Wild Swans - book review PDF

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'Wild Swans' is a book by Jung Chang about the lives of 3 women, written as an historical narrative with thorough description of day to day life in twentieth century China (Chang 2012). Whereas, the text 'The story of a genuine horse herder: In his own words' is an article by Qu Xioa about how he lived during the cultural revolution. To Western eyes the book 'Wild Swans' by Jung Chang is seen as a piece of realism whilst Qu Xioa's 'The story of a genuine horse herder' is dubbed as being communist propaganda. Through using theoretical literature on narrative and biography, I will examine the techniques deployed in both texts to make them appear as real life accounts. By doing so, the essay will show how Wild Swans is more compelling compared to Qu Xioa's account.

I begin by analyzing the texts authorship through deploying techniques similar to Georges Bataille. For instance, the text Wild Swans by Jung Chang was written in collaboration with Jon Halliday, who helped to translate it into English (Chang 2012). I start by analyzing the fact that Jon Halliday's name is not written on the front cover of the book although he played a great role in writing it. This is similar to how Helen Darville changed her name to Demidenko numerous times so as to make her stories sound more realistic and harrowing (Host, Totaro and Tyshing 1996). In the Demidenko files we find that Helen Darville’s book would not have made the impact it did if readers new that she was in fact English Australian as opposed to the Ukranian heritage she claimed to have (Host, Totaro and Tyshing). One can argue that this was done to draw in additional readers and that her book sold insofar as people wanted to hear an Ukranian story, instead of an Australian one.

Analogously, this may link in with Edward Said’s ‘Orientalism’ and how we have a fascination of the 'other' insofar as we love hearing foreign tales which we are not accustomed to (Said

2006). I argue that ‘Wild Swans’ fantasises and fetishizes the lives of these 3 women in the way that an Orientalist would speak on behalf of Africans and Asians, in relation to how different and alien their lives are compared to ours as Westerners. That is to say, many fine details are raised within Jung Chang’s story as she intricately describes how her father was tortured on numerous occasions. “That night my father who had never once moaned after his previous beatings, cried out in agony” (Chang 2012: 448). Sections of her book such as these are written with great emotional affect that stir the Western reader to feel as though Maoist China was ruthless and violent. Such violent and emotional descriptions take place throughout the book which served as a reminder of how bleak life was in China just as Helen Darville wished to incorporate harrowing emotions into her writing (Demidenko 1995).

Contrary to this form of violence which is fetishized in Wild Swans, we find that Qu Xioa’s article is filled with a variety of experiences, both good and bad. Qu Xioa may talk about how he was labelled as a ‘Rightist’, but he also speaks of other happier thoughts such as marriage and his wife alongside how he still admired the Party (Xioa 1985). Thus, ‘Wild Swans’ is more compelling than Qu Xioa’s account, as Wild Swans has a sense of continuity about the violence faced by the women and it is written to stir emotion in the Western reader, by being about a foreign tale which is fetishized just as an orientalist would describe the ‘other’ with exotic wonderment. Admittedly, this is not the only way Wild Swans is made to appear compelling.

In addition, 'Wild Swans' and 'The story of a genuine horse herder' are both written as life stories. 'Wild Swans' is more compelling as a life story as it is separated into many chapters unlike the piece by Qu Xioa. This helps to give a sense of a complete life story being told in

stages to explain the entirety of 3 women’s lives. The fact the book is a novel and not an article gives off a feeling that it is more comprehensive than Qu’s article which is much shorter in length. This is not the case with “The story of a genuine horse herder”, however, as Qu Xioa’s text is written in a way which makes it appear as if he is improvising his life story as he writes the article. This is made evident with the very first sentence where he states: “How should one deal with one’s own youth”(Xioa 1985:1)? It is as though he does not know the next sentence in his life story and this sporadic feature is ever more illustrated by the awkward humour throughout. For example, towards the beginning he says: “… my parents only had one child - me!” (Xioa 1985:1). The abrupt exclamation mark at the end of the sentence negates any aura of being compelled by the article. This stops the reader from feeling sad and emotional as one does when they read ‘Wild Swans’. In stark contrast to Qu’s account, ‘Wild Swans’ has a very serious tone to it which is why I believe it to be more compelling. Jung Chang begins with the words: “At the age of fifteen my grandmother became the concubine of a warlord general...”(Chang 2012: 1). This is serious expression of a life story unlike Qu’s which feels too jovial in nature to be a realist life account, specifically towards the end of the article where he states that he still loved the Party even after the “20 years of bitterness”(Xioa 1985:9).

With that said, when it comes to continuity of a life story, Qu’s tale may be more correct. I argue this whilst referring to Bourdieu’s work on “The Biographical Illusion”, which suggests that rather than life history being about life experience of a self, it is instead, a method of reconfiguring ones experience of life and a device which assists in creating a sense of totality and unity to one’s own experiences. That is to say, Jung Chang’s book appears to have much unity and totality compared to Xioa’s article by virtue of Jung Chang’s book being presented

as a novel. Not only is Chang’s book presented as a novel, it is presented as a very elongated life story which would appear to many Western readers as being a full account of someone’s life. Furthermore, Chang’s book appears very constructed as it is very organized in nature. Firstly, there are many chapters to the book which I argue, can be used to portray the totality of Chang and the two other women’s experience in China. Secondly, Chang describes scenes in her life story much more vividly and clearly than Xioa which makes one assume that she has written this life story from a diary which she kept from all the years she spent in China. Hence, the elaborate details in Chang’s book seek to show realism although they actually show that she may be romanticizing her life story a bit too much. This is even more evident if one looks to Bourdieu.

Bourdieu argues that we have taken life history for granted and that we assume a biography is totality and unity of a life when it is not. He says: “Firstly, the fact that “life” constitutes a whole, a coherent and directed ensemble, which can and must be grasped as the unitary expression of a subjective and objective “intention” of a project...”(Bourdieu 1996:174). Further to this, he says that biography is “organised like a story unfolds ”(1996:174). This description of biography could not be more befitting of Jung Chang’s story which is what it is; a story. What make Jung Chang’s story more compelling is the fact it is presented as something “chronological” and “unfolds” like a fictional story moving to an amazing ending(Bourdieu 1996:174). However, this is a problem as one can never describe the totality of life history in a few hundred pages as Chang has written. Instead, what Chang has done is she has tried to recollect life events and amalgamate these into a book which is “natural complicity” (Bourdieu 1996:175). Ergo, her book has been made to appear

compelling due to this illusion of totality and unity within 3 women’s lives when truly such a thing is impossible.

On the other hand, Qu’s work appears to have come straight out his mouth naturally without assembling words in a way one assumes Jung Chang did before she published ‘Wild Swans’. ‘The story of a genuine horse herder’ seems as though it hasn’t been touched and edited to romanticize a sense of totality and unity within it. And thus it is less compelling in nature compared to ‘Wild Swans’.

Bibliography: Bourdieu, P. 1996. "The Biographical Illusion". University of Melbourne. Chang, J. 2012. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. 21st Anniversary edition. Harper Press. London. Host, Totaro and Tyshing, 1996. “Demidenko Files”, Penguin Books, Ringwood Australia. Said, E. 2006, Orientalism. Penguin Books, India, reprint edition. Xioa, Q. 1985."The story of a genuine horse herder". Guangming Ribao 11-5-85, translated by Dutton, M....