Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

In 1969, Chang’s family was scattered. Her father was sent to a camp in Miyi County, a remote region of Sichuan Province near the Himalayas. Before leaving Chengdu, he caught only a glimpse of his wife, who was still in detention. Chang and her sister were sent to Ningnan to experience life as peasants. The same thing happened to millions of schoolchildren who had lived in the cities. Mao called it “thought reform through labor” (392). Chang’s journey to Ningnan was filled with incredible sights, including some of the tallest mountains in the world, but when she arrived in Ningnan she did indeed work like a peasant. She began to suffer from vomiting and diarrhea. After 26 days, she was sent back to Chengdu for medical care. When she arrived in Chengdu, she received the care she needed, both from the hospital and from her grandmother, but she also learned that her aunt Jun-ying, her father’s sister, was seriously ill. After she recovered, rather than return to Ningnan, she went to Yibin to look after her aunt and her seven-year-old brother, Xiao-fang, who had been staying with her aunt.