Anchee Min lived in China for twenty-seven years. Born in Shanghai in 1957, she grew up during Mao’s Cultural Revolution (1964-1976). As a teen, she was taught to denounce Pearl S. Buck as an American cultural imperialist. At age seventeen, Min was sent to a labor collective, where a talent scout for Madame Mao recruited her to work in propaganda films as an actress because of her proletarian look.
Min arrived in Chicago in 1984. She first learned English through American public radio, children’s television programs, and talk shows. To earn a living, she worked as a part-time maid, a waitress, and a fabric painter and in construction and plumbing, while going to school at night. Her memoir, Red Azalea, was published in 1994 and was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book. Min is also the author of bestselling historical fiction, including Becoming Madame Mao, Empress Orchid (nominated for the British Book Awards Best Read of the Year 2006), and The Last Empress. Min’s books have been translated into thirty-two languages.
The legacy of Pearl S. Buck continues at her charity, Pearl S. Buck International: www.pearlsbuck.org.