Jung Chang | Fly, Wild Swans: my mother, myself and China
Sun 26 Apr 2026 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm
Jung Chang’s Wild Swans defined a generation: an epic personal history of Jung, her mother and grandmother. We are thrilled that Jung returns to the Festival with her sequel Fly, Wild Swans, which brings the story of Jung’s family – along with that of China – up to date. Join Jung for a deeply moving and unforgettable account of life under a communist dictatorship and the threat modern China poses to the world.
Chaired by broadcaster Alex Clark.
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PLEASE NOTE: We have now sold out of tickets for this event, but there are still tickets available to buy from the Arts Theatre Cambridge, who we’re pleased to be working with for the event.
Venue: Arts Theatre Cambridge
Duration: 1 hour
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Author Biography
Jung Chang was born in Sichuan Province, China in 1952. During the Cultural Revolution she worked as a peasant, a “barefoot” doctor, a steelworker, and an electrician before becoming an English-language student at Sichuan University. She left China for Britain in 1978 and obtained a PhD in Linguistics in 1982 at the University of York – the first person from Communist China to receive a doctorate from a British university.
Chair Biography
Alex Clark is a broadcaster and journalist, who writes for many publications including the Guardian, the Observer, and the Times Literary Supplement. She is a co-host on the Graham Norton Book Club for Audible and hosts the TLS podcast. She is a professional chairperson and appears all over the UK at Cheltenham, Hay and the Southbank Centre. Alex is a festival Honorary Patron.
She is the author of Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China (1991), which has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. She wrote a ground-breaking trilogy of the history and personalities of modern China: Mao: The Unknown Story (2005, with Jon Halliday); Empress Dowager Cixi (2013); and Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister (2019)). Her books have been translated into more than 40 languages. She has been awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for services to literature and to history. She lives in London.
