Jung Chang: Shining a light on the east

JUNG CHANG set the literary world alight with her electrifying debut, Wild Swans, a family memoir of three generations of Chinese women. It was released in 1991 and sold 13m copies, becoming the highest selling non-fiction paperback ever.

Chang will be at the Hay Festival Kells in Co Meath this weekend to talk about her latest book, Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China. It tells the fascinating story of Cixi, a semi-literate concubine who ruled China behind the scenes from 1861 to 1908. As with Wild Swans, it shines a light on an aspect of Chinese history that is little-known in the West.

“She’s well-known in China, and people have an obsession with her — there are endless TV series and films about her, and they all paint her as a diehard conservative and an evil despot. For me, the book was to right the wrongs, the injustices about her,” says Chang.