NOVEL THOUGHTS
………
SIMON & SCHUSTER, 1991
(available in paperback from Touchstone Books, 2003)
IN WILD SWANS, Jung Chang tells the history of three generations of her extended family, spanning almost seventy-five years of recent Chinese experience. Chang captures the full sweep of the dramatic movements transforming China, while illuminating the large and small changes these political traumas and altered social expectations exacted on the lives of the Chinese middle class. Chang describes her family’s daily lives, their fears and insecurities, and their close interdependence, even as they are breaking drastically, sometimes painfully, from long-held tradition.
Chang’s grandmother, Yu-fang, is born in 1909 in Manchuria to a small-town police official. At a young age, her feet are broken and bound into “three-inch golden lilies” in the painful traditional manner. Without riches, Yu-fang’s father knows that his beautiful and intelligent daughter is his most important asset. He soon finds a way to advance his career by agreeing to give Yu-fang as a concubine to General Xue, an older, wealthy general.
Chang compassionately describes Yu-fang’s isolated life as a concubine, the birth of Chang’s mother Bao Qin, Yu-fang’s escape from General Xue’s household, and her subsequent marriage to the kindly Dr. Xia. Dr. Xia looks favorably on his new wife despite her having been a concubine, and gives her a certain amount of freedom. He also treats Bao Qin as his daughter, giving her a new name, De-hong, a name made up of the characters for “wild swan” and “virtue.”
De-hong grows up in Dr. Xia’s household during the tumultuous Japanese occupation, the liberation by the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek, and the severe backlash against the “rightist” Kuomintang by the Communist insurgents. Caught up in the wave of Communist idealism, she meets and marries a Communist rebel leader from distant Sichuan, Chang’s father, Wang-yu. Gradually Chang’s parents advance within the Communist bureaucracy. By the time Chang, the second of five children, is born, her parents are party members with certain privileges. She is given the name Er-hong, which means “second wild swan.”
With the insight and perspective of an adult, Chang describes the sweeping changes in Chinese society, her embarrassment at living with considerable entitlements in China’s ideologically classless society, the physical and psychological effects of the Cultural Revolution on her family, and her family’s eventual internal exile.
Wild Swans vividly portrays the grand diversity within China. Even its myriad eating habits seem caught up in the country’s political turmoil, as traditional ways yield to ideology, if not modernity. For Chang’s grandmother, a specific food is considered appropriate “for every occasion and condition in China.” Special foods are a way to celebrate traditional holidays like the Winter Festival and the Chinese New Year; “poached eggs in raw sugar juice with fermented glutinous rice” are proper for a woman who has just given birth, and Chang’s grandmother shares snacks like soy-pickled vegetables with a Japanese woman who visits often, although she and the Japanese woman are not able to communicate well in the language of the other.
Chang’s grandmother felt her young daughter had “rebellious bones,” learning few traditional skills like cooking. But as De-hong travels from the harsh Manchurian climate, across broad expanses of China, up the Yangtze River to lush Sichuan, she finds an abundance she had never encountered. As Chang writes of her mother’s experience: “For the first time in her life, my mother could eat rice and fresh vegetables every day.” De-hong tastes the spicy foods of Sichuan, with exotic names like “tiger fights the dragon,” “imperial concubine chicken,” “hot saucy duck,” and “suckling golden cock crows to the dawn.”
Under the Communists, food, like every other aspect of life, is imbued with political overtones. During the economically misguided Great Leap Forward, a program so preoccupied with steel output that agriculture is neglected, famine is rampant. A farmer’s act of keeping enough food from his labors for his own family, or a peasant eating more than his or her own share, becomes an act of subversion.
Despite Mao’s failed economic policies, the Communist party still exhorts the people to greater efforts. The ancient Chinese proverb noted a seeming truism: “No matter how capable, a woman cannot make a meal without food.” The Communists reversed this wisdom, announcing during a parade in Sichuan that “capable women can make a meal without food.”
Many of the dishes described in Wild Swans are simple, as the people are forced to make do with whatever foods happen to be available. Jung Chang provided us with the following simple recipe for stir-fried carrots. “I invented this recipe myself,” says Chang. “Jon, my husband, loves it. It’s his favorite dish.”
For a complete Chinese meal, try pairing Jung Chang’s carrots with our Scallion-Ginger Fried Rice (see p. 149) and Spicy Shrimp in Black Bean Sauce (see p. 446).
1 pound carrots, peeled or well-scrubbed Vegetable oil for stir-frying Salt 6 to 8 scallions, finely chopped |
Slice carrots into thin strips, about 2 inches long and less than ¼ inch thick. You should have about 3 cups.
Pour oil into a large skillet to a depth of ½ inch and place over high heat. When the oil is hot add a large pinch of salt (use more or less according to taste). Add carrots and fry, stirring constantly, until carrots begin to wither. Add the scallions and continue to stir-fry until they release their aroma, about 1 minute. Serve immediately.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
NOVEL THOUGHTS
Over pork fried rice, egg rolls, and moon cakes, a dessert served at Chinese festivals and special occasions, the South Florida Preschool PTA (SFPPTA) Book Club of Miami discussed Wild Swans. The book provoked one of the group’s most interesting discussions.
Several SFPPTA book club members have adopted daughters from China and the group discussed raising adopted Chinese children in America as well as Americans’ awareness of Chinese customs and traditions. “Reading Wild Swans made these women realize the importance of learning about and passing on Chinese culture to their children,” says Kathy Barber.
Donna Lyons, a Chinese member of the book club, says Chang’s story showed how raising children in America can sometimes conflict with the Chinese customs and traditions she learned. “Chinese children are taught to be respectful of their elders and not to question authority,” says Lyons. “In America, children have more freedom to express their thoughts and views and are actually encouraged to be assertive.”
Barber invited her mother, Joyce Allgood, who had traveled to China, to participate in the discussion of Wild Swans. In college, Allgood had dated a Chinese student whose extended family in China had sacrificed to send him to America for a college education. At that time, Allgood learned the strength of Chinese family ties and values. In reading Chang’s book, Allgood was again impressed by the importance of the extended family in Chinese culture.
Barber says most SFPPTA Book Club members, all in their thirties and forties, could not understand the oppression Chang describes in Wild Swans. “For example, the restriction on fashion imposed by Mao, where all women were required to wear a plain dark-colored Mao jacket,” says Barber. “Chang’s mother and a friend quietly rebelled by sewing pink lining on the inside cuffs, appearing to conform and be good Communist leaders, while inside their clothes they strived to maintain their feminine identities. The women in our group couldn’t imagine a government restricting their choice of clothing.”
Barber says the story of Chang’s grandmother, whose parents bound her feet in accordance with the cultural norms of beauty, also resonated strongly with the group. “She could not work in the fields. She had no ability to do anything other than walk short distances behind the man who kept her,” says Barber.
“Food gives more context for the book,” says Suzanne Brust, “and is one way to immerse yourself in the culture about which you’re reading.” Based in St. Paul, Brust’s book club is composed of four married couples who discuss literature in their homes after church on Sunday afternoons. When her group discussed Wild Swans, Brust served Chinese potstickers (dumplings steamed on one side and panfried on the other), chicken satay, and curry soup.
Lisa von Drehle hosted dinner for her Chicago book club’s discussion of Wild Swans. “I made a trip to Chicago’s Chinatown and purchased some ready-made barbecued pork dumplings.” For the main course, von Drehle served oriental chicken salad and, for dessert, fortune cookies. “This was the perfect meal for a hot, midsummer discussion,” she adds.