and theres no one here but me

Sunday, July 30, 2006

ive just finished the book WILD SWANS by Jung Chang.

this book is very engaging and i simply couldnt put it down.
it's about the life of 3 generation of women. jung chang's granny, her mum and herself. she talks briefly about her granny's life before moving on to her mum's and finally into her own world and thoughts. it also follows thru the time line and into the cultural revolution and the end of it. i was much-informed about how life was like to be under the cultural revolution. it reminds of the disturbing film called "xiu xiu" that i have watched during a chinese class in ntu a year ago. it's not that jung chang ends up like the girl in the show but more of the similarities between their despair and helplessness.

something struck me hard was that despite all the shit that Mao did to his homeland, the people still adore(d) him. jung chang mentioned a few times in her book that let's say something bad happened, the people will still think that it was the Party's fault or a particular someone but NEVER Mao. they were brainwashed to that extent. at least Mao should be happy that his propaganda works all the way since he started implementing them. till this day, his portrait still overlooks the tiananmen square even though his philosophies are no longer being used by the chinese. i wonder why they dun wanna change the portrait to deng xiao ping although he was the one who brought peace and prosperity to china. i guess it was a disastrous lesson and china wants its people to remember it forever. i hope so.

anyway if you guys wanna read it, please go borrow it! try orchard library on monday or something cuz im going to return it tomorrow! hahaha and meanwhile, if any of you guys have this book called "Mao: the unknown story" by jung chang, please lend it to me! ive been searching for it for 2 days already lah! if not im going to buy it once i have moneyyy. meanwhile, i can start my other book already.

anybody wanna read this, i can lend you after im done! :)
good night.
adios

xoxo,amy12:01 AM

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