I would recommend this book for anyone with an interest in early 20th Century China. Using the three sisters it brings the politics of the period to life. You will get most out of it if you already have some knowledge of this period because you will then be able to appreciate just how controversial Chang is on occasion – and also weigh up more independently whether you think she is right or wrong in her judgements. It is these judgements – which for me come across as superficial and / or misguided on critical points – that prevent a good book from being a great one.

While Ailing went into business and Qingling became a political wife, the youngest of the sisters, Meiling, devoted herself to Shanghai high society. In search of a successful, ambitious husband who could guarantee her access to political influence and material comfort, she settled on Chiang Kai-shek. A humourless, conservative army man, Chiang had thrust his way to becoming Sun’s heir as leader of China’s first modern political party, the Nationalists, after Sun suddenly died of liver cancer in 1925. Benefiting from Soviet support, and an alliance with China’s Communist party (CCP), in 1927 Chiang became head of a new, nominally unified nationalist state. But to secure his control of the country, he promptly purged the communists from his new regime, killing thousands. Qingling sided with the left (after 1927, she spent two years in exile in Moscow), while Meiling became first lady of Chiang’s rightwing military dictatorship. Chiang also highly esteemed big sister Ailing as a political and financial adviser. Written in biographical style the book explains all of the key historical events as the outcome of personal decisions. To say more would turn this review into a summary of the entire book but it’s hard to resist when its narrative proved to be so utterly compelling, even down to the few brief mentions of Mao as he existed in the shadows during the days of power of Sun and Chiang Kai-shek. This is an epic undertaking by an excellent writer and historian. Jung Chang brings the early twentieth century to life as she explores the world of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-Shek. She shows their progress towards revolution, seen through the lives of the family who knew them. Taking the three sisters as the focal point is a clever way of exploring the twists and turns of Chinese society and politics as it moves from a monarchy through to communism.

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Once upon a time, a wealthy man lived in Shanghai with his devoutly Christian wife, with whom he had three sons and three daughters. The girls grew up to be educated, cultured and stylish, and their family’s money and status attracted many aspiring suitors. In an era when China was experiencing significant political upheaval, each sister married an influential man and secured her position at the top of society. Their selection of husbands appeared to crystallize an essential aspect of each woman’s character, as summed up by an oft-repeated saying: “One loved money, one loved power and one loved China.” This is partly because the sisters lives are so bound up with these two towering figures, but also because Jung Chang portrays history as a fundamentally personal process and so wants to get as close as possible to the people who “made history”: what were the motives for their decisions and how did their personalities affect the course of events. For a biography supposedly focussing on the three most famous women in Chinese history I found it strange that the initial chapters deal with men (Sun Yat-sen and the girls’ father). And this, I think, is the problem with the book. The sisters are viewed through the lens of their role relative to men, rather than in their own right. And so the book has become a history of Chinese politics and the roles the men in the sisters’ lives played, rather than a group biography of these three remarkable women.

Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister is a monumental work . . . Its three fairy-tale heroines, poised between east and west, spanned three centuries, two continents and a revolution, with consequences that reverberate, perhaps now more than ever, in all our lives to this day.” —The SpectatorSo Sun Yat-sen the aforementioned “father” of modern China, and Chiang Kai-shek the nationalist leader / dictator get at least as much if not more attention. My mother inspired me to write Wild Swans and she’s been so supportive of all my work. She lived under Chiang Kai-shek – she was a student activist, fighting his regime – and through Mao’s rule. She’s 88 now and living in China. Chang’s early insertions of Mao into the narrative are there for the sake of fact and transparency (which is what makes her such a celebrated historian), but because of just who Mao is, they have the added effect of foreshadowing a villain, like those fleeting moments in a horror film where something unknown darts past the camera. After documenting the life and career of Mao Zedong, and making Empress Dowager Cixi an almost household name, filling in the gap between Cixi’s reign and Mao’s rise made perfect sense, and that’s what Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister proves to be.

this book has indeed educated me on the history of China and introduced me to the historical figures behind the founding of CCP and the Nationalist Party. It was a great reading experience in terms of gaining insights on the political stances of these founding members and especially the Soong sisters. The book intertwines the intimate with the big historical picture, tying their personal stories to the deep and irreconcilable political divisions among them . . . it is stamped by her revisionist impulse.” — The AtlanticAn enjoyable take on China’s turbulent 20th-century history, seen through the revealing perspective of three women at the centre of power Andrea Janku, BBC History The main subjects of this intensely engaging historical biography are the three daughters of Charlie Soong: Ei-ling, Ching-ling, and May-ling. These three women left as great a mark on, and were as influential in the transformation of, China as any of China’s more famous male leaders (all of whom also play a key role in this book), and here Jung Chang brings them into the historical limelight where they belong.