Review by Booklist Review
Chang continues the story of her family's life in China which she began in 1991's Wild Swans. After the tumultuous Cultural Revolution ends, Chang moves to Britain to attend university and eventually obtains British citizenship. Chang became a celebrated author of Chinese history, including writing a biography of Mao Zedong which does not conform to Party doctrine. She details her writing process and describes her regular travels back to China for research trips and to visit her family. These trips highlight changes that China experiences as it transitions to a capitalist economy, then moves to a more authoritarian model under Xi Jinping. The spectres of the Cultural Revolution and authoritarianism are still present as Chang experiences suspicion and distrust as her mother and others fear government crackdowns. After Xi is elected, the Chinese government imposes additional restrictions and surveillance on Chang due to her book content, and she greatly regrets that she cannot visit her ailing mother. An enthralling look into modern Chinese history and the impact on a family.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Historian Chang (Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister) parallels China's political upheavals with the evolution of her and her mother's relationship in this powerful memoir. Born in 1952 Yibin to an influential Communist couple who were frequently imprisoned for speaking out against Mao Zedong, Chang won a scholarship to London in 1978 to study Western culture as party leader Deng Xiaoping opened borders and attempted economic reforms. Inspired by her mother's tenacity and willingness to confront CCP officials over her father's 1967 imprisonment, Chang reveled in her newfound freedom, earning a doctorate in linguistics and writing extensively on China's history. Much of the account examines how her work brought Chang closer to, then further away from, her mother: after the success of Chang's 1991 memoir Wild Swans, the two bonded over their shared understanding of China's past and their vision for its future, and as Chang made bombshell discoveries about Mao while writing a 2006 biography of the former chairman, her mother shielded her from blowback. After current president Xi Jinping ramped up censorship, however, in the late 2010s Chang's mother stopped allowing family visits to China to protect Chang from imprisonment. Edifying, heartbreaking, and infuriating, this is tough to shake. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Assoc. (Jan.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Thirty-four years later, a brave Chinese writer continues the family history documented inWild Swans. The 1991 bestsellerWild Swans, with more than 13 million copies sold worldwide, opened eyes to the realities of 20th-century Chinese history through the stories of three generations of the author's family: her grandmother, her mother, and herself. To this day, it remains banned in China. Chang dedicates the sequel to her 94-year-old mother, "whose deathbed I am unable to visit." The grounds for this become clear over the course of the memoir, which jumps from one blood-curdling episode to the next in admirably calm and clear tones. The Cultural Revolution began when the author was 14; the atrocities she witnessed at her school, where honored teachers were beaten, and at denunciation rallies, where both of her parents endured public torture and shaming, helped to ensure that when she left to study in England in 1978, she would never make her home in China again. After her marriage to the historian Jon Halliday, the pair co-authored a biography of Mao that boldly challenged beliefs about him in both the East and the West. As she was writing, "I was conscious that I was writing about true evil," a signal example being the intentionality of the policies that led to the Great Famine of 1958-1961, which killed nearly 38 million people. Simultaneously banning food imports and increasing exports on an "unimaginable" scale, Mao calmly noted, "With all these projects, half of China may well have to die." While the worldwide popularity ofWild Swans made Chang enough of an international celebrity to keep the Chinese government from taking extreme measures against her (say, throwing her in jail after issuing her a visa to visit her mother), surveillance and restriction increased continually since she was told in 2007 to "renounce your book or else," ultimately preventing her from entering the country at all. Her mother's steadfast support, wisdom, and insight into the perverse machinations of the Communist Party and its representatives shine like a beacon throughout. An essential, unexpectedly relevant account of a people divided and turned against themselves by politics. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
