Anchee Min — Surviving the Religion of Mao

On Being with Krista Tippett

On Being Studios

Sociology, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Krista Tippett, Arts, Culture, On Being, Society, Society & Culture, Science, Social Sciences

4.7 • 10.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2004

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Author Anchee Min has won acclaim for her memoir of growing up in China under Mao Zedong. She’s also written several works of fiction in which she explores the human hunger to survive against extreme social brutality. In this conversation, Anchee Min tells us what she learned about the human spirit in the forced labor camp in which she spent her teenage years, and how she’s found healing in America.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Chris Utipet.
0:06.2	My guest An Chi Minh has recently published the second book in her fictional account
0:10.7	of the last Chinese Imperial Court and its Empress.
0:14.7	In her personal story and in her writing, An Chi Minh offers a window into spiritual
0:20.4	instincts and experiences that mark a rapidly evolving China into the present.
0:26.5	And she describes the fragility and resilience of the human spirit that she saw after extreme
0:32.8	social brutality.
0:33.8	And you're turning to animals because you don't feel love.
0:37.8	I mean, it's a very complex thing it has to do with poverty, it has to do with education
0:43.0	and religions and background and everything.
0:45.0	But in a fundamental sense, when humans are allowed to be humans, they start to transform.
0:53.0	This is speaking of faith, stay with us.
1:00.4	I'm Chris Utipet.
1:02.4	This hour, we revisit my conversation with Chinese American writer An Chi Minh.
1:08.1	She recently published her lyrical second novel about the last Empress of China.
1:13.7	An Chi Minh was born in Shanghai in 1957 in a China ruled by Communist Party Chairman
1:20.0	Mao Zedong.
1:21.8	She spent time as a teenager in a forced labor camp and was plucked out to play Mao's
1:27.2	infamous wife in propaganda movies.
1:30.5	She offers a window into spiritual instincts and traumas that haunt and define China even
1:36.5	today.
1:39.8	From American public media, this is speaking of faith.
	...

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