Jung chang author biography samples

Jung Chang was born in Sichuan Province, China, in During the Cultural Revolution () she worked as a peasant, a “barefoot” doctor.

Jung Chang is a Chinese-British writer now living in London, best known for her family autobiography Wild Swans, selling over 10 million copies worldwide but was banned in the People's Republic of China. Chang was born on 25 March in Yibin, Sichuan Province. Her parents were both Chinese Communist Party officials, and her father was greatly interested in literature.

As a child, she quickly developed a love of reading and writing, which included composing poetry. As Party cadres, life was relatively good for her family at first; her parents worked hard, and her father became successful as a propagandist at a regional level. His formal ranking was as a "level 10 official", meaning that he was one of 20, or so most important cadres, or gan bu, in the country.

As a child, I was fascinated by anything and everything to do with Marco Polo, the idea of long- distance travel, the Silk Road and just the.

The Communist Party provided her family with a dwelling in a guarded, walled compound, a maid and chauffeur, as well as a wet nurse and nanny for Chang and her four siblings. Chang writes that she was originally named Er-hong, which sounds like the Chinese word for "faded red. Like many of her peers, Chang chose to become a Red Guard at the age of 14 during the early years of the Cultural Revolution.

In Wild Swans, she said she was "keen to do so" and "thrilled by my red armband. They were targeted during the Cultural Revolution, as most high-ranking officials were. When Chang's father criticized Mao by name, Chang writes in Wild Swans that this exposed them to retaliation from Mao's supporters. Her parents were publicly humiliated — the ink was poured over their heads, and they were forced to wear placards denouncing them around their necks, kneel in gravel, and stand outside in the rain — followed by imprisonment, her father's treatment leading to lasting physical and mental illness.

Their careers were destroyed, and her family was forced to leave their home. Before her parents' denunciation and imprisonment, Chang had unquestioningly supported Mao and criticized herself for any momentary doubts.