Red Azalea

"Red Azalea" (1994, Pantheon Books, ISBN 1-4000-9698-7) is the memoir of Chinese American writer Anchee Min (b. 1957). It was written over the first eight years she spent in the United States from 1984 to 1992 and tells the story of her life in China.

The memoir was written in English, Min's adopted language. The names of the characters were translated into English instead of spelt out phonetically. For example: her first name, Anchee, means Jade of Peace, and her siblings' names are Blooming, Coral, and Space Conqueror. The autobiography is unusually metatextual, dealing with themes of ideology, performativity, and psychology, especially the psychology of gender and sex.

In Part 1, Min tells the story of her childhood in Shanghai under the rule of Mao Zedong during the 1960s. She believes wholeheartedly in Mao's Communism and is an outstanding student. Her first conflict with this system comes when a favorite teacher is put on trial for espionage and the young Anchee Min is expected to testify against her.

Part Two tells of her life on a farm outside of Shanghai with other teenagers. She was assigned to work there and has little hope of escaping her life of manual labour. At this point, Min finds a role model to follow and stays on track with Maoism. She soon finds difficulty, however, when a friend is mentally broken by interrogation and humiliation after being discovered in a sexual situation with a man. Abuse of power by her superiors and a lesbian relationship with another farm-worker further erode Min's trust in Maoism. At the end of Part Two, she has been selected to move back to Shanghai and train to be an actress.

Part Three is the story of her training at a film studio, in competition with other young trainees. More abuse of power and complex love relationships exacerbate her disillusion with Mao's system. She comes in and out of favour with her superiors in the film studio, depending on who is in charge. Eventually her future as an actress is eliminated and Min works as a clerk in the studio. At the end of Part Three, in 1976, Mao dies and his wife, Jiang Qing, is arrested. The next few years are more or less skipped over and Min ends with a short explanation of how she came to live in the United States in 1984.

From the first line, the book is full of sayings from "Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong" and references to Mao and Jiang. Min never outright rejects Mao's teachings, she just seems to grow to learn that life is more complex than she was taught. Generally, she is depicted as being tossed around by the will of her superiors, but also particularly fortunate in the opportunities she finds. Most of the characters are strong females who are either her friends or enemies. It is quite an insight into an individual life under a totalitarian state where unity was praised and individuality was punished.