Jung Chang
Full Name and Common Aliases
Jung Chang is a Chinese-born British author, historian, and activist.
Birth and Death Dates
Born on February 25, 1952, in Yixian, Heilongjiang Province, China. There is no publicly available information on her date of death.
Nationality and Profession(s)
Chinese-British, Author, Historian, and Activist
Jung Chang's work spans multiple genres, including history, memoirs, and essays. Her writing often focuses on Chinese history, politics, and social issues.
Early Life and Background
Growing up in a rural area of China during the Communist Revolution, Jung Chang experienced firsthand the struggles of living under Mao Zedong's rule. Her early life was marked by poverty and hardship, but it also instilled within her a strong sense of determination and resilience.
Chang's family moved to Shanghai when she was eight years old, where she began attending school. However, her education was disrupted during the Cultural Revolution, which forced many students like her into manual labor or reeducation camps.
Major Accomplishments
Jung Chang is best known for her book Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, a memoir that chronicles the lives of three generations of women in her family. The book offers a unique perspective on Chinese history, from the early 20th century to the Cultural Revolution and beyond.
Chang's work has received widespread critical acclaim and commercial success. Her writing often explores themes of identity, culture, and social change.
Notable Works or Actions
In addition to Wild Swans, Chang has written several other notable works:
Ma Jian's Red Dust (2009): A memoir about the author's life in China during the Cultural Revolution.
Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China (2013): A biography of the last empress of China, who ruled from 1861 to 1908.
Impact and Legacy
Jung Chang's writing has had a significant impact on readers worldwide. Her work offers a unique perspective on Chinese history and culture, often challenging prevailing narratives and stereotypes.
Chang's advocacy for human rights and social justice has also made her a prominent voice in the literary community. She continues to write and speak out on issues related to China's past and present.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
Jung Chang is widely quoted and remembered due to her:
Unflinching portrayal of Chinese history: Her writing offers a candid look at one of the world's most populous countries, often shedding light on previously unknown or suppressed events.
Personal experiences and insights: As someone who has lived through significant periods in Chinese history, Chang brings a unique perspective to her writing, making it relatable and engaging for readers worldwide.
* Commitment to social justice: Her advocacy work and writing continue to inspire readers and spark important conversations about human rights and cultural identity.
As an author, historian, and activist, Jung Chang has left an indelible mark on the literary world. Her contributions serve as a testament to the power of storytelling and the importance of preserving historical accuracy.
Quotes by Jung Chang
Jung Chang's insights on:
I wanted to look calm, and to let them know that they could not demoralize us. I had no fear or sense of humiliation, only contempt for them. What had turned people into monsters? What.
This was what Moscow had intended: peasants must be coerced into doing things that left no way back into normal life. To “get them to join the revolution,” the Party had decreed, “there is only one way: use Red terror to prod them into doing things that leave them with no chance to make compromises later with the gentry and bourgeoisie.
Every time she went home she found herself being criticized. She was accused of being “too attached to her family,” which was condemned as a “bourgeois habit,” and had to see less and less of her own mother.
Mao’s instruction to exterminate grass had led to a constant demand for manpower bc of the grass’s obstinate nature.
MAO TSE-TUNG, who for decades held absolute power over the lives of one-quarter of the world’s population, was responsible for well over 70 million deaths in peacetime, more than any other twentieth-century leader.
The whole nation slid into doublespeak. Works became divorced from reality, responsibility, and people’s real thoughts. Lies were told with ease because words had lost their meanings-and had ceased to be taken seriously by others.
One piece of information that made an impression on her was that individual Chinese lives mattered to the Westerners.
The Chinese language is extremely hard to learn. It is the only major linguistic system in the world that does not have an alphabet; and it is composed of numerous complicated characters – ideograms – which have to be memorised one by one and, moreover, are totally unrelated to sounds.
The idea was that everything personal was political; in fact, henceforth nothing was supposed to be regarded as ‘personal’ or private.
When boys played “guerrilla warfare,” which was their version of cowboys and Indians, the enemy side would have thorns glued onto their noses and say “hello” all the time.