Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China

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While Ailing went into business and Qingling became a political wife, the youngest of the sisters, Meiling, devoted herself to Shanghai high society. Jung Chang’s treatment, benefiting from several decades of additional documents that have come to light, conveys a somewhat different picture. The author was pretty objective and neutral in conveying the historical narratives of these characters.

Sun Yat-sen, who pioneered the idea that China should become a republic, became angry when he was not elected as the republic's first president.Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister takes us on a sweeping journey from exiles’ quarters in Japan and Berlin to secret meeting rooms in Moscow, and from the compounds of the Communist elite in Beijing to the corridors of power in democratic Taiwan. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Yes, provincial chiefs grew powerful and assertive, some of them took to arms to settle disputes with their neighbours but warlords all recognised the elected Beijing government.

Ik ben echt compleet in awe van dit boek en vind het ontzettend jammer dat ik dus eigenlijk tijdens de geschiedenislessen op de middelbare school bijna niks over de vorming van 'modern' China heb gehoord. In Chang’s account, Qingling is the least appealing: a hard-headed Comintern convert, whose political convictions overrode feelings for her family. Tak więc każdy bunt i rewolucja rodziła kolejne lata tyranii, zawsze tym samym kosztem – przeciętnych obywateli, którzy naiwnie ulegali pięknie opakowanym ideom. Na nieszczęście Charliego wśród ubiegających się o rękę jednej z córek znalazł się największy rewolucjonista kraju. In an attempt to emulate the selflessness of Joan of Arc, Ching-ling ended up devoting herself to a man unworthy of her worship.After the CCP defeated the Nationalists in 1949, Qingling served as Mao Zedong’s vice-chairman on the mainland, while Meiling followed Chiang Kai-shek into exile in Taiwan. Ching-Ling adalah anak kedua yg menikah dgn Sun Yat Sen, bapak pendiri RRC sehingga sebutannya adalah Madame Sun. Chang relates a strange story that explains how Chiang managed to lose to Mao even though his armies were battle-tested and much stronger than the guerrillas who made up the Red Army. Sun Yat-sen, who has been credited as the “Father of China” for having played a leading role in the movement to overthrow the Manchu Dynasty. There were some details that could be taken out because they are simply not needed for the readers to understand certain events that were taking place.

Outside the Bund, the waterfront, under the still gaze of the skyscrapers, numerous sampans rocked with the waves, offering a stirring sight of the city's vitality. Chang paints a deft portrait… Anyone who has read Jung Chang's marvellous 1991 best-seller Wild Swans will know s he is a skilled storyteller, with a masterful eye for telling details . Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister takes us on a sweeping journey from exiles' quarters in Japan and Berlin to secret meeting rooms in Moscow, and from the compounds of the Communist elite in Beijing to the corridors of power in democratic Taiwan.In Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister, the acclaimed Chinese-British historian Jung Chang tells their story with compassion and an obsessive attention to historical fact. After earlier efforts at reform that are generally credited to the men in her court, she doubled down on the effort after the turn of the century.