Rating: 
Summary: A trite and tedious pop-pyschology of history
Review: "I was Mao's dog. Whoever he told me to bite, I bit."In China, Jiang Qing, aka Lan Ping, aka Madame Mao, has all the infamy of Attilla the Hun, Hitler, and the Devil all rolled into one. As leader of the Gang of Four, which led the disasterous Cultural Revolution, Jiang Qing is considered directly responsible for the death of millions and the pointless suffering of hundreds of millions. But Jiang Qing poses a complex, conflicted character, serving as the historical scapegoat for Chairman Mao, who she followed and worshipped far too blindly, not unlike a generation of Chinese who took the Great Helmsman for a god, and paid the painful price. Sure, she was scheming, power hungry, and indifferent to the ramifications of her actions, but she was also an insecure, desperate, and frightened woman. What she did was no different and no worse than the rest of the scheming, power jostling crowd in Zhongnanhai. What set Jiang Qing out from the rest, ultimately, is that she was proud, without shame, and wasn't easily cowed or afraid of "losing face." That is what made her remarkable. "Becoming Madame Mao" is a fictional, first person attempt to get inside Jiang Qing's head and get a grasp around her motivations and all her contradictions. It is an attempt that fails utterly. The writing is awkward at best and often downright awful, but that is not its greatest shortcoming. Min's main flaw is that, rather than providing a intimate and complex insight into the most fascinating woman of 20th Century China, she trivializes both her subject matter and the events that produced her. Anchee Min's Madame Mao is a cardboard cutout, a stereotyped harpy even less sympathetic than the vision of her presented by the official Chinese Communist propaganda. Most of the book's plot, at least, that which isn't invented, is lifted from Ross Terrill's incredible "White Bone Demon", which remains the authoritative biography of Jiang Qing in both English and Chinese. Terrill's forthright presentation of the facts of Jiang's life, which allow the reader to analyze for himself, is a much better means of understanding Madame Mao than Min's presumptive monologues.
Rating: 
Summary: A trite and tedious pop-pyschology of history
Review: "I was Mao's dog. Whoever he told me to bite, I bit." In China, Jiang Qing, aka Lan Ping, aka Madame Mao, has all the infamy of Attilla the Hun, Hitler, and the Devil all rolled into one. As leader of the Gang of Four, which led the disasterous Cultural Revolution, Jiang Qing is considered directly responsible for the death of millions and the pointless suffering of hundreds of millions. But Jiang Qing poses a complex, conflicted character, serving as the historical scapegoat for Chairman Mao, who she followed and worshipped far too blindly, not unlike a generation of Chinese who took the Great Helmsman for a god, and paid the painful price. Sure, she was scheming, power hungry, and indifferent to the ramifications of her actions, but she was also an insecure, desperate, and frightened woman. What she did was no different and no worse than the rest of the scheming, power jostling crowd in Zhongnanhai. What set Jiang Qing out from the rest, ultimately, is that she was proud, without shame, and wasn't easily cowed or afraid of "losing face." That is what made her remarkable. "Becoming Madame Mao" is a fictional, first person attempt to get inside Jiang Qing's head and get a grasp around her motivations and all her contradictions. It is an attempt that fails utterly. The writing is awkward at best and often downright awful, but that is not its greatest shortcoming. Min's main flaw is that, rather than providing a intimate and complex insight into the most fascinating woman of 20th Century China, she trivializes both her subject matter and the events that produced her. Anchee Min's Madame Mao is a cardboard cutout, a stereotyped harpy even less sympathetic than the vision of her presented by the official Chinese Communist propaganda. Most of the book's plot, at least, that which isn't invented, is lifted from Ross Terrill's incredible "White Bone Demon", which remains the authoritative biography of Jiang Qing in both English and Chinese. Terrill's forthright presentation of the facts of Jiang's life, which allow the reader to analyze for himself, is a much better means of understanding Madame Mao than Min's presumptive monologues.
