She was also drawn to Cixi when she was researching Mao. Again, it was a sensation, vividly portraying Mao as a sadistic, merciless monster rather than a champion of the people.Ĭhang was in Edinburgh to discuss her third book, which tells the fascinating story of Cixi, who was the absolute ruler of a third of the world's population for nearly 50 years until her death in 1908. Then she spent 12 years researching and writing Mao: The Unknown Story with her husband, the historian Jon Halliday. Her 1991 memoir Wild Swans, describing the lives of her grandmother, her mother and herself as China underwent convulsions, is the biggest grossing non-fiction paperback in history, translated into 37 languages and with global sales in excess of 13m copies. In fact she was a moderniser who espoused women's liberation, looked to the west and fundamentally changed China for the better, Chang said.Ĭhang has been responsible for two global publishing sensations. "Her reputation was and today still is as this cruel despot and arch-conservative who resisted all change," Chang told the Guardian-sponsored Edinburgh international book festival on Sunday.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |