BBC Radio 4, 1-5 July 2013
Chipo Chung's reading began at
the American border, as Anchee Min tried to enter the country. Although ready and willing to work, she did not
have any English, and it seemed as if she would be sent back to her country of origin, the victim of anti-Chinese prejudice
at the end of the Mao regime.
The story subsequently told us how Anchee Min had got to that point. Brought up in a poor family,
she had been spotted by one of Madame Mao's talent scouts and taken to work in the Shanghai Film Studios. Although possessed
of little talent, she was considered the ideal person to portray a member of the proletariat in one of Mao's propaganda films.
But when Mao died and Madame
Mao was overthrown, Anchee Min became guilty by association and was denounced as "a cooked seed." One of her acquaintances
had already taken off for the United States and was eking out an existence: Anchee followed suit.
This was a story of courage as well as an
indictment of stereotyping that not only causes persecution but forces individuals to play roles for which they are eminently
unsuited.
