Anchee Min

Anchee Min was born in 1957 in Shanghai. At the age of seventeen, she was called to serve in a labor commune, where a few years later, she was discovered by a talent scout and recruited to Madame Mao's Shanghai Film Studios. In 1984, Anchee Min arrived in the United States and began attending classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her memoir, titled "Red Azalea," was named "the most notable book of 1994" by the New York Times and became an international bestseller, translated into twenty countries. Her first novel, "Katherine," was published in 1997. This was followed by the successful titles "Empress Orchid," "Becoming Madame Mao," and "Wild Ginger." Anchee Min lives in California with her husband, Lloyd, and their daughter, Lauryann.