Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister by Jung Chang

A major new biography from the internationally-bestselling author of Wild Swans, Mao and Empress Dowager Cixi. A gripping story of sisterhood, revolution and betrayal, and three women who helped shape the course of modern Chinese history.

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Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister
By Jung Chang
Jonathan Cape / 17 October / Hardback / £25

They were the most famous sisters in China. As the country battled through a hundred years of wars, revolutions and seismic transformations, the three Soong sisters from Shanghai were at the centre of power, and each of them left an indelible mark on history.

Red Sister, Ching-ling, married the ‘Father of China’, Sun Yat-sen, and rose to be Mao’s vice-chair.

Little Sister, May-ling, became Madame Chiang Kai-shek, first lady of pre-Communist Nationalist China and a major political figure in her own right.

Big Sister, Ei-ling, became Chiang’s unofficial main adviser – and made herself one of China’s richest women.

 All three sisters enjoyed tremendous privilege and glory, but also endured constant mortal danger. They showed great courage and experienced passionate love, as well as despair and heartbreak. They remained close emotionally, even when they embraced opposing political camps and Ching-ling dedicated herself to destroying her two sisters’ worlds.

Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister is a gripping story of love, war, intrigue, bravery, glamour and betrayal, which takes us on a sweeping journey from Canton to Hawaii to New York, from exiles’ quarters in Japan and Berlin to secret meeting rooms in Moscow, and from the compounds of the Communist elite in Beijing to the corridors of power in democratic Taiwan. In a group biography that is by turns intimate and epic, Jung Chang reveals the lives of three extraordinary women who helped shape twentieth-century China.

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ABOUT JUNG CHANG

Jung Chang is the internationally bestselling author of Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China; Mao: The Unknown Story (with Jon Halliday); and Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine who Launched Modern China. Her books have been translated into over 40 languages and sold more than 15 million copies outside Mainland China where they are banned. She was born in China in 1952 and came to Britain in 1978. She lives in London.

Jung Chang is available for interview and events .

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BOOK TOUR 2019/2020

·      Cheltenham Literary Festival – 12 October

·      Durham Literary Festival – 13 October

·      Manchester Literary Festival – 14 October

·      Linghams Bookshop – 15 October

·      Salisbury Literary Festival – 18 October (Salisbury Cathedral)

·      London Literature Festival / Asia House at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank – 19 October

·      Dublin Festival of History – 20 October (Printworks of Dublin Castle)

·      Toppings, Edinburgh – 22 October (Greenside Church)

·      Toppings, Bath – 23 October (Christchurch)

·      Waterstones, Canterbury – 24 October

·      Blackwells, Oxford – 29 October (Newman Rooms)

·      Dulwich Literary Festival – 13 November (George Farha Auditorium)

·      Chorleywood Bookshop – 18 November (Chorleywood Memorial Hall)

·      Daunts, Marylebone High Street – 28 November

·      Cambridge Literary Festival – 1 December

·      How To Academy, Conway Hall – 2 December 

·      Aldeburgh Literary Festival – 5-8 March 2020

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