Jung Chang, author of the bestselling memoir 'Wild Swans', has revealed that her 90-year-old mother died alone in China due to the country's strict zero-Covid policies. Speaking in an interview, Chang said her mother, who had survived show trials and Red Army prisons, was locked in hospital for months during the pandemic.
Chang, who lives in London with her husband, historian Jon Halliday, had been allowed to visit China for two weeks a year until two years ago, primarily to see her mother. However, the pandemic restrictions prevented her from being with her mother in her final days.
Chang described her mother as 'still quite something' and 'very organised in her thinking', recalling how she would list 'three pieces of good news' during their Skype calls. The author credited her mother with inspiring her writing career, as it was her mother's taped life story that formed the basis of 'Wild Swans'.
Reflecting on her own experiences growing up in Mao's China, Chang spoke of widespread starvation during the 1950s and the hardships of the Cultural Revolution, when she was exiled to a village in the Himalayan foothills. She noted that most people in her generation experienced starvation, and she could 'feel the starvation around you'.
