I first read Wild Swans when I was living in Yantai, on my first year of what would become my China adventures, and like the author of this post, reading this family history helped me understand a lot of the unspoken expectations of Chinese life. This is a great piece on how reading changes us, on the difficulties of Chinese life, and ultimately, on cross-cultural understanding.

How Jung Chang’s “Wild Swans” Made Me A Better Laowai on Books & Bao