Jung Chang: Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister

This event has been cancelled. Having undertaken extensive travel recently, Jung Chang has been having increasing difficulties with her voice, which she lost completely just now in Amsterdam. Her doctor has recommended no further travel and complete rest. We apologise for the disappointment.

‘Once upon a time, the story goes, there were three sisters. One loved money, one loved power and one loved her country.’

In 1991, British-Chinese author Jung Chang made history with her blockbuster family biography, Wild Swans, about the lives of her grandmother, her mother and her self, set against the backdrop of China’s seismic 19th and 20th centuries. The book sold more than 13 million copies, though it was banned in China. Since then, Chang has released other major works, including a history of Chairman Mao himself, co-written with her husband, historian Jon Halliday.

Her new book, Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister is another historical biography on a monumental scale. This time, Chang is telling the story of the famous Soong sisters. These three extraordinary Shanghainese women, born at the tail-end of the Qing Dynasty and educated in the West, each played a critical role in the making of modern China, exerting influence through the powerful men they married and in their own right, too. The sisters chose different sides in the Chinese Civil War and their story is a story of opulence, courage, idealism and betrayal.

In March, their extraordinary history will permeate the Wheeler Centre as Chang appears in conversation with Leanne Hall.