Red Azalea
The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the book "Red Azalea: Life and Love in China," by Anchee Min. Specifically, it will describe life in Communist China during the Cultural Revolution (late 1960s) for a young woman, and comment on the degree of independence-choice enjoyed by women in the book. The women living in China during the Cultural Revolution did not enjoy independence or choice - they lived in fear and under constant scrutiny of the Communist Party. Anchee Min's book "Red Azalea" is a touching story of a young girl growing up under Communist rule in China. She had a difficult life, and although women took part in the Cultural Revolution and were an important part of it, women - and all Chinese were not independent or free during this time, they lived under the watchful eye of the Communist Party. Most of what they did was not of their own free will, but chosen for them by the Party. Min says she was a grownup by the age of five, and she certainly had no choice about it - it was expected of all the children, as she writes here: "I was an adult since the age of five. That was nothing unusual" (Min 4). She has to act as an adult because her parents, a
Women in Communist China were not people, they were simply things, and Min's book shows how terrible life was during the Cultural Revolution. At one point in the book, she is forced to speak out against her favorite teacher, Autumn Leaves, by the Party, and she does it because she is so afraid of them. 'I don't think I ever had you as my student' (Azalea 38). This clearly shows not only how strong the Party was, and how frightened people were of them, but it also shows just how little freedom women had in China, because the only people who really had freedom and independence were the people high up in the Party who made the rules. ] Little Green was trembling and weeping. In the China of Min's generation, the punishment of being disowned by one's teacher is almost comparable to being disowned by one's parents" (Xu 203). People like Min and her family had very little independence.
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Acceptance Essays
