Red Azalea

First published in 1994, Anchee Min’s Red Azalea has won a fair bit of acclaim. It was named a New York Times Notable Book and also won the 1993 Carl Sandburg Literary Award in 1993. As a genre-defying blend of autobiography, memoir, and novel, Red Azalea focuses on the struggle to gain freedom and individual identity amid state-sponsored oppression. As the sole narrator of the novel, Min depicts her own views of the Cultural Revolution (1964-1976) through her first-hand memories, blurring the boundary between subject and author and facing her actions and their consequences, from her first denunciation of a teacher, to her work on a government-run farm and short-lived role as Red Azalea in a propaganda-oriented film. Min has written several other books, including Empress Orchid and Madam Mao, both of which focus on historical figures in Chinese history and engage with the same themes and elements present in Red Azalea. To clarify Anchee Min’s dual roles as both narrator and author, “Anchee” is used to denote her role as the protagonist of the novel, and “Min” is used to identify her role as the author of Red Azalea.