Jung Chang

Jung Chang is the internationally acclaimed author of Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, a global bestseller that has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. Banned in China along with all of her other works, Wild Swans was adapted for the stage by London’s Young Vic Company in 2012.

Her body of work includes a landmark trilogy exploring the history and key figures of modern China. Mao: The Unknown Story (2005), co-authored with Jon Halliday, was described by Time magazine as “an atom bomb of a book.” Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China (2013) was named a New York Times Notable Book, while Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China (2019) was hailed as “a monumental work” by The Spectator (UK). Her most recent book, Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China (2025), continues her powerful personal and historical narrative.

Chang has received numerous honors, including the UK Writers’ Guild Best Non-Fiction Book and Book of the Year awards. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her contributions to literature and history.

Born in Sichuan Province, China, in 1952, she lived through the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), during which she worked as a peasant, barefoot doctor, steelworker, and electrician, before studying English at Sichuan University. In 1978, she left China for Britain and, in 1982, became the first person from Communist China to earn a PhD from a British university, receiving her doctorate in linguistics from the University of York.

Chang has been awarded honorary doctorates by several institutions in the UK and the US, including the Universities of Buckingham, York, Warwick, Dundee, West London, the Open University, and Bowdoin College. She is also an Honorary Fellow of SOAS University of London.