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Overview
At once a coming-of-age tale and a heart-rending love story, Wild Ginger explores the devastating experience of the Cultural Revolution, which defined Anchee Min’s youth. The beautiful, iron-willed Wild Ginger is only in elementary school when she is singled out by the Red Guards for her “foreign-colored eyes.” Her classmate Maple is also a target of persecution. The novel chronicles the two girls’ maturing in Shanghai in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Chairman Mao ruled absolutely and his followers took up arms in his name. Wild Ginger grows up to become a model Maoist, but her love for a man soon places her in an untenable position—and ultimately in mortal danger. This slim and powerful novel “examines the fragile sensibilities and emotions of an entire generation of Chinese youth” (Washington Post) and brilliantly delineates the psychological and sexual perversion of those times.
Synopsis
At once a coming-of-age tale and a heart-rending love story, Wild Ginger explores the devastating experience of the Cultural Revolution, which defined Anchee Min’s youth. The beautiful, iron-willed Wild Ginger is only in elementary school when she is singled out by the Red Guards for her “foreign-colored eyes.” Her classmate Maple is also a target of persecution. The novel chronicles the two girls’ maturing in Shanghai in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Chairman Mao ruled absolutely and his followers took up arms in his name. Wild Ginger grows up to become a model Maoist, but her love for a man soon places her in an untenable position — and ultimately in mortal danger. This slim and powerful novel “examines the fragile sensibilities and emotions of an entire generation of Chinese youth” (Washington Post) and brilliantly delineates the psychological and sexual perversion of those times.
Book Magazine
Set during the Cultural Revolution in China, this theatrical novel is both a tragic love story and a parable that illustrates the corruption caused by political and moral fanaticism. After saving a young female fishmonger from a ruthless crook, Wild Ginger, a fourteen-year-old orphan, is honored by Chairman Mao Tse-tung, who appoints her the commander-in-chief of the Red Guard, a position that requires her to become "the people's servant." When she falls in love with a fellow revolutionary, she is forced to choose between herself and her political ideology. Wild Ginger revisits the themes of Min's bestselling novel Becoming Madame Mao. Its plot is as formulaic as an opera, and its tragic heroine's fate is melodramatic. What redeems this book is its narrator, Maple, the confidante of Wild Ginger. Ultimately, it is Maple's insight and touching devotion to her friend that steal the show.
—Susan Tekulve
Editorials
From The Critics
Set during the Cultural Revolution in China, this theatrical novel is both a tragic love story and a parable that illustrates the corruption caused by political and moral fanaticism. After saving a young female fishmonger from a ruthless crook, Wild Ginger, a fourteen-year-old orphan, is honored by Chairman Mao Tse-tung, who appoints her the commander-in-chief of the Red Guard, a position that requires her to become "the people's servant." When she falls in love with a fellow revolutionary, she is forced to choose between herself and her political ideology. Wild Ginger revisits the themes of Min's bestselling novel Becoming Madame Mao. Its plot is as formulaic as an opera, and its tragic heroine's fate is melodramatic. What redeems this book is its narrator, Maple, the confidante of Wild Ginger. Ultimately, it is Maple's insight and touching devotion to her friend that steal the show.—Susan Tekulve
Publishers Weekly
A happy ending is relative to what precedes it in this case, it stands in contrast to a horrific, true-to-life story about two girls growing up in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution. In the late '60s and early '70s, Chairman Mao ruled omnipotently, and his followers took up arms in his name. Being a Maoist involved self-sacrifice, and that war between personal wants and the movement's needs indirectly pits Min's protagonists against one another. Sweet, na ve Maple is saved from her usual beating by class bully Hot Pepper when new kid Wild Ginger stands up for both of them. This is no ordinary blacktop brawl: Hot Pepper and her gang members wield umbrellas like spears, stabbing their victims until they give up or collapse. Since Hot Pepper constantly invokes Maoist principles as rationale for her actions, the teachers dare not interfere for fear of being branded anti-Maoist and taken prisoner by the Red Guard or worse. Opposites in most ways, Maple and Wild Ginger become best friends over their shared ostracism. Their friendship is tested when a boy called Evergreen falls for Wild Ginger, whose extreme devotion to Mao conflicts with her natural impulses. Maple herself can't decide who she loves best Wild Ginger or Evergreen and her dilemma leads her to put herself in mortal danger. Min (Becoming Madame Mao; Red Azalea) has created a memorable, unsettling love story using the horrors of Maoism which she experienced firsthand as a backdrop. 8-city author tour. (Apr. 8) Forecast: Wild Ginger is a more grueling read than the bestselling Becoming Madame Mao, and doesn't pack quite the same historical punch (it's hard to beat Madame Mao as a protagonist), but those who enjoyed Min's first novel will be satisfied by this one, which should mean strong sales. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.VOYA
In the People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution, fourteen-year-old Maple is constantly persecuted by a classmate because her father does not toe the party line. The new girl in school, Wu Jiang-Wild Ginger-is also considered different because her late father was half-French. As a fascinated Maple observes, Wild Ginger fights to survive despite all the odds-her mother's suicide, the government's refusal to give aid, and politics that declare her a second-class citizen. Wild Ginger's fortune finally changes when she catches Accountant Choo and his cronies cheating, and the government proclaims her a heroine for exposing the corruption. In her obsession to maintain her revolutionary zeal, however, Wild Ginger sets up trouble for herself and her friends. Feeling that her sexual attraction to Evergreen, one of Maple's friends, is unhealthy and against Mao's teachings, she begs Maple to observe from her closet whenever she and Evergreen are together. While watching them in their strange relationship, Maple begins to fall in love with Evergreen. Such a triangle can only lead to tragedy, which shatters all of them, particularly Wild Ginger. This novel is one of the most authentic depictions of the Cultural Revolution's insidious effects on a whole generation in China. Min lived the life of Wild Ginger, and the psychological pain of the three young people comes across as palpable and gut-wrenching. Sections of the novel are frankly erotic, making it suitable for older, more mature teens. Min's work is powerful and important for bringing this particular period of recent Chinese history to vivid life. VOYA CODES: 5Q 2P S A/YA (Hard to imagine it being any better written; For the YAwith a special interest in the subject; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult and Young Adult). 2002, Houghton Mifflin, 224p,— Kat Kan
KLIATT
The Cultural Revolution in China of the late 1960s and 1970s may seem like a distant time and place to most American readers, but Min's book makes it seem real. The story of two young girls, Maple and Wild Ginger, who grow up together and find different ways of surviving in Maoist China, is the basis of this novel. While any reader can relate to their friendship and their maturation into young women, the Orwellian world they live in is strange. Knowing that an entire country was transformed into a regimented world where people were afraid to speak, to love, or to question is frightening and makes the reader aware of the problems with any government that limits the freedom of its people. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2002, Houghton Mifflin, Mariner, 217p., Ages 15 to adult.—Nola Theiss