From the start it must be clear that Wild Swans is biography rather than fiction. Be that as it may, Chang has clipped together the narrative of this memoir using techniques commonly employed by writers of fiction.

For example, the first chapter is full of suspense: "At the age of 15 my grandmother became the concubine of a warlord general, the police chief of atenuous national government of China. . . . The liaison was arranged by her father, a police official in the provincial town of Yixian in southwest Manchuria, about a hundred miles north of the Great Wall and 250 miles northeast of Peking." For foreigners, this section is sure to convey a mood of alluring exoticness; and Chinese readers too will be curious and reluctant to put the book down.

The swan takes flight:

A best seller in English, the book is of course full of exotic details that were written with foreigners in mind, and these are surely one of the reasons it has found such a large audience. For example, Chang describes in detail the painful history of her beautiful grandmother's feet being bound in childhood.

But this book itself is highly engaging, taking firm hold of the reader's attention. I think there are two reasons for this: First, the main characters in the book are the stuff of legends. They have not only had lives with intriguing twists of fate, but some of them have also been close to the centers of power in mainland China. For example, in the first generation, after the grandmother (the warlord's concubine) was widowed, a famous doctor fell madly in love with her. Even his eldest son's suicide in protest was unable to prevent their marriage. During the cultural revolution the writer was forced to work as a farmer in the countryside and as an electrician in the factories. But she studied hard and was able to pass the exam for overseas study, making her the first person from Szechwan to study abroad since 1949. The writer's parents were both cadres close to the centers of power, and the descriptions of the hardships endured by the communist elite during the cultural revolution are heart rending.

Another reason this biography is so compelling is that it manages to show the small details of life, of character and appearance, as well as the big picture where major events in individuals' lives intersect with modern history.

The family history unfolds:

The subtitle of this book is "Three Daughters of China," representing three generations of women in the writers' family: Jung Chang's grandmother Yang Yu-fang, the writer's mother Xia De-hong, and the writer herself Jung Chang. Then is this book really a story of Chinese women? I think not. The light of these three women put together can't match the radiance of the writer's father, Chang Shou-yu. In Chang Jung's rendering, her father is a noble and tragic hero.

Let's first talk about the women in the book. The three generations have similarities in character. They are all portrayed as courageous and determined, daring to do what most women of their day would not. For example, the grandmother escaped with her daughter from the heavily guarded warlord's home. They were all very clever, capable of turning the tables in a crisis. For instance, during the Cultural Revolution Chang Shou-yu was charged as being a counterrevolutionary, a grave charge indeed. In order to save her husband, Hsia Te-hong adeptly broke through all of bureaucracy's closed doors until she finally got a meeting with Chou Enlai. Then she was able to get him to sign an order for lenient treatment.

In addition, not just the three women, but all of the women in their family are shown to have a deep sense of family. The grandmother's love for her grandchildren reached utter selflessness. And Chang Shou-yu's mother and older sister also show great concern about and love for the younger generations.

Vivid personalities:

Jung Chang writes from a clearly feminist point of view. She intentionally shows all of the oppression of women under traditional feudalism and describes how, with the changing of the times, restraints on women were gradually loosened.

And she paints a vivid picture of the three generations of women. Though the portrait of the grandmother is sketchy, she was clearly gentle on the outside and hard as steel inside, a woman with endless love for others. Hsia Te-hong is a woman who dares to love and dares to hate, an enthusiastic do-gooder, upright and heroic. And finally Jung Chang stresses human sentiment and perseverance. The women of the three generations have their similarities but also characteristics that set them apart.

Of all the men in the book, only one is described in any depth: Jung Chang's father, Chang Shou-yu. His name ("yu" means foolish) reflects on his character: He is someone who showed a blind and foolish devotion to the communist party that would lead to considerable pain. He would stick to his principles to the point of being inhumane.

In 1949, when the communists took over Nan-King, Chang Shou-yu already occupied a position of leadership in the party, but his wife Hsia Te-hong had yet to join the party. When everybody went to see Peking Opera in a hall five miles away, Chang Shou-yu rode in a car, while his wife walked with the masses. Xia De-hong saw half the show before being suddenly overcome by extreme stomach pains. Unwilling to take his driver out of the show half way through, Chang told his wife to walk home. She walked home and had a miscarriage, drenching her bed with blood.

A firmly principled tragic hero:

But in his work, Chang Shou-yu was an honest and unselfish official, a loyal communist party cadre. Brought down during the Cultural Revolution, he was fondly remembered by the people of Szechwan for his benevolent rule and they took good care of his children. He valued his principles above all. During the Cultural Revolution, when Mao Tse-tung had already been deified, he had the conscience to say, "To secure personal power at such cost to the country and the people has to be wrong. In fact, I think it is criminal," and he dared to write a letter to Mao. In the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, of the billion Chinese on the mainland few dared to say such things and fewer still put them into writing. He was truly a man of firm principle.

But during that beastly age, the price he had to pay to be China's conscience was too high. He was tortured and beat savagely. His health ruined, he went crazy. When he died at 54, it was already near the end of the Cultural Revolution, and the records of many accused cadres were being cleared. But that letter to Mao was a mark against him to death. Jung Chang says, "I thought of my father's life, his wasted dedication and crushed dreams. He need not have died. Yet his death seemed so inevitable. There was no place for him in Mao's China, because he had tried to be an honest man."

Comparatively speaking, the women around Chang Shou-yu were stronger, and their feminine resilience brought them through one impasse after another. Politically confused and remorseful about what had befallen his family, he became a tragic hero.

A history that can't be forgotten

The author's sense of morality seems too black and white. She says, "It was from this time that I developed my way of judging the Chinese by dividing them into two kinds: one humane, and one not. It took an upheaval like the Cultural Revolution to bring out these characteristics in people, whether they were teenage Red Guards, adult Rebels, or capitalist-roaders."

Can you really divide people up in such a clearcut manner? The memoir's depiction of the events of the Cultural Revolution, however, does convince a reader that the deliberate selfishness of leaders, combined with the wrong political system, allowed the evil and selfish in people to run wild. Only people of excellent character could lend a helping hand or show a little gentleness.

The Cultural Revolution was able to twist people into becoming wicked to a degree that is hard to believe. Fortunately, there are memoirs such as Wild Swans, or otherwise, when the people who lived through these times pass away, no one will be able to believe that such things actually happened. Wild Swans is historical evidence.

The last half of this biography can be described as the history of the writer's struggles and her feelings about her personal experiences during the Cultural Revolution. In one respect, Jung Chang realizes that the love of her family can sustain her through the most cruel and heartless of government oppression. She and her younger brother and sister used their love to support their parents: "Standing by him meant we could become 'blacks'; we had all seen the discrimination and torment such people suffered. But we said we would stick by him, come what may. . . . Our devotion to our parents was increased by our empathy for their suffering, our admiration for their integrity and courage, and our loathing for their tormentors."

From being a member of the Red Guard who worshipped Mao, she became someone who was disillusioned with him, criticizing him harshly. For youths during the Cultural Revolution, this realization was truly rare.

This biography successfully describes four people, three women and a man, and weaves the incidents of their lives into a 60-year history of modern China. It is extremely readable.

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Author:Jung Chang

Publisher:Simon & Schuster

Price:$25

Pages:524