"Red Azalea"

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes Min's book, which describes life for a young woman in Communist China during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s. The paper comments on the degree of independence and choice enjoyed by women in the book. It shows how the women living in China during the Cultural Revolution did not enjoy independence or choice; they lived in fear and under the constant scrutiny of the Communist Party.

From the Paper:

"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, and everyone's parents, were busy working for the Revolution, and they had no choice either, because they would have been sent away, or even killed if they did not support the Communist Party and their Revolution."

More papers on "Red Azalea":

• Essay # 75304 : "Red Azalea: Life and Love in China" "
• Analytical Essay # 63277 : "Red Azalea"
• Book Review # 46094 : "Political Control and Repression"

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