Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister
Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China
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Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister
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Narrated by:
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Joanna David
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By:
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Jung Chang
About this listen
Penguin presents the audio edition of Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister by Jung Chang.
The best-known modern Chinese fairy tale is the story of three sisters from Shanghai who, for most of the 20th century, were at the centre of power in China. It was sometimes said that ‘one loved money, one loved power and one loved her country’, but there was far more to the Soong sisters than these caricatures. As China battled through a hundred years of wars, revolutions and seismic transformations, each sister played an important, sometimes critical role and left an indelible mark on history.
Red Sister, Ching-ling, married Sun Yat-sen, founding father of the Chinese republic, and later became Mao’s vice chair. Little Sister, May-ling, was Madame Chiang Kai-shek, first lady of the pre-Communist Nationalist China and a major political figure in her own right. Big Sister, Ei-ling, was Chiang’s unofficial main adviser. She made herself one of China’s richest women - and her husband Chiang’s prime minister. All three sisters enjoyed tremendous privilege and glory but also endured constant attacks and mortal danger. They showed great courage and experienced passionate love as well as despair and heartbreak. The relationship between them was highly charged emotionally, especially once they had embraced opposing political camps and Ching-ling dedicated herself to destroying her two sisters’ world.
Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister is a gripping story of love, war, exile, intrigue, glamour and betrayal which takes us on a monumental journey, from Canton to Hawaii and 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 the history of 20th-century China.
©2019 Jung Chang (P)2019 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Eileen
- 26-06-21
Informative and well written
Great historical story. The narrator is excellent. Three sisters on different journeys at this time.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 20-01-24
Excellent book, unconfident reading
Jung Chang's work is as meticulous and enthralling as always. Unfortunately the publisher has chosen a reader who isn't familiar with Chinese names (even Zhou Enlai and Chiang Kai-shek). The pauses before them and the inaccurate pronunciation really marred my enjoyment and attention. This is an established reader who is great elsewhere but I can't fathom why Penguin didn't choose someone with some sense of how to pronounce these famous figures.
There is so much that I want to revisit in this book but I won't be doing it in audio form. Please don't let this deter you from reading it yourself though, it really is excellent.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Geronimo
- 30-08-20
A non essential but insightful biography
A biography within a very historically important period. Although it fails to reach the same grandeur or scope as the previous Mao or Wild Swans.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Goldie
- 28-12-21
difficult to follow in audio
I struggled to remember who was was who without written names.
Perhaps a preface of names?
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jonathan Baldie
- 13-01-21
Fascinating book; poorly narrated
Publishing companies, you really need to get better at choosing narrators. This book is another brilliant biography from Jung Chang, one of my favourite authors. This made it all the more painful to hear the numerous mispronunciations throughout the narration.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- andrew james lilley
- 05-11-19
Reader should have been coached on pronunciation.
I am totally absorbed by this .As an avid reader of Jung Chang I think it an equal to all her previous works.
My only issue with it is with the reader.I feel she should have been coached on the pronunciation of many of the peoples and Chinese provinces names .She seems to get stuck on ' Chiang Kai Shek ' every single time to the point where I am shouting at my player: ' Come on you've said it over 100 times now surely you can string thosw three names together!'
I n every other respect a fantastic book.Highly recommended.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- LWM
- 03-11-19
It’s not in my librart!
I pre booked this, but can not download to diary even though it says it’s my library. Please help!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Robert de Castel
- 24-10-21
Good story, Bad Pronounction
A compelling tale of the three women at the heart of modern China. No new ground broken but a good narrative introduction to some of the major players in modern Chinese history. The narrator's Chinese pronunciation leaves something to be desired though
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Curran
- 14-02-21
A rich story of three extraordinary women
The content is truly gripping as Jung Chang unfolds the lives of three sisters who were at the heart of Chinese and Taiwanese history in the first half of the twentieth century. Their different characters and the worlds they lived in give much food for thought, including the relationships between the USA and China and Russia and China, and the links between religion, commerce and politics. Many times I was struck by the discrepancy between how the characters seem to have seen themselves, and how I would now assess them.
It was a pity that the book was a little spoiled by the hesitant and sometimes ponderous reading. Whilst Joanna David's voice is beautifully clear and melodious, her lack of confidence / training with all foreign names (especially the Chinese ones) led to pauses and over-emphasis, and occasionally she missed the intonation and punctuation of otherwise straightforward sentences, obscuring their meaning until I could work out the punctuation for myself.
Despite that, I much enjoyed listening to the book, which set me looking up references and trying to find out more.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kat
- 27-06-21
Very engaging and insightful storytelling
I enjoyed this book very much, except for the narrator's pronunciation of foreign names, which made it very confusing and frustrated to listen to from time to time.
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