Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we're told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they're given. This week he talks to Jung Chang. The 67-year-old author’s family memoir, Wild Swans, has sold more than 13 million copies since its 1991 release, despite being banned in China. Her latest book is Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister.
Jung Chang: “Unlike other parts of my body my brain hasn’t deteriorated at all. My mind is sharper than ever.”Credit:Adrian Lourie/Writer Pictures/Headpress
SEX
Growing up in Cultural Revolution-era China, what were you told about sex?
When I was growing up in China, it was extremely puritanical. In the Cultural Revolution, the words “love” and “sex” were completely unmentionable. Very rigid.
So was there anything resembling sex education?
In my time, no. In fact, all real education stopped when the Cultural Revolution started in 1966, when I was 14. One of the few films allowed to be shown in China was from Albania; Albania in those years being one of China’s few friends. There was a scene of people kissing, but the scene was cut from the film when it was shown in China.
In your mid-20s, you were among the first groups of Chinese to study in Britain. What were the biggest differences in sexual attitudes?
It was like landing on Mars. There were 14 of us in a group, all wearing the Mao suit: blue, baggy trousers, a baggy jacket. We were quite a sight in the London streets in 1978. We were not allowed to
go out on our own. We were told we mustn’t visit English pubs, because there were nude women dancing on the tables. I was torn with curiosity. Then one day I snuck out of college, darted across the road, pushed the door of the pub open and, of course, saw nothing of the kind! Only some men sitting drinking beer. I was rather disappointed!
Your partner in work and life is Irish historian Jon Halliday. What drew you to him?
We met in the early 1980s, working for television [Chang has resided in Britain since 1978]. Jon was making a TV series about the Korean War; I was working for a series about post-Mao China. Jon was an exceptionally gentle and sensitive man.
You and Jon co-authored a biography of Mao. Should people work with their romantic partners so closely? For some, it would be a recipe for disaster.
It worked perfectly. We spent 12 years working on the book and had tremendous fun. We complemented each other very well. I’m Chinese, so I dealt with the Chinese-language sources. Jon speaks many languages, so he was landed with the rest of the world, so to speak. We exchanged discoveries, talked to each other and figured things out. It was absolutely fantastic.
POLITICS
All your books are about politics and political history. To what extent do you consider your works political?
Oh, they’re very political. [Laughs] This is not because I’m a very political person, but because I’ve picked subjects that are to do with the history of China, so I’m landed right in the core of politics. This is why they are all banned in mainland China.
Your books focus on how history affects ordinary people, especially women. What have you learnt about the role of women in Chinese political history?
What I’ve found is that the Empress Dowager Cixi – the last great royal ruler of China – is by far the most intelligent, talented and benign ruler in China’s long history. No one can really match her. She ruled China – at least to start with, and for a long time – from behind a screen. Not allowed out of Beijing’s Forbidden City. Not allowed to see her officials face to face. No legitimacy to rule as a woman. Yet she made the wisest decisions.
She brought China into the modern age. She banned foot binding, something that tortured Chinese women for a thousand years, and tortured my grandmother. She brought all the good things about modernity into China. Her last project was to turn China into a constitutional monarchy, with an elected parliament, free press and an independent legal system. Of course, she didn’t fulfil that because she died in 1908. She is unsurpassed.
Since 2005, you’ve been banned from entering China except for two weeks a year when you’re allowed to visit your mother. How does that affect you?
Well, I feel extremely sad, of course, because my mother is 88. She’s frail, and whenever she’s in a hospital – which is often – I wish I could be there with her. I live in dread that one day this so-called “privilege” to visit my mother might be revoked. I am very anxious and unhappy about it. My mother and I feel this is the price I pay for writing honestly.
BODIES
You’re 67. How’s your physical health?
I’m basically okay. There are scares. I’ve had breast cancer before; it’s behind me now. I’ve had problems people at my age inevitably have, but I’m not in pain. I have wonderful doctors and regard myself as very lucky.
People assume that writing is not a physical job. It’s very sedentary; you’re at your desk. But does that make it physically taxing as well?
My mind seizes up if I’m sitting at my desk for too long, so that’s physical. Also, your shoulders, your lower back; you have aches and pains. But then I bought a wonderful chair – a medical chair with support for the back and adjustable things for the head – which changed my writing life. Now I don’t feel any pain. I also walk every day for at least a few kilometres.
What part of your body are you most happy with?
My brain. It hasn’t – unlike other parts of my body – deteriorated at all. My mind is sharper than ever.
Jung Chang will speak at the Wheeler Centre, Melbourne, on March 5, and at the Sydney Opera House on March 8 as part of the All About Women festival.
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