Red Azalea

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses a false accusation of sexual assault.

At the People’s Square in Shanghai, Anchee meets Comrade Lu, who works at Red Fire Farm and is Commander Yan’s second-in-command. Anchee joins a group of people on a truck and goes to the farm. Together with Lu, Anchee and the rest of the workers sing songs. When Anchee smells the East China Sea, she realizes that she has arrived. Commander Yan Sheng addresses the new arrivals, reminding them of their duties and demanding that they work hard. In her barracks, Anchee meets her other roommates, including Orchid and Little Green. Anchee describes Little Green, who is the granddaughter of an opera singer, as being elegant and pale. Like her grandmother, Little Green also sings well, and Anchee worries about this sign of Little Green’s individuality, foreseeing trouble in Little Green’s audacity and implicitly recalling her own denunciation of Autumn Leaves.

Anchee describes the hard work in the fields and relates how Little Green often stops work to stretch her back, earning the anger of her fellow workers. Later, Little Green’s embroidered underwear is stolen, and Yan attempts to find the culprit.