Who knew Chairman Mao was so hot? Oh that was shameless, Mariel. Way to start off a book review! With sex! Bad, bad, bad. Historical figures shouldn't be used to write cheesey love scenes. They should be used to advertise products on tv and that's it! Anchee Min, you're shameless. Have you no shame? I don't feel like writing two Madam Mao book reviews so I'm going to shamelessly combine reviews of this chick lit book with a review of a biography written by an Australian guy that could have been the Jim Cazaviel character in the film version of The Stoning of Soraya M. Madame Mao: The White-Boned Demon He's super proud of himself because he's not as sexist as the men he confronts in his investigation of blatant sexism for a book that he'll be paid for writing. The men are like "Oh, why write a book about such a bad woman?" and in the movie it's like "Don't listen to that silly woman! She's a woman!" He's like, "Yes, I know. Women!" They were just as bad she was (the white-boned demon, I mean). And they are hypocrites because nothing the sexy stud muffin Mao did was bad. The men are still oh, women should have been gentle judge-y in tone. I picture a smug Jim Cazaviel face behind the pen. They were both cruel and both made lives of Chinese people more miserable than they had could have been. But why do they have to demonize the woman and erect the memory of the man as a hero? Why did the woman have to be good and it was okay for the man to be a total dick? Both authors come from a place of wanting to find out what happened and then ultimately shy away from how gross of a woman she was with the distance of evil! Get behind me, white boned demon! Why did a woman get to do this to people because Chairman Mao wanted to bone her? Was it that sly of a move to demand marriage? Isn't there an old Chinese proverb about not buying the cow when you can get the sex for free? (I was impressed how she tried to use their fear of women against them, such as removing her clothes to avoid interrogation. At least she wasn't afraid to use both sides of the sex coin. Historically it was a dull sided coin, as far as I'm concerned. Not boring to those who suffer but boring to me sitting here right now.) Min apparently had a crush on Madam Mao aka the white-boned demon aka Jiang Ching aka Li Runqing. I had wanted to read this book because I was curious why the author had had a crush on their first lady of communism while growing up in China. I guess it was an excuse to put herself in the place of someone who had hot sex with Chairman Mao. I'm so confused! She must have made a list of everyone she didn't like, any slight or fuck over and then when she got a bit of power from the Chairman Mao sex she used it to do them in. Or she did what a lot of assholes did when communism gave them their tiny bit of evil power. Maybe the young Min had fantasies about the bitch girl who had a nicer regulation something or other than she had? Or it could have been her glamorous film career and looks before she took on the guise of a comrade. I don't know. This book doesn't have it. Why was Madam Mao interesting to Anchee Min?What this book has is first person perspective of the lady. Self serving perspective. It was oh so romantic, this and that person fucked me over, I was the only little girl to suffer from feet binding in China (that was nasty). Maybe it was the thing about serial killers becoming serial killers become their mom was a prostitute. The perspective switches to what really happened in a regurgitation of the first. It wasn't juxtaposed reality enough to warrant the constant back and forth. The prose was cheesey as fuck either way. I thought that Chairman Mao was hot in the sack.Chairman Mao was hot in the sack.It's really frustrating to read a whole book like that! (I'm going to go take a shower.)I didn't think that her old love affairs or supposed crush on Mao made it okay. It wasn't okay that she "loved" her daughter when she wanted something from her. What was the motive to get closer to a woman like this? I think it had more to do with her notoriety, or Min wasn't good enough of a writer to express her own feelings about the maligned woman. I liked Terrill's book a bit more because at least he got that Qing was pretty much a bad actress in her own life. She'd quote lines from plays she had performed in. Maybe she didn't remember they were even plays. It was all a big lie to her to get what she wanted. Applause, money or position. She thought she identified with Ibson's A Doll's House and the world denied her her spoils. Or it was a line she repeated a lot when she didn't get anything she wanted. It sounded good the first time excuse. Chairman Mao was a position. Wouldn't most who lived in China "love" him? My father used to say to "deny, deny, deny" when confronted with a lie.It was safer (emphasis on er rather than safe) to. Qing had that part down. Never break out of character, even if it means having no character. Or the bad writing was a demonstration of bad acting... I'm confused!
