Original language:
Chinese Translated from: English
Authors: Min, Anchee
Translated by: Banelytė, Antanina
ISBN: 978-5-415-02136-9
Published in: Vilnius
Published on: 2009
Publisher: Vaga
“Becoming Madame Mao” is psychological, historical novel published in 2001. In it writer tells a sad, exciting and tragic life story of second-rate actress who was abandoned by her parents and who swung from one romance to another when finally becomes a wife of Mao Dzedung. This is a story about women who betrayed and was betrayed by others and also about a women who all her life strived to fulfill her desire. In this novel, while writing by first or third person, character of heroine is revealed: ambitious, admirable and determined but at the same time vindictive, violent as well as jealous. While carrying out Cultural Revolution and especially while wanting to become the head of China after death of her husband, women eliminated all her enemies who stood in her way extremely those who humiliated her before or did not let finish her “role”. Madame Mao, also called “White-boned demon”, all her life behaved as she was acting in a play, always on the stage.
However, in the book we can also find not only a drawing of a women but also many other aspects. For example: traditions, when in Madame Mao childhood her mother tried to make girls foot look like lotus flower. Often we can found a reflection about why people became revolutionaries or question – who is worth to be called “real” Chinese – is asked. Special attention is paid on propaganda, strive of power. While carrying out Cultural Revolution, Jiang Qing builds her own cultural bureaucracy and thanks to that created revolutionary films, plays as well as opera. Two oppositions often fabricated facts making people to testify falsely by force, threats or manipulations. It should be mentioned that everything that Madame Mao did was behalf of Mao, only the shadow of countries ruler helped her gain some sort of authority. In writing we can also find references to the opera, plays and especially poetry.
In the end it should be emphasized that this is a novel, not a historical assessment. Even if we can find historical references but it is mainly focused on the most powerful seventh and eight decades women of China. Madame Mao is known as violent, full of anger and emotionally unstable. In spite of this, Anchee Min, while describing her personal life, let us realize that this woman is still a human being.
Anchee Min is a Chinese – American author who was born during Cultural Revolution (1957). The writer published two memoirs and six historical novels. Her fictions emphasizes strong female characters such as the last ruling empress of China CiXi (慈禧) or Jiang Qing (江青) – the wife of chairman Mao Dzedong (毛澤東).