Anchee Min

A revelatory and disturbing portrait of China, this is Anchee Min’s celebrated memoir of growing up in the last years of Mao’s China. As a child, Min was asked to publicly humiliate a teacher; at seventeen, she was sent to work at a labor collective. Forbidden to speak, dress, read, write, or love as she pleased, she found a lifeline in a secret love affair with another woman. Miraculously selected for the film version of one of Madame

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From the master of the historical novel, Empress Orchid sweeps readers into the splendid heart of the Forbidden City to tell the fascinating story of a young Chinese concubine who becomes china's last empress. Min introduces the beautiful Tzu Hsi, known as Orchid, and weaves an epic of a country girl who seizes power through seduction, murder, and endless intrigue. When china is threatened by enemies, she alone sees capable of holding her country...

The author takes on the identity of Madame Mao, wife of Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong, presenting her as insecure and in need of love instead of simply vindictive and cruel, and uses historical facts, characters, and documents to tell her story.