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ASIATIC, VOLUME 10, NUMBER 2, DECEMBER 2016 Anchee Min’s Becoming Madame Mao and the Self-Constructed Heroine Emily Lau Kui Ling1 University of Malaya, Malaysia Article Received: 30 November 2015; Article Accepted: 20 October 2016 Abstract Anchee Min’s Becoming Madame Mao (2000), is a remarkable piece of historical fiction. Min’s choice of inter-textuality between history and fiction is apt as this quasi-poetic form allows for the possibility of delving into the psychological depths of the protagonist which fills the gaps in the existing historians’ biographies of Madame Mao. The marrying of history and fiction provides Min the subjectivity to penetrate deep into the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings, thus humanising even an outcast. This paper, through a feminist perspective, shows how Min renders a powerful tale of passion, betrayal and survival through the life story of Madame Mao. Min, through her writing, harnesses the power of language and the power of imagination as an instrumental and effective strategy to tap into the process of Madame Mao’s self-construction: from poverty and obscurity to professional success and fame. Keywords Anchee Min, Madame Mao, Chinese women, femme fatale, historical fiction, self- construction Introduction The revolutionary impulse of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966- 1976) in Socialist China places premium on a collectivist culture, with its ideological tenets locked in a confrontation against the autonomy of self. This political maelstrom led to ascetic self-denial during the “ten bad years” (Litzinger 424). By and large, the autobiographical bent in Chinese women’s writings galvanises post-Mao literature and reflects the radical use of personal experiences to effect a reconstitution of the self. These writings play a vanguard role in modern Chinese literature as they give prominence to female consciousness to interrogate and validate the female self which has suffered immensely from the collective identity imposed by the State. They are a political strategy to deconstruct and renegotiate the structural relation between the personal and the public, as well as its underlying gender system. 1 Emily Lau Kui Ling teaches in the Department of English, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, University of Malaya. Her teaching of language in literary texts for the past two years has led her to work in the area of Literature and Stylistics. Email: [email protected]. Asiatic, Vol. 10, No. 2, December 2016 198 Anchee Min’s Becoming Madame Mao and the Self-Constructed Heroine Anchee Min (1957-), born and bred in Shanghai, left her motherland in 1984 for the United States. Currently a representative of the Asian-American voice, she attempts to channel her creative talents into writing. Her writings take on a diasporic feminist stance by exposing the grim realities of Socialist China, criticising state patriarchy and elevating heroic Chinese women against the stereotypes. A rhetoric of liberal humanism, individualism and progressivism punctuates Min’s works as she stresses the thematic concerns of an atrophied self and the need for self-construction. Min interweaves these predominant feminist concerns into her memoir, Red Azalea (1994), and the fictional works Katherine (1995), Becoming Madame Mao (2000), Wild Ginger (2002) and Empress Orchid (2004). This paper examines the process of “becoming” for the protagonist, Jiang Ching, in Becoming Madame Mao (2000) as she re-constructs and re-defines her self in the years following Mao’s era. Madame Mao’s empowerment is important as it highlights the post-Mao writers’ attempt to regain a sense of their selfhood. Madame Mao is historically guilty of her participation in the Great Proletarian Chinese Revolution (GPCR). However, Madame Mao is not only a victimiser; essentially, she is a victim herself. Compared to their male counterparts, Chinese women endured and suffered much more deeply. They were doubly marginalised: first, by the patriarchal structure and secondly, by the State. Min, in empowering Madame Mao, rose to the challenge of an emancipatory discourse to re- appropriate the historical category of women from the State discourse for the purpose of empowering the female gender. The Process of “Becoming” Anchee Min’s third novel, Becoming Madame Mao is a remarkable piece of historical fiction. More than a decade on, her portrayal of Madame Mao still comments powerfully on the ongoing discourse of the conception of woman in contemporary Chinese society. Min’s choice of inter-textuality between history and fiction is apt and the quasi-poetic form allows for the possibility of delving into the protagonist’s psychological depths. The choice of the word “becoming” in the title of the book, Becoming Madame Mao, that precedes the designation “Madame Mao” is significant. Undergirding this word is the powerful idea of