“In 1964, Mao had denounced cultivating flowers and grass as ‘feudal’
and ‘bourgeois’, and ordered, “Get rid of most gardeners.” As a child, I
had had to join others in removing the grass from the lawns at our school,
and had seen flowerpots disappear from buildings. I had felt intensely sad,
and had not only struggled to hide my feelings, but also blamed myself for
having instincts that went against Mao’s instructions, a mental activity I
had been brainwashed to engage in, like other children in China.Although
by the time I left, one could express love for flowers without being
condemned, China was still a bleak place where there were virtually no
house plants or flower vendors. Most parks were brutalized wastelands.”
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang is a
personal history of twentieth century China through the lives of
three generations of women. Jung Chang’s grandmother had her
feet bound as a child, and she was given to a warlord general
as a concubine. Jung Chang’s mother was an activist in the
Communist party during the Chinese Civil War and she and her
husband became high ranking party officials. Questioning of
Mao and the suffering of the Chinese people led to her parents
being denounced and tortured and Jung Chang being exiled as
a peasant to the Himalayas. Following periods as a ‘barefoot
doctor’, a steelworker and an electrician, she was considered
rehabilitated and was sent as a student to London. At the age
of 30 she became the first person from the People’s Republic
of China to receive a doctorate from a British university.
Jung Chang remained in England. Her tale is immensely
moving, and at times her memoirs can be quite harrowing
as it enlightens the different regimes that existed in China
last century. The book has sold over 13 million copies in 37
languages. However it remains banned in her native China.
So would you try to leave or to change the society you live in?
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