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Red Azalea is Anchee Min’s true‑story account of her life amid the Cultural Revolution in China. Born in Shanghai in 1957, she is coerced into joining the Little Red Guards and forced to denounce a beloved teacher. Seventeen years old, she is sent to work at the Red Fire Farm, where fear, deprivation, and hardship shape her education. Despite strict restrictions on speech, dress, reading, and love, Min finds emotional resilience through a relationship with her company leader. Later, she becomes a finalist for a film adaptation of a Mao-era political opera, only to witness Mao’s sudden death as shooting begins, forever altering her world. Min’s narrative offers an intimate, candid portrait of the Cultural Revolution’s toll on young people caught in its violent spiral.
First publish date: 1993
Genre: Biography & Autobiography/Autobiography
Authors: Anchee Min
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Red Azalea by Anchee Min

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