The Books That Have Made Me

Wild Swans: exceptional story-telling at its best

From the time when concubines were still a commodity down to Mao’s last years, Wild Swans is not just a memoir, but also a literary documentary with even a photographic feel to it. Jung Chang’s descriptions of the Chinese countryside lend the book a sense of infinity and vastness. The sheer size of the land serves as a background for all the political and economic battles that roll out in the fifty-odd years the memoir covers.

As the empire is overthrown in 1911, there follows a succession of events culminating in Mao’s Cultural Revolution. This is a watershed in Chinese history, one in which the people had very little say and direct influence, yet bore the brunt of the fallout.

Needless to say it is the section that covers Mao’s years where my attention focused the most. The reasons stemmed from a desire to know more about an event whose significance was hardly ever discussed in Cuba when I was younger.

Wild Swans was a reminder of a bigger truth. When it comes to people’s oppression, it doesn’t matter if we’re dealing with a socialist, fascist or theocratic state. One of the most telling moments in the book is when Jung Chang, still a firm believer in Mao Zedong’s policies, wonders how it is possible to whip up the frenzy that most of her compatriots seem to suffer from and that leads them to carry out violent acts. What is it that turns normal, law-abiding citizens into beasts whose thirst for blood overcomes even the minutest sense of respect for fellow human beings?

My answer might be deemed cynical, but alas, it’s the only one at hand. We already have those traits and provided the puppeteer is capable enough, they’ll be able to trigger off a series of emotions and feelings that will act as a…

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