Dr. Jung Chang is the author of the best-selling books Wild Swans - Three Daughters of China (which has been said by the Asian Wall Street Journal to be the most read book about China), and Mao: The Unknown Story (co-written with Jon Halliday). Wild Swans reached number one in over a dozen countries, including Japan, Britain, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Holland and Scandinavia, and won the NCR Book Award UK (1992), UK Writers' Guild Best Non-Fiction (1992) and Book of the Year UK (1993).
Both books have been translated into more than 30 languages, and have together sold some 15 million copies.
Current work
Her spellbinding lectures charting the dramatic developments in 20th century China provide a truly unique, inspiring and uplifting experience and help to understand the challenges of 21st Century globalisation. The lessons to be learned from her latest highly acclaimed book Mao - the Unknown Story add tremendously to the understanding of Chinese culture and development.
Previous experience
Born in Yibin, Sichuan Province, China in 1952, Jung Chang worked as a peasant, 'barefoot' doctor, steelworker and electrician before becoming an English Language student and, later, an assistant lecturer at Sichuan University. She left China for Britain in 1978 and was awarded a scholarship by York University, where she obtained a PhD in Linguistics in 1982 - the first person from the People's Republic of China to receive a doctorate from a British university. She has also been awarded honorary doctorates from the Universities of Buckingham, York, Warwick the Open University and Bowdoin College, USA.
A gifted storyteller, her presentations stimulate emotions and leave audiences reflecting upon her powerful and moving messages, taking them on a thoughtful and, at times, emotional journey.
