The title of this book is called Wild Swans. The book covers two of the most historical events that happened in China. Those events are 1, The Manchu Empire falls, 2 . It talks about the communist party and how it came to power after the civil war in 1949. After the civil war was over the communist party took over the Manchu's place as rulers of China. Mao was the leader of the communist party. During the Manchu period, if a crime was committed and you were innocent it would not matter because you were automatically guilty of the crime. .
During the Manchu period, the women were treated like they were slaves and the husband did not look at them as a person. The women's roles were to be housewives and have their husband's kids China always believed in what Confucius was trying to teach and also what he believed in. Confucian philosophies are based on his ideas of education and meritocracy. During this period, the caste system was widely used in this area of the world. The caste system was a system where people were born in to their level of society. Confucius believed that through education and meritocracy, the way a person behaved, that a person should be able to earn his rank in society. Confucius also believed that if the home-life had positive values, then there would be a harmony in society. He believed that since children received their values from their parents, how they conducted themselves in society reflected their Home-life. If their homes were stable, then there would be a balance in society. .
As I was reading this book I thought, how sad and hard these people lived back then. With the Manchus in charge, it's like the people had very harsh and limited lives. The person I felt sorry for was Jung Chang's grandmother because she lived through the Manchu period and, during that period the women were treated like the only thing in life was to obey her husbands commands and have his kids.