Rating: 
Summary: The Life of China's Most Provocative First Lady
Review: ... Based on her origins, Jiang Ching should have grown up to be a foot warmer for a rich man's children. Yet she became Madame Mao Tse-tung, the most powerful woman China ever produced. In Anchee Min's historical novel we learn that Jiang's mother was the bed-slave of a brutal village businessman -- she called herself "a radish pickled in the sauce of misery." Her daughter's only protection against a future of grinding drudgery was to have the "lotus feet" that would disable her for heavy work and make her a catch for a rich man -- if not as a potential bride, at least as a concubine. But four-year-old Jiang tore off her binding cloths and swore she'd kill herself if her mother bound her feet again. Thus began a public career of astounding feminine self-assertion unknown in China since the 7th century's notorious Empress Wu. According to Min's novel, Jiang's grandfather told the girl she was "a peacock among hens" and taught her classical operas that featured ancient heroes including "women who fight fiercely for their happiness." At 14, Jiang ran off to join an itinerant opera troupe. In five years she had become a Shanghai actress who wrote Communist operas in which memories of her father's violence against her mother were transformed into scenes of heroines fighting on despite wounds dripping with gore. Min traces Jiang's erotic life through early romances, short-lived marriages, and a love-hate affair with the Communist Party. In 1937 -- Jiang was 23 -- she arrived in the harsh mountains of rural China where Mao Tse-tung was fomenting revolution. She flaunted "the brightest eyes men here [had] ever seen" to "catch the heart of their god," and within a year she was Madame Mao, determined to play a starring role in national politics. Among other things "the white-boned demon" would spark the Cultural Revolution, back her husband's bloodiest moves against rivals, and punish her own enemies, real and imagined, with cold delight. Jiang Ching's drive and deeds were shocking, but she inspired many women of mid-century China, including Anchee Min. As a member of the Red Guard during the Sixties, Min knew Jiang's operas by heart and auditioned for one of her propaganda films. In a recent interview Min said she wanted her novel to present the human side of Jiang Ching; as a result, perhaps, her central theme is that Jiang's childhood pain and humiliation left her with deep-seated needs to validate herself through displays of power and achievement. Indeed, Min's novel becomes a virtual case history of the cruel forms grandiosity can take when born of shame. But psychological approaches to fiction can be reductive, and sometimes Min is so busy explaining Jiang's character she fails to create it. She tells us Jiang plays roles because she "can't be satisfied with who she is" and details "how the father plants the seed of worthlessness" in his daughter. Interpretation replaces the random, ordinary glimpses that register on a living mind, like those in Min's 1994 memoir, "Red Azalea"-- the father's bandaged fingers, the bearded hen, the rough factory women chattering in the family courtyard. Also distracting are Min's continual shifts between omniscient and first-person points of view. These dramatize the conflicting aims of any historical novelist--to be true to the facts, and to make the facts live in a fiction-lover's imagination. But arbitrary switches between "she" and "I" without consistent, parallel changes in voice or outlook don't solve the problem. Still, "Becoming Madame Mao" is a vivid description of a time and place about which many Americans know little. Its spirited, research-based narrative sweeps us right into modern China's political torrents and a woman's raging need for approval. Min succeeds in humanizing Jiang, if only because it's hard not to feel for someone married to the husband from Hell -- Mao has mossy teeth and secret syphilis, he "practices longevity" with virgins herded in from the countryside, and he endlessly, numbingly intones self-important sentiments like "'I am a mythological pillar born to hold up the heavens.' But without you I can only be a chopstick.'" Luckily, there are also exquisite passages like the one on Jiang's uneasy obsessions: a "ghost opens a kitchen in her mind and cooks." With writing like this, we can stand the heat.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent and Educational
Review: A very readable novel that cleverly weaves facts and with the author's concepts of what happened. I learned a great deal about the "White-Boned-Demon" and have recommended this book to many friends. The book is well researched and told from an interestingly changing perspective. Well done!
Rating:
Summary: Nice History Lesson with Sub-Par Drama
Review: after reading "balzac and the little chinese seamstress," i became intrigued by the chinese cultural revolution and the idea came to me that i might want to pick up other related books about it. i could have picked better. it traces the history of mao's "dog" from childhood on up. how the woman of many names starts out wanting something greater from her simple life, dreaming of stardom and the high life. it covers her many marriages and lovers and her loyaly/disloyalty to communism. all she really wants is power and she'll do anything to get it. and once she gets it, she chainsaws through anyone who got in her way while she was climbing the ladder of greatness. this is madame mao's story and i don't disbelieve any of it. is it a great book? definitely not. first off, min shifts from first-person to third-person with every paragraph. she'll be recounting a point in lan ping's (mao's) life and then in the next paragraph, she IS lan ping. it is often confusing, not to mention pretentious and arrogant. the book also skewers into the realm of mushy romance-novelism and that's something i didn't expect or want. actually, what i was looking for was a history lesson. next time, i'll just buy a textbook.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much of a good thing?
