Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

The story of three generations in twentieth-century China, this book is a record of Mao's impact on China, a window on the female experience in the modern world, and a tale of courage and love. Jung Chang describes the life of her grandmother, a warlord's concubine; her mother's struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents' experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a "barefoot doctor," a steelworker, and an electrician. --From publisher's description