Wild Swans

Wild Swans.  By Jung Chang. 
Biographies of three women (grandma, mom, and daughter) in 20th-century China.

Thoughts:
Foot-binding?  Never realized how torturous and painful it would have been.  I just thought it was about keeping women's feet "small" -- not deformed-small, as in smaller-than-a-1-yr-old's.

Communism wasn't the real problem.  The big problem was Mao's hunger for power and his vengeful spirit.

Some people think anarchy is okay because it's a way to get rid of the entrenched power/authority that is being misused.  But anarchy is destructive to a vast degree.  Furthermore, powerseekers will fill the void.  Reading this book showed me that even bad government is better than no government.

Introversion was a bad bad thing in China.  If you wanted a little solitude, most people interpreted that as cutting yourself off from the masses and thinking you were better than others.  It must be unbearable to know that your need for a little peace and quiet means people see you as arrogant and aloof.

I knew almost nothing about China or Chinese history.  Until a few weeks ago, I'd never heard of the Cultural Revolution:  wreck buildings, ruin libraries, overthrow religion, destroy stuff.  And now, this week's news tells us of a similar destruction in Mosul.