History Literature / WildSwans

* NumericalThemeNaming: Her great-grandmother had the name "Second Daughter".

'''Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China''' is a family history which recounts the experiences of three generations of author Jung Chang's family through the turbulent events of 20th-century UsefulNotes/{{China}} - from the grandmother given as a concubine to a warlord, to the mother growing up under Japanese occupation and joining the Communists, to finally the author herself, Er-hong ("Jung"), who in the wake of the ordeals brought on by the UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution eventually turns against the cult of UsefulNotes/MaoZedong and finds a new life in Britain.

* ToGetRichIsGlorious: Adjusting to the post-Mao era is given a little focus towards the end of the book, but many aspects of the totalitarian system are frustratingly slow to change.

'''Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China''' is a family history which recounts the experiences of three generations of author Jung Chang's family through the turbulent events of 20th-century UsefulNotes/{{China}} - from the grandmother given as a concubine to a warlord, to the mother growing up under Japanese occupation and joining the Communists, to finally the author herself, Er-hong ("Jung"), who in the wake of the ordeals brought on by the Cultural Revolution eventually turns against the cult of UsefulNotes/MaoZedong and finds a new life in Britain.

* CulturalRevolution: Jung eagerly joins the Red Guards at the beginning, but she soon withdraws because she finds them too violent. Later, her parents are attacked and tortured.

''Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China'' is a family history which recounts the experiences of three generations of author Jung Chang's family through the turbulent events of 20th-century China - from the grandmother given as a concubine to a warlord, to the mother growing up under Japanese occupation and joining the Communists, to finally the author herself, Er-hong ("Jung"), who in the wake of the ordeals brought on by the Cultural Revolution eventually turns against the cult of Mao Zedong and finds a new life in Britain.

* InsaneTrollLogic: The various logical contortions of the communists used to denounce anyone who falls from favour - at one point, a person reading the works of ''Karl Marx'' is accused of "bourgeois intellectualism".

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII

* CulturalRevolution

* UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar

* MeaningfulRename: Jung Chang's name was originally Er-hong (meaning "Second Swan"), but when she realized that it sounds like "faded red", she asked her father to give her a new name that has "a military ring to it". He suggested "Jung", which is an ancient word for ""martial affairs".

* BookBurning: Oh so very much during the Cultural Revolution.

* KatanasOfTheRisingSun

* RedsWithRockets: The Red Army briefly occupies Jinzhou at the end of WorldWarII.

* SecondSinoJapaneseWar

* WorldWarII

* ChildSoldiers: De-hong becomes a courier for the Communists during the Japanese occupation, despite still being a schoolgirl. Her assignments range from hiding banned literature to delivering explosive charges.

* BannedInChina: Though Chang notes in the afterword that she has encountered little difficulty in bringing copies of her book into the country.

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: A favourite tactic of the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.

The book became an international bestseller when it was originally published in 1991, and has been translated into 37 languages, but is still BannedInChina (except in Hong Kong).

'Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China' is a family history which recounts the experiences of three generations of author Jung Chang's family through the turbulent events of 20th-century China - from the grandmother given as a concubine to a warlord, to the mother growing up under Japanese occupation and joining the Communists, to finally the author herself, Er-hong ("Jung"), who in the wake of the ordeals brought on by the Cultural Revolution eventually turns against the cult of Mao Zedong and finds a new life in Britain.

'''Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China''' is a family history which recounts the experiences of three generations of author Jung Chang's family through the turbulent events of 20th-century China - from the grandmother given as a concubine to a warlord, to the mother growing up under Japanese occupation and joining the Communists, to finally the author herself, Er-hong ("Jung"), who in the wake of the ordeals brought on by the Cultural Revolution eventually turns against the cult of Mao Zedong and finds a new life in Britain.

'''WildSwans: Three Daughters of China'' is a family history which recounts the experiences of three generations of author Jung Chang's family through the turbulent events of 20th-century China - from the grandmother given as a concubine to a warlord, to the mother growing up under Japanese occupation and joining the Communists, to finally the author herself, Er-hong ("Jung"), who in the wake of the ordeals brought on by the Cultural Revolution eventually turns against the cult of Mao Zedong and finds a new life in Britain.