Becoming Madame Mao

Anchee Min is an author to watch. She grew up in China's Cultural Revolution and wrote an astonishing memoir. She followed that with a novel, Katherine, about an American teaching English in China. So I was quick to pick up a copy of Becoming Madame Mao, but slow to read it. Generally, I prefer my historical novels to concern ordinary people.

Becoming Madame Mao tells the story of Jiang Chiang, Mao's wife and leader of the infamous "Group of Four", but not in the form of a straightforward historical account. Min moves back and forth from the first person to a very close third person and restricts herself to following Madame Mao. She's an interesting, but difficult woman to follow, constantly concerned with positioning herself and with show more getting the attention she feels she deserves.

The writing style worked perfectly with Min's subject. Told from the first person only, the book would have been too claustrophobic to read, in the third person, I would have missed out on who she was. An actress, Madame Mao was adept at projecting the face she wanted to towards the world. This book is a fascinating picture of a time, place and person I knew very little about. show less

I read Empress Orchid before this one, that book was my first Anchee Min novel. I can't say that this book is as good, but it's still a enjoyable read with Ms. Min's fluid writing and wording. It's a fascinating if somewhat fictionalized look into the life of Madame Mao. If you are a fan of Anchee Min, you should enjoy this book, but if you've never read Anchee Min before, start with 'Empress Orchid' or 'Red Azlaea'.

Written in a simple style, this fiction book in the form of an autobiography of the infamous Madame Mao was a quick, informative read. Jiang Ching was a strong-willed child who refused to have her feet bound in the traditional way. Her 'Liberation" feet led her on a path from obscurity to becoming an actress, and on to being the most powerful woman in China during the Cultural Revolution.

I was slightly irritated by the writing style. Short, choppy sentences. Jumping from first to third person for no discernible purpose. However, in the end, I learned more about this period in China's history, and I was entertained. Maybe not the highest praise, but it fits into my description of a 3.5 star book: "Good but not great."

First, a bit of historical background. Madame Mao Jiang Ching rose from struggling starlet to first lady of China when she married Mao Tse-Dung during the second World War. Although she languished in obscurity for much of her husband's reign, she is popularly viewed as the chief architect of the Cultural Revolution, a political purge that resulted in the torture, execution, exile and public humiliation of many of China's intellectuals and government leaders. Becoming Madame Mao is Anchee Min's attempt to explain how Jiang Ching became a woman capable of leading a society into multi-year reign of terror. The book starts off strong, describing Jiang Ching's childhood of perpetual isolation, struggle for fame and ultimate transformation show more into a Communist guerilla. Each chapter feels vivid and real thanks to Min's knack for bringing a setting to life. 1930s Shanghai and Mao's mountain guerilla camp are real parts of the story, not just backdrops for the action. Young Jiang Ching is also a well-done character. Cunning, manipulative and ambitious, she's clearly on the brink of selling her soul to the devil but Min's writing is strong enough that readers are still able to understand and sympathize with her longing for recognition. It's after the war that book falters. Jiang Ching's lust for power fades into the background and most chapters focus on her longing to be loved by her husband. In the end, the book seems to want us to believe that Madame Mao orders the torture, execution and public humiliation of hundreds of people just because she wants her husband to love her again. The persecution of her enemies seems glossed over with a sentence ("she felt comfortable calling the Security Chief in the early hours of the morning to add names to the execution list") and the book doesn't seem to acknowledge that putting your conscience aside to save your marriage is as reprehensible as killing out of a lust for power. These weaknesses come as a shock after the strenghts of the first half of the book and seriously undermined my enjoyment of it. As badly as I wanted to like it, I can only give it two stars. show less

I found this book really interesting -- the interplay between Mao Jian Ching's thinking and the 3rd person writing was unusual and effectively. Seemed to be nicely researched. A good read.

I just could not get into this historical biography of Mao Zedong's wife. Jiang Qing, as she was later known, lived a fascinating life in twentieth-century China as both an actress and wife to a Communist dictator. However, while I knew a little about Jiang Qing's life, I failed to find Becoming Madame Mao compelling. While Anchee Min does a good job of describing Jiang Qing's background as an actress and its effect on her later actions, I found the novel difficult to follow and far from engrossing. However, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in historical fiction about Mao Zedong or Jiang Qing.

I really enjoyed the blending of fiction, biography, and history. However, I had a lot of difficulty with the constant perspective shifting. I felt the frequency was over-done and that often there was no clear delineation so that I would go back and reread to figure out who was actually 'talking'. Still, the content was fascinating and the descriptive language was often poetic and lovely.