FREE ESSAY ON WILD SWANS

WILD SWANS

Philip Martin 
History 242
04/12/00
Wild Swans
The title of this book is called Wild Swans. The author is Jung Chang. This book was
published November 1992. This book was published in Bantam Doubleday Dell publishing
Group in New York and has 500 plus pages. 
Jung Chang was born in Yibin, Sichunan Province, China, in 1952. Jung Chang was a Red
Guard until she was fourteen years old. Later she worked as a peasant. Jung Chang was
also a "Barefoot Doctor". Those were the people who tried to help people with the minimum
training that they had. Jung Chang was also a steelworker, and an electrician. Later Jung
Chang became an English-language student and, later, an assistant lecturer at Sichunan
University. In 1978 Jung Chang left for Britain where she was awarded a scholarship from
York University. Seven years later in 1982 Jung Chan became the first person from the
People's Republic of China to receive a Ph.D. in Linguistics from a British university.
Jung Chang now lives London where she teaches at a school of Oriental and African
Studies, at London University.
The story Wild Swan it takes place in China and it covers 108 years from 1870 to 1978.
The book also covers two of the most historical events that happened in China. Those
events are (1). The Manchu Empire falls, (2). It talks about the communist party and how
it came to power after the civil war in 1949. 
After the civil war was over the communist party took over the Manchu's place as rulers
of China. Mao was the leader of the communist party. During the Manchu period, if a crime
was committed and you were innocent it would not matter because you were automatically
guilty of the crime. During the Manchu period, the women were treated like they were
slaves and the husband did not look at them as a person. The women's roles were to be
housewives and have their husband's kids
China always believed in what Confucius was trying to teach and also what he believed in.
Confucian philosophies are based on his ideas of education and meritocracy. During this
period, the caste system was widely used in this area of the world. The caste system was
a system where people were born in to their level of society. Confucius believed that
through education and meritocracy, the way a person behaved, that a person should be able
to earn his rank in society.
Confucius also believed that if the home-life had positive values, then there would be a
harmony in society. He believed that since children received their values from their
parents, how they conducted themselves in society reflected their Home-life. If their
homes were stable, then there would be a balance in society.
As I was reading this book I thought, how sad and hard these people lived back then. With
the Manchus in charge, it's like the people had very harsh and limited lives. The person
I felt sorry for was Jung Chang's grandmother because she lived through the Manchu period
and, during that period the women were treated like the only thing in life was to obey
her husbands commands and have his kids. I am glad that I live in a place where there is
freedom and where we don't have to be scared everyday wondering if we are going to make
it through another day.