Wild Swans a Book

I received a book for Christmas from my sister-in-law Xiao Hui titled, “Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China”. This is an important book for those interested in the history of 20th Century China. The book recounts the memoirs of three generations of women and chronicals the history of the Japanese invasion of Northern China through the Communist peoples revolution. Finally, Wild Swans tells the story of a search for freedom and justice that is inherent in all people.

With the ending of the ‘Cultural Revolution’ in the mid 1970′s China has gone through a remarkable transformation from an isolated country with thought control to a ‘Most Favored Nation‘ status as of the late 1990′s.

Xiao Hui grew up during the Cultural Revolution. I can not imagine what that must have been like to be subjected to that kind of intense scrutiny. Thank you Xiao Hui for the book and for opening my eyes to see the world in a different way. What a gift that is. Below is a quote from the author of the book during the early days of the Communist take over of China.

“The Party’s all-around intrusion into people’s lives was the very point of the process known as ‘thought reform’. Mao wanted not only external discipline, but the total subjection of all thoughts, large or small. Every week a meeting for ‘thought examination’ was held for those ‘in the revolution’. Everyone had both to criticize themselves for incorrect thoughts and be subject to the criticism of others. The meetings tended to be dominated by self-righteous and petty-minded people, who used them to vent their envy and frustration; people of peasant origin used them to attack those from ‘bourgeois’ backgrounds. The ideas was that people should be reformed to be more like peasants, because the Communist revolution was in essence a peasant revolution. This process appealed to the guilt feelings of the educated; they had been living better than the peasants, and self-criticism tapped into this.”

This is an important work and should be considered standard reading for anyone interested in modern China.  There is hope now for modern China.