Review: After reading Katherine, I thought that I was in for another great historical novel from Anchee Min. I was mistaken. While the history and prose of Becoming Madame Mao is engrossing, the constant shifting between Yunhe and the Madame Mao is annoying and just plain STUPID. I wish Mrs. Min was in tune enough to understand what her readership is expecting of her. Oh well, there you have it. A fair work by Mrs. Min. Not her best work. I have heard great things about Wild Ginger, however, and as such, that is next on the reading list. Happy reading (but not this book,), The TEENlibrarian
Rating:
Summary: The Red Menace: Debunking the Myth
Review: Anchee Min gives the life of Mao Tse-Tung a whole new perspective seen through the eyes of his vitriolic third wife. Never a likeable character, nevertheless she is fascinating in all her incarnations. We record her progress and duplicity in placing herself beside Mao on the stage of world history. We witness the unfolding of Mao's rise to power as the Long March becomes a victorious campaign through the eyes of Madame Mao after Chiang Kai-Shek is defeated by the Red Army. Mao's closest advisors live in a world of intrigue, none more Machiavellian than the man himself. We are introduced to the future Mrs Mao while she is an actress named Lan Ping. Sensing a challenge, she envisions herself as Chairman after Mao's death. To this end, she schemes and plots, keeping her eye on this lifelong goal, the most ambitious part she will ever play. Lan Ping is driven by self-interest and self-deceit. As a high ranking party member, her name is changed to Madame Mao Jiang Ching. Lifelong grudges and petty jealousies provide the excuse for revenge, as Jiang Ching struggles to keep a foothold in the power hierarchy. Blinded by her own delusions, a life of denial causes Madame Mao to frequently misread circumstances, creating more political enemies through the years. It is important to remember that this is an historical novel, as Ms. Min provides an interesting view of Mao's personal life. He is adept at sidestepping responsibility for the lives needlessly squandered in The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, an experiment at best. Amazed that the Revolution actually succeeds Mao constructs the Communist agenda out of his imagination. Considering herself a true Revolutionary, Madame Mao is put to the test when she learns that Mao is enjoying a virgin every day in order to attain longevity. Initially shocked by this betrayal of their marriage vows, her practicality asserts itself when she is secretly informed that he also has syphilis. Ever the pragmatist, she makes adjustments. But there is chaos and rebellion throughout Mao's reign as Party Chairman/Emperor of China, and finally undone by her own machinations, Madame Mao is imprisoned after Mao's death. It is doubtful that I would read this novel a second time since the characters are so unsympathetic, but it is a fascinating read, especially when recalling the 1950's in America when a tremendous threat was seen in The Red Menace and it's Five Year Plan. It is hard to believe that this menace was quite as potent as we were led to believe by our government. But is was certainly a useful tool in uniting Americans against the "enemy".
Rating:
Summary: Understand Madame Mao from a Fictional Perspective
Review: Anchee Min's "Becoming Madame Mao" is a well-written historical fiction. The book vividly tells the life story of Jiang Ching, a.k.a. Yunhe or Lan Ping, who married Mao Tse-tung and initiated the Cultural Revolution. Jiang Ching was indeed a goal-getter. She was very ambitious and did not do anything without benefiting herself. She believed Mao's potential of being the leader of China and set her mind to marry him. She did marry Mao but paid a big price for it. Anchee successfully describes Jiang Ching's constant fear of being purged by Mao and her struggle to secure power. The book gives readers chills by Mao's sophisticated mind and cruel personality. The book is definitely a page-turner. It brodens my interest to learn more about Jiang Ching and the Cultural Revolution. It certainly leads me wonder what China would be like if Mao did not position himself as the emperor and did not carry out all the political plots.
Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing!
Review: Anchee Min's book takes the unique approach of having Madame Mao tell her side of the story. And while anyone familiar with the horrors of the Cultural Revolution knows just how evil her part was, I found myself at least understanding more about the complex culture, role of women and historical context. I couldn't put it down!
Rating:
Summary: An attempt at understanding the "white boned demon"
Review: Anchee Min, the author, grew up in China and was part of a labor collective. She also worked as an actress in Madame Mao's Film Studio. I loved her novel "Katherine" as it introduced me to the reality of living in Communist China. I was therefore very anxious to read "Becoming Madame Mao", in which she attempts to shed some light on the life Jiang Chang, the wife of Mao Tse-Tung, often referred to as the "white boned demon" and known for her vindictive cruelty. The voice of Madame Mao come through clearly in the alternating sections written in the first person. It is here that the reader gains some psychological insight into the forces that have shaped her life. These sections are always followed by a dispassionate third person narrative. I found this technique effective in telling this story. The tale begins when the young girl rebels against having her feet bound, and follows the headstrong young women through an acting career and three unhappy marriages before she meets the dynamic Mao and joins her life with his. She craves his love, but is treated badly throughout her life. There is always intrigue and betrayal. Favor or disfavor is subject to whim. The world she lives in is cruel and she lives in constant fear of her enemies. I had hoped to learn more about Chinese history. But the focus is always on the person and much was not explained. I also found it difficult to follow the many different Chinese names and kept getting the people confused, especially since, with the exception of Madame Mao, most of them were not developed in depth. I was also aware that is was a historical novel about real life people and kept wondering about where the line was drawn between fact and fiction. Mao Tse-tung saw everyone as an enemy, imprisoned anyone who seemed to threaten him. Madame Mao did the same. And whether or not she was able to ever achieve true love seems besides the point. This book would probably be most interesting to those who already have a background in Chinese history. I can therefore not give this book any more than a very weak recommendation. It was a good try on the part of the author. But it just didn't work for me.
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