Wild Swans

A new edition with a new forward by the author. "Wild Swans" tells the
gripping story of how three generations of women in her family fared in
the political maelstrom of China during the 20th century. Chang's grandmother
was a warlord's concubine. Her mother struggled with hardships in the early
days of Mao's revolution and rose to a prominent position in the Communist
Party before being denounced during the Cultural Revolution. Chang herself
marched for Mao until doubt crept in over the excesses of his policies
and purges. Born just a few decades apart, their lives overlap with the
end of the warlords' regime and overthrow of the Japanese occupation, the
Communists to carve up China, and, most poignant for the author, the vicious
cycle of purges orchestrated by Chairman Mao that discredited and crushed
millions of people, including her parents.