Red Azalea

I have read Becoming Madame Mao before but unfortunately I was not able to finish it because the copy that I bought was missing the last few chapters (2nd hand book). I liked reading that book although there are some parts that are quite boring. As Becoming Madame Mao has been a very controversial read, Red Azalea is not any different.

I find Anchee Min to be very bold in her writings and it is again proved to be right by this novel. Although I think Red Azalea is good enough memoir, sometimes I cannot help but wonder if some parts of her story were make believe or in a way, enhanced a bit to give more color to the story. 

I have always been very interested in any books, especially autobiographies of people who lives or lived in China. Maybe because I know that China has been censoring almost everything that is against them; and that I can only have a blurred glimpse of the country when some brave soul manage to publish his/her life story with every single important details intact. One very good example is the events during the Cultural Revolution. Who would have thought that the children of that time were bold enough to do what she did in order to please the political organization she's a part of? Who would have thought that she will have the courage to follow every single thing that she was instructed to do for the sake of the Party? And who would have thought that she would finally emerge from the Red farm almost unscathed and yet triumphant, given the circumstances she went through? But maybe so it is that whenever a person encounters hardship, he has no other choice but to fight back. He has to fight it out in order to survive, fight until he discovers the strength he possesses. A courage that he has never imagined he had in him. 

If everything in Min's memoir are true, then I would have to salute her for being able to come out of it alive and in one piece. I applaud her for being able to adapt to her situation each time, though it was never an easy process. I feel sorry for her though, for when the time finally came for her to be able to be Red Azalea, only to NOT to be Red Azalea in the end.

image grabbed from Goodreads.com