the evolving self-construction of the heroine. Min creates a fascinating portrait of one of the most controversial and powerful women of the twentieth century, humanising the hated “White-Boned Demon” of Beijing’s official press (Terrill 15). While Mao remains a godlike figure to the people of China, Madame Mao has been subjected to deliberate historical erasure. “But in truth,” Min argues, “she was an early feminist who was caught Asiatic, Vol. 10, No. 2, December 2016 199 Emily Lau Kui Ling up in the whirlpool of Mao’s political and personal life.”2 Min thus resurrects her in a sweeping, erotically-charged narrative that moves powerfully from the intimately personal to the great stage of world history. Becoming Madame Mao is a compelling tale of fearless passion, betrayal and survival that has created a finely nuanced portrait of a woman who railed against the confines of her tradition and whose deep-seated insecurities propelled her to reinvent herself constantly. Her stage career was the main agency for her reinvention of self. Her life, often iconoclastic and audacious, courted controversy because it challenged orthodoxy and irritated further the problematic issues of gender and patriarchal relations such as Confucian family and marriage institutions, women’s identity and autonomy. Essentially, the word “becoming” denotes and connotes a process of evolution: in this context, from starting life as an obscure concubine’s daughter, the protagonist emerges as the empowered First Lady of China. Madame Mao’s process of “becoming” a heroine is, first and foremost, reflected in her preoccupation with the changing of her name. In Min’s Becoming Madame Mao, there is no mention of the protagonist’s name for the first eight years of her life. Only when her mother and she escape from her abusive father and settle with her maternal grandparents in Jinan, does her grandfather give her a formal name “Yunhe,” which means “Crane in the Clouds.” The word “crane” is symbolic of hope to the Chinese (Becoming Madame Mao 14). It is a fitting name to describe Madame Mao’s determination and indomitability. However, it is interesting to note that for the Chinese, one’s given name is not permanent. It is a common custom for a Chinese to alter his/her name when he/she reaches certain phases in life. Each change serves as an indication that one’s course in life has significantly altered or developed. As an adult, Madame Mao has her name changed twice, the first being her own choice: I decide to change my name. A new name symbolizes new life. I want the name to ring my character too…. I name myself Lan Ping. Lan means Blue, my favorite color, and Ping means Apple and sweetness. Blue associates with the images of sky, ink and myth, while Apple evokes the idea of harvest, ripeness, fruitful future and also my hometown Shan-dong, where apples are the trademark export product. (Becoming Madame Mao 48-9; italics in the original) This is done shortly after her release from prison and her separation from her husband, Yu Qiwei. She desires her new name to “ring [her] character.” Both words, Lan [Blue] and Ping [Apple] suggest a new beginning, a brighter and more 2 Taken from an unpublished interview, found on the internet site: http://carolinanavy. com/navy/creativewriting/sking/ancheemin/quest.html. The interview was accessed on 31 April 2004, but has since become unavailable. Asiatic, Vol. 10, No. 2, December 2016 200 Anchee Min’s Becoming Madame Mao and the Self-Constructed Heroine promising future ahead. She is determined to project a new identity in order to be noticed. On the next occasion, it is Mao who changes her name to Jiang Ching.3 As she recalls: I am no longer Lan Ping – Blue Apple. The new characters have straight lines like a boat sailing in full wind – Jiang as River and Ching as Green. Jiang Ching summarizes a traditional saying: Green comes out of blue but is richer than blue. I have parted from my old role. I come out of blue and enter the richer color green. I am a butterfly out of the cocoon, spring belongs to me. (Becoming Madame Mao 158; italics in the original) The changes in her name indicate outwardly the inward changes in her perspective and goals in life. With each alteration, she discards the old female self and emerges, phoenix-like, as another new(-er) person. Each change involves a gathering transformation of her self; each change renews her in strength and power, just as the Chinese traditional axiom suggests: “green comes out of blue but is richer than blue.” By analogy, name-changing depicts her metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a butterfly. The process delineates her transformation precisely: as a caterpillar, she struggled and her movement was restrained and limited; gradually, she was transformed into a butterfly, fully empowered to fly. Madame Mao’s two name changes reflect her concern for new evolving identities.

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