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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
amazing... after having just finished the novel Pearl of China by the same author, I kept feeling like this one (her memoir) felt even more like a novel than the novel! She has had an amazing (and difficult!) life and writes about it eloquently. Moving and informative account of life in Mao's China -- and her path to leaving that life.
I was really feeling this book until I got to a part in the story where she describes undesirable features as "African." Unfortunately, this casual revelation of perspective renders the whole damn book unsafe for black people to read in my opinion.
A beautiful and sad memoir of a girl stuck in communist China when she was secretly somewhat of a “bourgeois individualist” as they called it. It’s a story about thwarted desire, sexual awakening, love, loss, and bitterness. I only wish there was more about Mao and the Party because I don’t no much about China during that period. I might have to do some digging after this one
11/13: Another recommendation from Hilary, who is my designated anthropological/socal awareness book recommender.
Would definitely recommend to ELA friends/anyone interested in seriously beautiful nonfiction prose! Heavy subject matter, but any excerpt would be a great conversation-starter in a unit discussing mid-century communism, memoir, autobiography, or creative nonfiction.
Incredible prose, female independence, and a vivid portrait of post-Cultural Revolution China.
Incredible prose, female independence, and a vivid portrait of post-Cultural Revolution China.
Found this book to be very dry and hard to get through. It gave good insight into the depths of the brain washing of people during the Cultural Revolution.
My Review: Books are in my blood, it’s no secret. I am shamelessly in awe of literature. Such enormous life concepts- passion, culture, love, war; even existence itself- become contained within a few magical pages. On a dusty shelf in the corner of a rare bookstore in Salt Lake City, Utah sits Communist China, in all its colossal glory, simply waiting to be discovered by an unsuspecting, shelf-perusing reader.
Red Azalea is the story of a girl trying to grow up in the shadow of Mao- “I was an adult since the age of five,” Anchee Min tells the world. Despite its seemingly foreign landscape, however, this is a story of development that could be claimed by many of us. It highlights those inherent human qualities that cannot be quelled- even in the face of criminalization and demonization by a repressed society.
Flipping through pages of Red Azalea, you will accompany Anchee Min as she finds friendship, falls in and out of love, explores her sexuality, questions her identity and purpose, and, ultimately, experiences all the joy and devastation of growing up. And the fact that she was able to accomplish all of this within the rigid context of 1960’s Communist China makes the whole story pretty damn incredible.
But that’s coming from an unabashed bookworm, so you’ll just have to pick up a copy and read for yourself!
Red Azalea is the story of a girl trying to grow up in the shadow of Mao- “I was an adult since the age of five,” Anchee Min tells the world. Despite its seemingly foreign landscape, however, this is a story of development that could be claimed by many of us. It highlights those inherent human qualities that cannot be quelled- even in the face of criminalization and demonization by a repressed society.
Flipping through pages of Red Azalea, you will accompany Anchee Min as she finds friendship, falls in and out of love, explores her sexuality, questions her identity and purpose, and, ultimately, experiences all the joy and devastation of growing up. And the fact that she was able to accomplish all of this within the rigid context of 1960’s Communist China makes the whole story pretty damn incredible.
But that’s coming from an unabashed bookworm, so you’ll just have to pick up a copy and read for yourself!
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
What a coming of age memoir. It was refreshing to read honest inner and outer dialogue about a period shrouded in secrecy within national and family lore. The book stares right into the face of how China’s re-education efforts/farming initiatives from this era were set up to fail, despite all the good intentions. To me, the book also captured one of the Cultural Revolution’s greatest mysteries: how people could’ve been so ruthless to their teachers, neighbours and even friends. The book partially answers my question in a mundane way — It’s not much deeper than peer pressure potentially.
I didn’t realize until reading this book that dating/sex was so frowned upon - maybe even criminalized - during the Cultural Revolution. And so, it was even more moving to read how human connection prevailed during in the Cultural Revolution through a queer story line! The sex is very queer in this book imo, loved that!
I didn’t realize until reading this book that dating/sex was so frowned upon - maybe even criminalized - during the Cultural Revolution. And so, it was even more moving to read how human connection prevailed during in the Cultural Revolution through a queer story line! The sex is very queer in this book imo, loved that!
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced