Anchee Min

Min was born in Shanghai, China, on January 14, 1957. Her parents were both teachers.{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/books/la-xpm-2013-may-09-la-ca-jc-anchee-min-20130512-story.html|title='The Cooked Seed' details Anchee Min's fraught immigrant saga|last=McAlpin|first=Heller|date=2013-05-09|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035|access-date=2016-04-10}} She was nine years old when the Cultural Revolution began.{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10116718/Anchee-Min-If-I-had-stayed-in-China-I-would-be-dead.html|title=Anchee Min: 'If I had stayed in China, I would be dead'|website=Telegraph.co.uk|date=July 4, 2013 |access-date=2016-04-10}} As a child, she was a member of the Little Red Guards and was made to report her favorite teacher, who was accused of being an anti-Maoist, to the authorities.

When Min was 17, she was sent to a collective farm{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/books/la-xpm-2013-may-09-la-ca-jc-anchee-min-20130512-story.html|title='The Cooked Seed' details Anchee Min's fraught immigrant saga|last=McAlpin|first=Heller|date=2013-05-09|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035|access-date=2016-05-25}} near the East China Sea, where she endured horrific conditions and worked 18-hour days. Eventually, she suffered a spinal cord injury. She began an affair with the commander at her camp, a woman named Yan, although she attributes the affair largely to loneliness.{{fact|date=February 2024}}

At the collective farm, Min was discovered by a team of talent scouts from the Shanghai Film Studio and was selected to become an actress for her ideal "proletarian good looks."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/18/magazine/the-re-education-of-anchee-min.html|title=The Re-education of Anchee Min|last=Scott|first=A. O.|date=2000-06-18|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-04-10}} She eventually won the lead role in a propaganda film inspired by Madame Mao. However, the film was never completed. After Mao Zedong's death and the subsequent downfall of Jiang Qing, Min was ostracized and treated badly. She was depressed and considered suicide. With the assistance of her friend, actress Joan Chen, and the sponsorship of her aunt living in Singapore, Min obtained a passport and applied to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She then emigrated to the United States. As she was initially entering the country, she was nearly deported when it was discovered that, contrary to what she had put on her visa application, she did not speak English. However, she was able to convince the immigration officer to allow her to enter into the country.{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10116718/Anchee-Min-If-I-had-stayed-in-China-I-would-be-dead.html|title=Anchee Min: 'If I had stayed in China, I would be dead'|last=Bertodano|first=Helena de|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=2013-07-04|access-date=2018-04-23|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}

After moving to the US, Min worked five jobs at the same time{{Cite web|url=http://nationalwritersseries.org/programs/an-evening-with-anchee-min/|title=An Evening with Anchee Min - National Writers Series|website=National Writers Series|date=January 24, 2014 |language=en-US|access-date=2016-05-25}} and learned English by, among others, watching Sesame Street.{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2013/05/12/181972729/a-cooked-seed-sprouts-after-all-in-america|title=A 'Cooked Seed' Sprouts After All, In America|website=NPR |access-date=2016-05-25}}

Min is openly bisexual.{{Cite web |last=Min |first=Anchee |date=March 21, 2017 |title=Anchee Min on X: "June 2015-Gay marriage legalized in the U.S.! As a bisexual woman I am ecstatic :)" |url=https://x.com/MinAnchee/status/844329973695463424 |access-date=September 23, 2024 |website=X}} Her first husband was a Chinese artist named Qigu Jiang. They had a daughter, Lauryann, who attended Stanford University.{{Cite web|url=http://asiasociety.org/texas/overcoming-odds-author%25E2%2580%2599s-success-daughter%25E2%2580%2599s-talents-forged-%25E2%2580%2598self-worth%25E2%2580%2599|title=Overcoming Odds, Author's Success & Daughter's Talents Forged 'Self Worth'|website=Asia Society|access-date=2016-04-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420064104/http://asiasociety.org/texas/overcoming-odds-author%25E2%2580%2599s-success-daughter%25E2%2580%2599s-talents-forged-%25E2%2580%2598self-worth%25E2%2580%2599|archive-date=April 20, 2016|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}} According to Min herself, she "lured [Qigu] into marriage, making herself pregnant by him although she knew he did not want a child" and subsequently their marriage fell apart.

In 1999, Min married teacher and writer Lloyd Lofthouse.{{cite web | url=http://nationalwritersseries.org/programs/an-evening-with-anchee-min/ | title=Anchee Min | date=January 24, 2014 }}{{Cite web |title=Lloyd Lofthouse (author) on AuthorsDen |url=http://www.authorsden.com/lloydlofthouse |access-date=2022-09-04 |website=AuthorsDen.com}} She filed for divorce in 2014,{{Cite web |title=ANCHEE MIN VS. LLOYD LOFTHOUSE |url=https://unicourt.com/case/ca-ccc-anchee-min-vs-lloyd-lofthouse-302219 |access-date=2022-09-04 |website=UniCourt |language=en}} and it was finalized in 2015.{{Cite web |date=2018-04-06 |title=Failing at Dating the Third Time around at Seventy-Two |url=https://lloydlofthouse.org/2018/04/06/failing-at-dating-the-third-time-around-at-seventy-two/ |access-date=2022-09-04 |website=Lloyd Lofthouse |language=en}}

Min graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a B.F.A. and M.F.A. in Fine Arts.{{cite journal|url=http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/min_anchee.php|title=Anchee Min|journal=Voices from the Gaps|publisher=University of Minnesota|accessdate=June 8, 2013}}

• Red Azalea (Pantheon Books, 1994, {{ISBN|9780679423324}}; a New York Times Notable Book); Random House Digital, Inc., 2011, {{ISBN|9780307781024}}
• The Cooked Seed: A Memoir. Bloomsbury USA, May 7, 2013, {{ISBN|978-1-59691-698-2}}

• Katherine Hamish Hamilton, 1995, {{ISBN|978-0-241-13541-9}}
• Becoming Madame Mao (Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin. {{ISBN|0-618-12700-3}}.). Based on the life of Jiang Qing, the last wife of Mao Zedong.
• {{cite book|title=Wild Ginger: A Novel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TqlPR48QIr4C|accessdate=June 8, 2013|date=January 1, 2004|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-0-547-34937-4}}
• Empress Orchid Bloomsbury Publishing Incorporated, 2004, {{ISBN|9780747566984}}
• The Last Empress (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2007, {{ISBN|9780747578505}}). Based on the life of Empress Dowager Cixi, the late 19th and early 20th century Qing dynasty Empress Dowager.
• Pearl of China: A Novel. Bloomsbury Publishing, April 9, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1-60819-151-2}}. Inspired by the life of Pearl S. Buck as a girl and young woman in China.

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2000/06/09/the-many-lives-of-anchee-min/|title=THE MANY LIVES OF ANCHEE MIN |newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=2000-06-09}}

{{wikiquote}}

• [http://ancheemin.com Official website]
• {{cite web| title=Prairie Lights Books, Iowa City, Iowa, April 2010 interview audio file| url=http://accents.international.uiowa.edu/global-gigs/anchee-min/| access-date=May 20, 2010| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100622161606/http://accents.international.uiowa.edu/global-gigs/anchee-min/| archive-date=June 22, 2010| url-status=dead| df=mdy-all}}
• {{cite web| title= Powell's Books Author Interviews: Anchee Min| url= http://www.powells.com/authors/min.html| access-date= March 29, 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080318165955/http://www.powells.com/authors/min.html| archive-date= March 18, 2008| url-status= dead| df= mdy-all}}
• {{cite web | last = Wang | first = Annie | title=Anchee Min's Passionate World|url=http://www.chineseculture.net/ancheemin.html| year=1999}}

{{Anchee Min}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Min, Anchee}}

Category:1957 births

Category:Living people

Category:American writers of Chinese descent

Category:Chinese historical novelists

Category:Actresses from Shanghai

Category:Writers from Shanghai

Category:Chinese emigrants to the United States

Category:21st-century Chinese women writers

Category:American women writers

Category:School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni

Category:Red Guards

Category:Bisexual women writers