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Best-Selling Memoirist and Novelist Anchee Min To Give
Reading at Pomona College
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Author Anchee Min, best known for her international
bestselling memoir, Red Azalea, the story of her
childhood in communist China, will talk about her work and
give a reading at Pomona College on Thursday, February 16 at
7 p.m.
This event will be held in the Edmunds Ballroom, Smith
Campus Center (170 E. Sixth St., Claremont) and is sponsored
by the Associated Students of Pomona College.
 Since the completion of her memoir Red Azalea, Min has
written four subsequent works of historical fiction:
Katherine, Becoming Madame Mao, Wild Ginger
and Empress Orchid. The books attempt to re-record
histories that have been falsely written. “If my own history
is recorded falsely, how about other people?” she asks. Both
critics and writers have praised her work, calling it
“historical fiction of the first order.”
Min credits English with giving her a means to express
herself, arming her with the voice and vocabulary to write
about growing up during China’s Cultural Revolution. “There
was no way for me to describe those experiences or talk
about those feelings in Chinese,” Min has said of a language
too burdened by Maoist rhetoric. Today she writes candidly
about events she was once encouraged to bury. The New
York Times has called her “a wild, passionate and
fearless American writer.”
As a girl, Min learned to write “Long live Chairman Mao,”
before she learned to write her own name. She was devoted to
Mao and to communism, memorizing Mao's Little Red Book and
joining the student Red Guard. Sent to a labor camp at the
age of 17, Min did not consider it a prison sentence, but an
act of devotion to her country.
She worked for three years before talent scouts spotted her
toiling in a cotton field. Madame Mao, preparing to take
over China, was looking for a leading actress for a
propaganda film. Min was selected for having the ideal
“proletarian” look. Mao died before the film was complete,
and Madame Mao, blamed for the disaster of the revolution,
was sentenced to death. Min was labeled a political outcast
by association. She was disgraced, punished, and forced to
perform menial tasks in order to reform herself.
In 1984, with the help of a friend in the United States, Min
left China and came to America. She spoke no English when
she arrived in Chicago, but within six months had taught
herself the language—in part by watching American
television.
For further information about this event, call: (909)
621-8610.
Pomona College is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts
institutions, offering a comprehensive program in the arts,
humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Its
hallmarks include small classes, close relationships between
students and faculty, and a range of opportunities for
student research. Visit Pomona College on the web at
www.pomona.edu |
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