

Kindness can also break your heart. Caring -- especially under such terrible times -- leaves you open to pain.

Being tortured brought on schizophrenia in her father, that had to be treated with insulin shock and electroshock therapy. There were suicides driven by fear and despair. People suffered nervous breakdowns and physical injuries (as well as nutritional deprivation) that affected their health for the rest of their lives.

I just mention it because I think there are lessons for our time about the problems of corruption and the dangers of personality cults and how communism and fascism are equally susceptible to authoritarianism.

Maybe the most important lesson, though, is how much suffering can be caused by petty spite.