Jung Chang

“So the story of Wild Fox Kang’s attempted coup and murder of Cixi lay in darkness and obscurity for nearly a century,…

— Jung Chang

My father said he was going to write to the Jinzhou City Party Committee asking for permission to 'talk about love'...My mother…

— Jung Chang

For anyone to open their heart, they need the right atmosphere, and something to prompt them. For my mother it was her…

— Jung Chang

“Meanwhile, Mme Mao and her cohorts were renewing their efforts to prevent the country from working. In industry, their slogan was: "To…

— Jung Chang

“I was extremely curious about the alternatives to the kind of life I had been leading, and my friends and I exchanged…

— Jung Chang

“Unlike most founding dictators—Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler—Mao did not inspire a passionate following through his oratory, or ideological appeal. He simply sought willing…

— Jung Chang

“MAO TSE-TUNG, who for decades held absolute power over the lives of one-quarter of the world’s population, was responsible for well over…

— Jung Chang

“mosquito-netted open windows was an enormous privilege. ‘You must not think you are superior to them,’ he would say. ‘You are just”

— Jung Chang

When he asked my grandmother if she would mind being poor, she said she would be happy just to have her daughter…

— Jung Chang

“Poverty drove their parents to have them castrated as young children, hoping they would earn a better living at court. Usually the…

— Jung Chang

I was not allowed to take notes but my friend and I memorised those two and a half pages. Most people talked…

— Jung Chang

If children were brought up to become non-conformists it would only ruin their lives. So parents all over China who loved their…

— Jung Chang

“The Manchus drank tea with a lot of milk. In her case, the milk came from the breasts of a nurse. Cixi…

— Jung Chang

“According to tradition, my great-grandfather married early, at 14, with a woman six years older. It was considered to be one of…

— Jung Chang

“When I heard about the ease with which the Four had been removed, I felt a wave of sadness. How could such…

— Jung Chang

“inner courtyard. Dr. Xia tolerated Yu-wu’s rowdy parties without demur, even though his sect, the Society of Reason, forbade gambling and drinking.…

— Jung Chang

“The Japanese are a disease of the skin...the Communists are a disease of the heart. Everything personal was political... Two reds sandwiching…

— Jung Chang

“Our textbooks were ridiculous propaganda. The first English sentence we learned was "Long live Chairman Mao!" But no one dared to explain…

— Jung Chang

“In 1969 my parents, my sister, my brother Jin-ming, and I were expelled from Chengdu one after another, and sent to distant…

— Jung Chang

...boredom was as exhausting as backbreaking labor.

— Jung Chang

At the age of fifteen my grandmother became the concubine of a warlord general.

— Jung Chang

“Speaking to a foreigner was the dream of every student, and my opportunity came at last. When I got back from my…

— Jung Chang

My grandmother's feet had been bound when she was two years old. Her mother...first wound a piece of white cloth about twenty…

— Jung Chang

“The most direct path to Party was raising pigs. The company had several dozen of these and they occupied an unequaled place…

— Jung Chang

“...Inflation had risen to the unimaginable figure of just over 100,000 percent by the end of 1947--and it was to go to…

— Jung Chang