Chang strides over a century of world-shaking events with all her storytelling flair and fluent command of original sources . . . [ An] epic tale.” ( i) They were the most famous sisters in China. As the country battled through a hundred years of wars, revolutions and seismic transformations, the three Soong sisters from Shanghai were at the centre of power, and each of them left an indelible mark on history. Red Sister, Ching-ling, married the ‘Father of China’, Sun Yat-sen, and rose to be Mao’s vice-chair. Little Sister, May-ling, became Madame Chiang Kai-shek, first lady of pre-Communist Nationalist China and a major political figure in her own right. Big Sister, Ei-ling, became Chiang’s unofficial main adviser – and made herself one of China’s richest women. Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister is a gripping story of love, war, intrigue, bravery, glamour and betrayal, which takes us on a sweeping journey from Canton to Hawaii to 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 twentieth-century China. The main subjects of this intensely engaging historical biography are the three daughters of Charlie Soong: Ei-ling, Ching-ling, and May-ling. These three women left as great a mark on, and were as influential in the transformation of, China as any of China’s more famous male leaders (all of whom also play a key role in this book), and here Jung Chang brings them into the historical limelight where they belong. I've already read Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by the same author, and I've read about the Soong sisters in Sterling Seagrave's The Soong Dynasty so I decided to give this book a try.

Chang’s] breathtaking new new triple biography restores these "tiger-willed" women to their extraordinarily complex humanity… As in her bestselling 1991 memoir Wild Swans, Chang uses a gripping and emotional personal story to draw Western readers into the history of China. Helen Brown, Daily Telegraph Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister is a monumental work, worthy both of Jung Chang’s Mao and of the great, rambling, heterogeneous Chinese folk epics of the oral past, such as The Water Margin and The Three Kingdoms. Its three fairy-tale heroines, poised between east and west, spanned three centuries, two continents and a revolution, with consequences that reverberate, perhaps now more than ever, in all our lives to this day. Hilary Spurling, Spectator The book is written in a breezy and accessible style. I found it easy to read with a clear narrative thread. Chang expertly blends the life stories of the three sisters to guide us through the history of early modern China. Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister, written in a compulsive style that sweeps the story along, is much the fullest account of their remarkable lives available in English… The warts-and-all portrait of “the Father of the Republic” is a welcome corrective to My mother inspired me to ask questions. She came to stay with me in 1988 and said, “I want a serious talk”, and started to tell me stories including how she and my father had to walk from Manchuria to Sichuan, a journey of more than 2,000 miles. My mother suffered a miscarriage on the way. As she was talking, I began to think I must write all this down.

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After documenting the life and career of Mao Zedong, and making Empress Dowager Cixi an almost household name, filling in the gap between Cixi’s reign and Mao’s rise made perfect sense, and that’s what Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister proves to be. This is an ambitious undertaking, pruning the eventful lives of these 3 women to fit into one book. Jung Chang takes this on and covers all the highlights. The book is easily readable. The presentation is neutral to positive. The sisters's loyalty to one another is stressed. In each of the marriages, the Soong sister appears to be the better partner. The three sisters became a modern Chinese fairytale. They were much talked about and fanciful gossip about them was often passed around. An enjoyable take on China’s turbulent 20th-century history, seen through the revealing perspective of three women at the centre of power Andrea Janku, BBC History Her breathtaking new triple biography restores these “tiger-willed” women to their extraordinarily complex humanity . . . A gripping and emotional personal story.” —The Telegraph

Little Sister, May-ling, became Madame Chiang Kai-shek, first lady of pre-Communist Nationalist China and a major political figure in her own right. Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.A highly readable and accessible introduction to three important women who deserve wider recognition.” — Booklist This is what makes this book such an enormous success: that it reads like a biographical novel, with political change at the forefront and character narratives existing upstage. Each chapter focusses on a shift in power that is equal parts personal and political, and the Soong sisters are always there but rarely at the forefront, at least until the book’s final third. From left: Madame Chiang Kai-shek – Meiling – with her sisters Ailing and Qingling in 1942 in Chungking. Photograph: AP May-ling, Little Sister, spent a decade studying and living in the US before returning home and marrying Chiang Kai-shek during his rise to power. Red Sister Ching-ling, by far the most exciting of the three, was a powerful communist thinker. In her youth she was married to Sun Yat-sen, father of revolutionary China, and later in life she became the vice-chair of Chairman Mao Zedong. I feel very bad. She’s just come out of hospital. I wish I could just jump on a plane and go and see her. Fortunately, we can Skype. My mother is extraordinary. I still draw strength from her capacity to make me feel that everything is OK, that I should just be myself. She can take anything: glory, danger, hardship.

Chang seamlessly chronicles the lives and marriages of the Soong sisters in this captivating triple biography. . . . This juicy tale will satisfy readers interested in politics, world affairs, and family dynamics.”— Publishers Weekly The book’s strongest point is its nuanced sympathy for the sisters . . . The lives of the three Song sisters—the subjects of Jung Chang’s spirited new book—are more than worthy of an operatic plot.” — The Guardian

So Sun Yat-sen the aforementioned “father” of modern China, and Chiang Kai-shek the nationalist leader / dictator get at least as much if not more attention. The complicated history of China during this period is little-known to most Westerners, so this readable book helps fill a gap. By hooking it onto personalities, Jung Chang has been able to chart a comprehensible way through these decades and an immense mass of information that could otherwise be difficult to digest.” — Washington Times