Page 18 - CSA Speaker Bulletin September 2017 | CSA Celebrity Speakers
P. 18
AEXSCIALUSIVE INTERVIEW
Understanding
China
Dr Jung Chang is the author road they have traversed, China today When I wrote Wild Swans, Three
of the best-selling books Wild would stop being a puzzle, even if it Daughters of China, (the story of my
Swans - Three Daughters could still astonish. grandmother, my mother and myself),
of China (which The Asian I was conscious that our experiences
Wall Street Journal called the I myself was born in China in 1952, reflected China’s yesterdays.
most read book about China) under the rule of Mao, who closed the
and Mao: The Unknown country completely. My parents were I left China for Britain in 1978. Mao
Story (co-written with Jon senior Communist officials, who fell had died, and the country was poised
Halliday). Both books have victims of the regime. My father died for seismic changes. The Communist
been translated into more as a result; my mother still lives in Party embraced capitalism, and
than forty languages, and China. opened the door to the West. A very
together sold some fifteen Chinese characteristic burst out.
million copies. “The hungry
competitiveness to My husband, Jon Halliday, once asked
OOne of the most frequently better themselves me if there was a Chinese equivalent
asked questions is: how in all aspects is for ‘keeping up with the Joneses’.
did Communist China make I told him that the nearest Chinese
such a fast and miraculous leap to rooted deep in expression would be ‘overtaking the
become a fairly affluent society and Chinese culture.” Joneses’.
the superpower that rivals the United
States? The hungry competitiveness to better
themselves in all aspects – rooted
To me the answer lies largely in who deep in Chinese culture – had been
the Chinese are. If one follows the held back by war, tyranny, and the
journeys of their lives, observing the lack of opportunities. In the congenial
post-Mao environment, it flourished
© 2017 Celebrity Speakers Ltd To book call: +44(0)845 216 0100 Email: info@csaspeakers.com Visit: www.csaspeakers.com
16
