Anchee Min’s Becoming Madame Mao is a great work of historical fiction, delving into the mind and life of Yunhe, the woman who would be known as the “white-boned demon”: the wife of China’s Mao Zedong.
Min begins with Yunhe’s childhood as the unwanted daughter of a concubine. Headstrong at a young age, Yunhe refused to have her feet bound. She went out on her own, starting in a local opera house and continuing on to become a celebrated actress. In fact, Min’s portrayal of Yunhe shows a woman whose life was a series of “roles” she adorned and cast off as necessary.
Even during her psychologically deadening years as Mao’s wife, watching him take on mistress after mistress, Yunhe schemed and carefully set the stage for what would become her most treasured role – she wanted Mao to see her not only as a wife, but as a partner in the Cultural Revolution. Her lust for power was as great as his.
While the backstory of Yunhe’s life seems a bit overdrawn at times, it does serve to set up some of the vindictive retributions Yunhe inflicts once she does become the Chairman’s wife.
With Becoming Madame Mao, Min has successfully woven fact with an imagined psychological portrait of the woman who was at the side of one of the world’s most notorious and feared leaders.
337 pages.
