Chinese History from the Perspective of Ordinary Women in Wild Swans

          Historical events are seldom narrated from the perspective of women. Rather, they tend to be dominated by male perspectives while obscuring female experiences. The amount of historical memoirs written by well-educated, upper-class men vastly outnumber those written by women or people from less-privileged backgrounds. Wild Swans, by Jung Chang, is a refreshing change to this norm. With straightforward prose, Chang narrates her family’s extraordinary story of resilience, determination and survival that spans generations and historical periods in China, from the warlord period to the establishment of the PRC and communist rule in China under Mao Zedong. What is unique about Chang’s memoir, however, is that she chooses to tell her family’s story from the perspective of the women in her family. This is significant considering the fact that women – who were mostly illiterate, oppressed, and discriminated against – would have lacked the ability to document their own lives back then. By writing from the female perspective, Chang provides insight into women’s lives, as well as the lives of lower to middle-class individuals living in China during a period of tumultuous change. The effect of such a perspective is two-fold – Chang shows how women were able to navigate complex social customs and strict gender roles to assert their own agency (despite the fact that they lived in a society that discriminated against them), while the manner in which cultural norms surrounding gender, family and marriage change over time. 

          The way in which the lives of women in China – and the gender roles they were expected to fulfil – changed drastically over time can clearly be seen from comparisons between the stories of Chang’s grandmother, mother and Chang herself. By choosing to include the stories of her grandmother and mother, Chang invites readers to draw comparisons between the lives of women across three generations, and the manner in which these shifts reflect the larger historical context during the time period the memoir is set in. Wild Swans starts with the story of Chang’s grandmother, which occurs during the chaotic warlord era in China following the collapse of the Qing dynasty. The circumstances were rather hostile for most women, especially those from lower classes. Aaccording to Chang, sons were preferred and favoured over daughters because they could pass on the family name, and many daughters were not even given names at birth. In addition, women lived largely repressed and cloistered lives. Chang writes that women were confined to the domestic sphere and were only allowed to engage in domestic activities, and that the definition of a virtuous woman was one who “suppress[ed] her emotions and [did] not desire anything beyond her duty to her husband,”, and “a good woman was not supposed to have a point of view at all, and if she did, she certainly should not be so brazen as to talk about it.”. Marriages were almost always arranged, and, in Chang’s grandmother’s case, her father had arranged for her to be married to a warlord, albeit as a concubine. At that time, as Chang writes, it was very common and accepted for men to have concubines – especially for high-ranking men, having many concubines was seen as a sign of social prestige and wealth. 

          Many years later, however, Chang says that her mother faced an entirely different set of issues. The social landscape had changed drastically following the establishment of communist rule in China, and especially so for Chang’s mother, who joined the Communist Party and worked for them. In contrast to her grandmother, her mother’s marriage was a love marriage. However, gender roles in China had changed dramatically – for party officials like herself, the party had to take precedence over everything else, including family. Having a family life was equated with disloyalty, and officials’ private lives were strictly policed, much to the misery of her mother. Chang writes that her mother was constantly criticised for spending too much time with her husband, and later, her children; she was expected to spend most of her time working, which was in stark contrast to the expectations placed on women in warlord-era China. Nevertheless, Chang’s mother had substantially more freedom than her grandmother, in that she had greater independence and was able to go to school, work, and choose her career and spouse. Later, when Chang herself was an adult, the social landscape changed so much that she was able to leave China entirely to study and eventually work overseas in the UK and marry a non-Chinese husband – all of which would have been practically unheard of in her grandmother’s time. The manner in which the expectations placed on women and the gender roles they were expected to fulfil thus changed noticeably over the generations in Chang’s family – a comparison that Chang facilitates by writing about the stories of her grandmother and mother, in addition to her own.

          Chang’s memoir is also testament to the grit and willpower she and the women in her family possessed amidst hardship and suffering. In her grandmother’s teenage years, for instance, she faced daily oppression and discrimination due to her status as a woman and a concubine. However, her grandmother treasured her freedom and found ways to protect her freedom and interests to the best of her ability, in an era when women had little rights and were treated like objects. Though her warlord husband kept asking her to move to his main residence, her grandmother begged to stay in the house he bought for her close to her family home, because she knew that “women were virtual prisoners” in his house. After she became pregnant and gave birth, she was ordered to live in his house, but planned her successful escape from the house shortly after. By refusing to be coerced into perpetual submission, Chang’s grandmother showed both fortitude and strength of character, as well as her social savviness in navigating and negotiating her position to protect what was important to her. Chang therefore refutes the stereotype commonly assigned to Chinese women in historical accounts, which often depict them as passive and docile, and shows how women were able to assert their agency and find ways to get what they wanted, even though they lived in a society that discriminated against them. In her own way, Chang’s grandmother resisted traditional gender roles, refusing to accept her fate as a concubine. 

          This strength was also evident in the choices that Chang’s mother, an intelligent, well-educated and independent woman, made throughout her life, including marriage, her career, and later during the Cultural Revolution. Much to the ire of her parents, for example, she ended a relationship with a man who “regarded flirtations and extramarital sex as essential aspects of ‘being a man’.”. Though working was still considered “a last resort” for women by most Chinese families then, Chang’s mother wanted a job and decided to study at a medical school because the “medical profession offered a woman the best chance of independence.”. Like Chang’s grandmother, personal freedom was important to Chang’s mother. During the Cultural Revolution, Chang’s parents suffered greatly, enduring torture and humiliation for openly opposing Mao’s increasing cruelty and the goals of the Cultural Revolution. She writes that they never backed down despite the endless persecution they and their family were subjected to, and never ceased to stand up for their beliefs. It was in this atmosphere that Chang herself grew up in, and she grew increasingly disillusioned with communism. Her decision to study English at university can thus be read as an act of defiance, since it was extremely difficult and frowned upon to study English in an atmosphere hostile to foreign influences. Chang’s memoir is therefore a poignant tribute to the fortitude, determination, and resilience displayed by the women in her family, across different time periods and despite immense suffering and discrimination.

        Ultimately, Chang weaves a compelling and riveting narrative that combines major historical events, personal anecdotes and familial lore in Wild Swans. Writing from the perspectives of her grandmother, mother and eventually herself provides readers with a unique vantage point to historical events in China, narratives of which remain dominated by upper-class, male perspectives. Chang’s work plays an important role in memorialising the historical experiences of ordinary women – or ordinary people, for that matter – for generations to come, and prevents them from being lost over time. Unlike other memoirs, Chang succeeds in writing a memoir bigger than just her own story – she honours the struggles and sacrifices made by her grandmother and mother to provide her with the opportunities she had in her own life, and demonstrates the impact of major historical events on the lives of ordinary individuals, which is reflected in changing gender roles and expectations experienced by her grandmother, her mother, and herself. 

By: Vianne Chia