Fly, Wild Swans by Jung Chang

Jung Chang’s Fly, Wild Swans arrives more than thirty years after Wild Swans first captivated readers with its account of three generations of Chinese women. That earlier memoir charted the turbulence of twentieth-century China, moving from the final years of the Qing dynasty through the brutal upheavals of Mao’s rule. This new volume, long awaited and deeply emotive, continues Chang’s personal and political journey, carrying the story into the present and exploring the profound bond she shared with her remarkable mother.

At its heart, the book is a meditation on love, family and resilience. It revisits Chang’s past, recalling the trauma of the Cultural Revolution and the losses that scarred her family, while also charting her own transition from life inside Communist China to her eventual departure for the West. The presence of her mother, a woman of formidable courage and loyalty, shapes the narrative. Her mother’s experiences both anchor Chang to her roots and highlight the difficulties of living across borders, caught between filial devotion and the restrictions of an authoritarian regime.

Where Wild Swans told the story of China’s descent into chaos and its first tentative steps into reform under Deng Xiaoping, this sequel moves through the decades that followed, when China rose to become a global power. Chang reflects on this transformation with a mixture of admiration and unease. The progress is undeniable, yet the book insists that the cost to individuals and families under authoritarian rule remains devastating. Personal freedoms are still curtailed, and the shadow of political control falls heavily on intimate lives.

As ever, Chang writes with a style that is clear, elegant and emotionally direct. The prose balances historical context with intensely personal reflection, blending memoir with political commentary in a way that feels both intimate and yet universal. There is heartbreak here, particularly in the descriptions of separation, exile and the pain of being unable to share key moments of life and death with loved ones. Yet there is also uplift in the resilience of human ties, in the endurance of loyalty and love even when tested by distance and political cruelty.

Thematically, Fly, Wild Swans extends the work begun in Chang’s earlier books, examining how the personal and political are inextricably linked in modern Chinese history. It raises urgent questions about memory, censorship and truth-telling in a society where the past is continually rewritten. At the same time, it is also a universal story of the ties between mothers and daughters, of migration and loss, of the price paid for integrity under authoritarianism.

Courageous and deeply human, Fly, Wild Swans is both a moving continuation of a family saga and an essential meditation on China’s past and present. It confirms Chang’s place as one of the chronicler of her generation, offering readers not only history and memoir but also an act of witness.

Reviewer: Chris Reed

HarperCollins