You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed,

for you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

Hi, this is Michael Silverblatt, and welcome to Bookworm.

My guest today is Anci Min.

She is the author of Vettazalia, which is coming out in paperback from Berkeley,

as well as a new novel, Catherine, from Riverhead Books.

She arrived in America in 1984.

She was born in Shanghai in 1957.

This show is part of an ongoing series entitled Imaging the Us and Exploration of Autobiographical

Writings, which is a collaboration between Bookworm and the Getty Center for the History

of Art and the Humanities. This collaboration looks at the relationship between autobiographical

writings, memory, and the articulation of an us.

Now, Anchi, a lot of the talks that we've had so far have centered around questions of family and childhood.

Now, in your book, you talk about Chairman Mao as having been in the role of a father.

And I wanted to begin by asking what happens when government enters the family, becomes a surrogate family?

What happened?

It just felt that it was a way of life and it needs no explanation.

And my biggest dream, my my biggest dream when I was a child was to die for Mao to honor him.

And I think when I think about it now, it's quite something.

Yes, but this means that your own parents, where are they now?

...