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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
This is an honest and frightening memoir of growing up in Communist China during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Min describes a systematically deprived Shanghai childhood (the family was forced into successively meaner quarters); school days spent as a member of the Red Guard, spouting the words of Chairman Mao and being forced to publicly betray her favorite teacher; and later teen years on a work farm in order to become a peasant because peasants were the only true vanguard of the revolution. The farm years, with their backbreaking workdays and heartbreaking, lonely nights, exemplify the grinding insanity of the Cultural Revolution, the terror and dehumanization it inflicted on ordinary Chinese. Eventually, Min was tapped by the party to be in the propaganda film Red Azalea, during the making of which she suffered more humiliation and political subterfuge. What is so extraordinary is that Min managed to keep a tight hold on her spirit. Her autobiography is not just a coming-of-age story or history lesson; it is a tale of inner strength and courage that transcends time and place. Mary Ellen Sullivan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
Fascinating memoir of a young Chinese girl during the collapse of the Maoist regime. As a schoolgirl, Min distinguishes herself as a young communist--and a high point of her career as head of the Little Red Guard comes when she is persuaded to denounce her beloved teacher as a reactionary, thus ruining the woman's career and possibly placing her life in jeopardy. As a reward for this revolutionary act, Min is sent to Red Fire Farm near the China Sea to work as a peasant on the collective. Trying to cultivate the salty soil, preyed upon by leeches, toiling constantly in near starvation with her fellow ``soldiers,'' Min experiences firsthand the reasons why thousands died in these communes. Forbidden any contact with the opposite sex, Min falls in love with her female squad leader, Yan, and the two have a passionate affair shadowed by the constant threat of discovery and possible execution. Min then has the opportunity to escape the farm and compete for the starring role in comrade Jiang Ching's movie of Madam Mao's latest opera, Red Azalea. She attracts the interest of a man identified only as ``The Supervisor,'' a cultural advisor to Madam Mao, who makes Min the star, at the same time embarking on an affair with her. Min still loves Yan but finally comes to accept that circumstances must always divide them. Production of Red Azalea is curtailed by Mao's death, forcing the Supervisor to go into hiding to save his life. Min works menially in the movie studio for several more years, falling ill with TB, until an actress with whom she worked, who emigrated to America, urges her to emigrate too. The slight awkwardness of her English does not obscure the beauty of Min's poetic, distinctively Chinese diction. A haunting and quietly dramatic coming-of-age story with a cultural cataclysm as its backdrop. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
This is an honest and frightening memoir of growing up in Communist China during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Min describes a systematically deprived Shanghai childhood (the family was forced into successively meaner quarters); school days spent as a member of the Red Guard, spouting the words of Chairman Mao and being forced to publicly betray her favorite teacher; and later teen years on a work farm in order to become a peasant because peasants were the only true vanguard of the revolution. The farm years, with their backbreaking workdays and heartbreaking, lonely nights, exemplify the grinding insanity of the Cultural Revolution, the terror and dehumanization it inflicted on ordinary Chinese. Eventually, Min was tapped by the party to be in the propaganda film Red Azalea, during the making of which she suffered more humiliation and political subterfuge. What is so extraordinary is that Min managed to keep a tight hold on her spirit. Her autobiography is not just a coming-of-age story or history lesson; it is a tale of inner strength and courage that transcends time and place. Mary Ellen Sullivan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
Fascinating memoir of a young Chinese girl during the collapse of the Maoist regime. As a schoolgirl, Min distinguishes herself as a young communist--and a high point of her career as head of the Little Red Guard comes when she is persuaded to denounce her beloved teacher as a reactionary, thus ruining the woman's career and possibly placing her life in jeopardy. As a reward for this revolutionary act, Min is sent to Red Fire Farm near the China Sea to work as a peasant on the collective. Trying to cultivate the salty soil, preyed upon by leeches, toiling constantly in near starvation with her fellow ``soldiers,'' Min experiences firsthand the reasons why thousands died in these communes. Forbidden any contact with the opposite sex, Min falls in love with her female squad leader, Yan, and the two have a passionate affair shadowed by the constant threat of discovery and possible execution. Min then has the opportunity to escape the farm and compete for the starring role in comrade Jiang Ching's movie of Madam Mao's latest opera, Red Azalea. She attracts the interest of a man identified only as ``The Supervisor,'' a cultural advisor to Madam Mao, who makes Min the star, at the same time embarking on an affair with her. Min still loves Yan but finally comes to accept that circumstances must always divide them. Production of Red Azalea is curtailed by Mao's death, forcing the Supervisor to go into hiding to save his life. Min works menially in the movie studio for several more years, falling ill with TB, until an actress with whom she worked, who emigrated to America, urges her to emigrate too. The slight awkwardness of her English does not obscure the beauty of Min's poetic, distinctively Chinese diction. A haunting and quietly dramatic coming-of-age story with a cultural cataclysm as its backdrop. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
I WAS RAISED ON THE TEACHINGS OF MAO and on the operas of Madam Mao, Comrade Jiang Ching. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
set clerk, squad head, fine feed, model operas, rice shoots, steamed bread, red underwear, brick factory Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Soviet Wong, Little Green, Cheering Spear, Red Azalea, Big Beard, Comrade Jiang Ching, Sound of Rain, Red Fire Farm, Chairman Mao, Secretary Chain, Space Conqueror, Little Bell, Tricky Head, Red Army, Red Guards, Big Tai, Communist Party, Little Coffin, One Ounce, Leopard Lee, Cultural Revolution, Madam Mao, Little Red Book, Company Thirty, Long March New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
I WAS RAISED ON THE TEACHINGS OF MAO and on the operas of Madam Mao, Comrade Jiang Ching. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
set clerk, squad head, fine feed, model operas, rice shoots, steamed bread, red underwear, brick factory Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Soviet Wong, Little Green, Cheering Spear, Red Azalea, Big Beard, Comrade Jiang Ching, Sound of Rain, Red Fire Farm, Chairman Mao, Secretary Chain, Space Conqueror, Little Bell, Tricky Head, Red Army, Red Guards, Big Tai, Communist Party, Little Coffin, One Ounce, Leopard Lee, Cultural Revolution, Madam Mao, Little Red Book, Company Thirty, Long March New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 10
books:
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39
books
cite this book:
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- The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen on page 33
- City State: A Contemporary History of the City and How Money Triumphed by Richard Roberts in Back Matter
- The Little Mermaid (Favourite Tales) by H.C. Andersen on page 33
- Second Nature by Alice Hoffman in Back Matter
- Cultural Revolution by Norman Wong on page 127
See all 10 books this book cites
- Red Azalea : Berkley Trade Signature Edition by Anchee Min on 4 pages
- Mao's Children in the New China: Voices From the Red Guard Generation (Asia's Transformations) by Yarong Jiang in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Front Matter (3)
- Empress Orchid by Anchee Min in Front Matter, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults by Janja A. Lalich in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Remapping China: Fissures in Historical Terrain (Irvine Studies in the Humanities) by Emily Honig in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
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