Red Azalea

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

Throughout Red Azalea, Min highlights her myriad experiences of the Cultural Revolution, and analyzes the various attacks on individual identity that she must weather, as Mao’s propaganda radically changes national and regional governments. Even her peers attempt to strip her identity away in the name of enforcing conformity with the ideals of the Cultural Revolution. In a world that characterizes individual identity as a sign of bourgeois attachments, preserving one’s sense of identity in the face of oppression becomes a lifelong struggle, and in each stage of her journey, Anchee becomes more and more disillusioned with Communist ideals and grows to honor her own desires with much greater intensity. In each stage of the memoir, Red Azalea demonstrates the ways in which individual identity can survive despite intense societal oppression. Using the down fall of Little Green and the struggles of her younger self, Min boldly examines the true costs of this survival.

For Anchee and the rest of the company at Red Fire Farm, Little Green embodies the dangers of developing personal attachments and desires. Describing Little Green’s efforts to personalize her uniform, Anchee admits that she “admired Little Green’s guts.