This book incorporates some of Mao's writings and poems which I found appropriate. I enjoyed reading the book but found some difficulty because of many characters involved. I found Madame's Mao life very colorful starting from her family background, career as an actress and her role as Chairman Mao's wife. Some interesting points mentioned about Mao were having many concubines (most of which were actresses) for longevity but his health dwindled maybe because of poor diet and old age. I was a little disgusted at one point Chairman Mao instructed his wife to pursue a favorite concubine to stay with him at their quarters in Beijing. In the book, Chairman Mao did not trust his wife completely and had turned over his power to one of his cabinet members (based on a document found at his quarters). Here I am not sure if this document was forged or not since many were after Mao's supremacy. This was a clear disappointment for Madame Mao as she herself worked hard to gain Mao's attention and dominance over China.During her lifetime, some important facts I come to know about Madame Mao, she had 3 Chinese names, 4 husbands including Mao, 1 daughter (Nah) whom she was not much of a mother too and was known as the White bone demon because of her influential support to the proletarian Cultural Revolution which destroyed and changed many lives across China.After Mao's death, she was arrested in 1976 until her suicidal death in 1991. I really wonder while serving jail time if it was true that she was making daily production of Chinese dolls for export?
What do You think about Becoming Madame Mao (2015)?
Although I liked much about this book, I also found it very disturbing and even frightening. The fact that I read it while I had a serious case of the flu and probably a high temperature might have influenced my reaction. The book is a fictionalized account of the rise of an actress, the girlchild of a last concubine, to the role of the powerful Madame Mao in China. I use the word "role" purposively since this girl Lan Ping (she changes her name 4 times so it is hard to identify her by name) lives life as a series of roles. I loved the writing style - the sentences are short, almost jerky at times, but they give an incredible sense of immediacy to the story - probably part of why I found it so disturbing. The style also very successfully shifts constantly from first person to third person. Since the protagonist is almost always looking at herself as a role, this is particularly effective. At first I was a bit annoyed by the protagonist's breaking into tears at nearly every scene, but that too became clear was simply that she could only play life as a role and she had limited experience in other than overly dramatic roles. What I found disturbing was the all-too vivid portrayal of the politics of China during this period. The fear - actually paranoia, distrust, arbitrariness, and self aggrandizement is terrible to read about. I kept thinking about trying to exist in such an atmosphere. And I kept thinking about the Chinese people and their incredible resilience. How can they have emerged with any happiness or enthusiasm or energy?
—Diane
I had found this book on my bookshelf having purchased it shortly after it hit the bookstores.After returning from a trip to China last spring,I had become intrigued with the personality of Madame Mao and the part she played in China's Cultural revolution.Well, I pulled the book from its shelf and immediately was absorbed in its pages. I learned Madam Mao was a beautiful, intelligent, and talented actress who was also an ambitious, cunning, cruel and backstabbing personality. This book paints her picture beautifully. It also shows the self-absorbed, narcissistic, power hungry, neurotic personality of Mao himself. I do believe Madame Mao had a deep love for her husband and played that card to ascend to the position of leadership in China after Mao's death. Much of this information was learned through this historical novel. So why did I give it three stars when I learned what I set out to learn reading this book? The book was too long and as a result, the pace was too slow.Also, the author would flip back and forth from present time to past. And it doing that it became hard to follow. All in all I did like the book and would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about the life of Mao Dzong's final wife.
—Anne Fischer
As I understand it, Min's objective in both of these books was to portray famous Chinese females-- Empress Orchid and Madame Mao-- as the people they were, rather than the demons they're imagined to be. It's historical fiction. It's based on fact. But it's so much better with filled-in details.Unfortunately, my elation at the purchase of Becoming Madame Mao is fast ebbing. The book is written with an uncomforable cadence in which narration is changed from first person to third person without any warning, often leaving me thinking "who is she talking about?" when, of course, the perspective has changed to someone else talking about her.Madame Mao was the infamous Mao's wife. She was also-- as Jiang Ching-- a leading female star in Chinese opera and film. Madame Mao's nickname became the "White Boned Demon" as she guiltlessly persecuted people who had wronged her in the past, leaving a trail of blood and terror. Aside from her reputation, I know little about Madame Mao. Having managed only 50 or so pages since I purchased Min's novel last night, I haven't gotten past Madame Mao a.k.a. Jiang Ching a.k.a. Lan Ping a.k.a. Yunhe's stint as Lan Ping, heroine of Ibsen's A Doll's House.2005-09-30
—Jenny Belle Werness
