The only reservation I have about the book is related to the narrator's lack of knowledge of anything Chinese that renders person and place names almost impossible to identify without checking the text when listening to the audio version. But eventually they were divided by politics because Ching-ling sided with the Communists and the other two were involved with the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang). Chang argues that Qingling was in fact a card-carrying member of the Comintern for much of the Stalin era. Beskrivningarna av historiska händelser var bra för att kunna placera systrarna och deras betydelse i tiden, men jag hade önskat mer fokus på systrarna och mindre på männen i deras liv för ett bättre betyg. That book, which “portrayed the Soong family in a highly unfavourable light,” shaped my views of some of the major figures in twentieth-century Chinese history, including Dowager Empress Cixi, Dr.

One thing I can say in definite favor of Chang's book is that it has a nice amount of pictures of the Soong sisters, in comparison to Seagrave's book. Its three fairy-tale heroines, poised between east and west, spanned three centuries, two continents and a revolution, with consequences that reverberate, perhaps now more than ever, in all our lives to this day. She guided him to an enormous fortune, much of it gained during the war with Japan when Kung served as finance minister and sometime prime minister in the Nationalist government.

Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China by Jung Chang, was a sweeping and gripping account of the Soong family of Shanghai, not only of these three sisters that played a large part in the shaping of the history of China in the twentieth century, but it also tells about their three brothers, each making history in their own right, as part of the inner circle of the Chiang Kai-shek regime.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book which accounts the lives of the three Soong sisters who each had large influence over the formation of modern China. The book refreshed my understanding of modern history of China and upended the version I grew up learning in China. The title clearly emphasizes on the sisters but we were given a whole lot introduction to the men: Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek. But it makes me smile to think, I will probably always follow a good story about brave, forthright women, wherever and whenever they pull back the curtain of history and step forward. Tak więc każdy bunt i rewolucja rodziła kolejne lata tyranii, zawsze tym samym kosztem – przeciętnych obywateli, którzy naiwnie ulegali pięknie opakowanym ideom.Ching-Ling adalah anak kedua yg menikah dgn Sun Yat Sen, bapak pendiri RRC sehingga sebutannya adalah Madame Sun. Charlie Soong being very forward thinking sent each of his daughters to an American boarding school at a young age. She brought a cheering Congress to tears; she drew tens of thousands to her public lectures; Time magazine named her and Chiang “Man and Wife of the Year”.

The pictures provided more information and make the book interesting so we can see these people as they are.To secure his release after a dozen years, Chiang agreed to a meeting with Zhou En-lai at which the two men cut a deal “which led to the two parties forming a ‘united front’ as equal partners when the war against Japan started, within months. Her 832-page biography of Mao Zedong, Mao: The Unknown Story, written with her husband, the Irish historian Jon Halliday, was published in June 2005. It features the rise of Sun Yat-Sen and the overthrow of the Chinese monarchy to May-Ling’s marriage to Chiang Kai-Shek. Born between 1888 and 1898, the twilight of imperial China, all three went on to play dominant roles in 20th-century Chinese life, on the extremes of the political spectrum. You see Sun-yat-sen only interested in being president and creating the civil war the ended China’s democracy (that he supposedly founded) to have this status/power.

I’m not normally a great fan of non-fiction, especially political tales, however this riveting biography is so well written it at no time becomes weighed down. In a group biography that is by turns intimate and epic, Jung Chang reveals the lives of three extraordinary women who helped shape twentieth-century China. The combination of historical events, biographical elements and story telling makes it interesting to read and brings us closer to certain names or events. Her value to her husband’s regime shone particularly through the grim years of the second world war. Krn kekuasaan suaminya dan keglamoran gaya hidupnya maka May-Ling dijuluki "ai quan" (cinta kekuasaan).Red Sister, Ching-ling, married Sun Yat-sen, founding father of the Chinese republic, and later became Mao’s vice-chair. The lessons were blissfully simple: The party is unimpeachable; those who assail the party are despicable; the family is a metaphor for our great nation, whose members are all lovingly allied because unity is the most important principle. Ayah mereka punya visi jauh ke depan sehingga dari awal anak-anaknya baik perempuan maupun lelaki disekolahkan dikirim jauh ke Amerika di seberang lautan tanpa pendampingan, supaya mereka hidup mandiri. The best thing about this marriage was Sun's death and the special treatment his role as a China’s”father” accorded her.