Katherine by Anchee Min

by Anchee Min, Unknown Author

This novel, described by the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review as "nothing short of miraculous," is the story of Zebra Wong, a Chinese girl whose pragmatic mind conflicts with her passionate heart; Lion Head, her classmate, whose penchant for romantic intrigue belies his political ambitions, and Katherine, the seductive American with the red lipstick and the wild laugh who teaches them English and other foreign concepts: individualism, sensuality, the Beatles. In Katherine's classroom, repression and rebellion meet head-on-and the consequences are both tragic and liberating.

Genres: Fiction, China, Historical Fiction, Asian Literature, Asia, Novels, Historical

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Anchee Min (Chinese: 閔安琪) is a memoirist and novelist.

At age seventeen, she was sent to a labor collective, where a talent scout for Madame Mao's Shanghai Film Studio recruited her to work as a movie actress. She moved to the United States in 1984 to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she obtained both B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees. Her first memoir, Red Azalea , was an international bestseller, published in twenty countries.

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating study of the human spirit, and how it opens or closes in response to what life throws our way. I really appreciated being given the inner view of Zebra's experience - as a child and teen laborer in Maoist China, and a young adult in post-revolutionary China, opening her mind to the ideas of her American teacher - the "foreign devil." Often fiction can give such a deep and visceral sense of time/place/experience. There were a number of passages that were so beautiful that I gasped out loud. I have a feeling I'll hold these ideas and images for a long time, and that they'll inform my understanding of and compassion for people who've lived under oppressive regimes.

[Bookish Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was fantastic. Min plunges her readers into a world of a post-Maoist China in which submission to the state and fear of the past reign. Katherine, the boisterous and beguiling American teacher, causes her students to enter a frenzied state of entranced admiration as soon as she steps into the classroom. In a landscape of fear Katherine appears as a terrifying beacon of otherness and desire. Her apple breasts, horse hips and poorly pronounced Chinese make her both a dangerously lustful object and a promise of a richer, better life in which individual choice trumps authoritarian rule.

I loved Min's writing, I found it sumptuous, informative and steeped in metaphor. Min's exploration of the juxtaposition between China's history and Western naivity is nuanced and beautiful.

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️
It reads a little like a memoir, and the insights into 1980’s China (and thus today’s China) are worthwhile. I found the writing annoying as it consists of staccato sentences, and this lack of flow grated on me. I almost gave it away, but in the last third the story is far more engrossing.

[Barbara Loggia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went back to my reading of China history, now post Mao. There's a degree of truth in fiction that can't be learned in history books. Anchee Min again brings us forward, based on her own experiences living through her birth in 1957 in Shanghai through her forced time in a labor collective to her move to the United States by way of her acting career.
It's 6 years since the death of chairman Mao and the country has just begun to open it's doors to foreign devils. The central character seems to be an American teacher, there to work on her paper about women growing up during the Cultural Revolution. Her story is told by a young student who lived the revolutionary vision by being taught in the Mao schools, punished by being sent to a labor collective and earning her way back to Shanghai by being forced to give herself to the camp leader. She has the precarious situation of knowing she may either be sent back or be given the gift of her papers to stay in her home city.
The foreign teacher finally learns the truth of China but only after testing out their people, politics, relationships, educational system etc.
When the book is finished, I wonder who the central character is..teacher, student, Shanghai or post Mao China itself.

[Barbara Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the book and the characters. Did find some of the storyline predictable, but other than that it was a good read. Held my interest and didn't want to put it down.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this on a free little library shelf at a coffee shop this past winter. Honestly, I didn't expect much out of it--I'm just always looking for more novels by East Asian writers, the premise sounded interesting, and I was excited to find something by a female writer from China. I have a hard time finding translations of East Asian texts that communicate the same music that I know is in the original. As it turns out, this book was written entirely in English, so the translation was not an issue.

This book was so good. Quite different from what I expected in some ways, and many parts of it were unsettling--mostly helpfully so, but not always. I'm not sure what to make of the end. It was both bleak and hopeful, and I'm genuinely not sure which will win in the futures of these new friends of mine.

In any case, this was a helpful intro to life immediately after Mao's rule in China ended, and I absolutely want to read more by Anchee Min.

[Siv30 · Rating 2 out of 5]

"את הספר רכשתי בפגומים של צומת ב- 15 ₪ וטוב שכך אחרת הייתי מייללת לכם כאן על הכסף ששפכתי לשווא. סיפורן של שתי נשים, אחת מהן שמה הוא – כן צדקתם – קתרין. היא מורה אמריקאית, המחליטה להגיע לסין לערוך מחקר על חיי הנשים הסיניות ובמקביל ללמד סטודנטים סיניים אנגלית. השני היא זברה וונג, סטודנטית, פועלת שחורה במפעל ייצור בסין שלאחר מות היו""ר מאו. התקופה שברקע הספר היא תקופת פתיחת סין לקשרים עם המערב, תקופת דימדומים בה סממני המשטר הקומוניסטי עוד לא פגו וזכרון מהפכת התרבות צרוב חזק בזיכרון העממי. קתרין מביאה איתה לסין תרבות חשיבה שונה, פתוחה, חסרת מעצורים וההתנגשות בין האידיאל האמריקאי והסיני, היא דבר בלתי נמנע. אנצ´י מין, לקחה חומרים לעוסים בספרות ולעסה אותם עד כדי בחילה. למרות שיש קטעי אור בספר, קטעים בהם היא מספרת על החיים בסין שלאחר המהפכה, על הפחד, הטרור והשליטה של המפלגה, על חיי הנשים הסיניות ועל היחס אליהן, הספר לא מצליח להתרומם שכן היא לא הצליחה להשכיל לטעת בו את הרגש ואת העוצמה הראויה להתנגשות האיתנים. הסופרת כל הזמן שוקעת חזרה אל המוכר והידוע ולא פורצת את המסגרת אל הלא נודע. לצערי, בהעדר יצירתיות, יוזמה והבנה הסופרת נאלצת להשתמש באמצעים ספרותיים ידועים ומיותרים, כמו שימוש בתיאורי מין, בשביל להעיר את הספר. אבל כמו גופה חסרת חיים, אפילו הנשמה מלאכותית מאסיבית ומכות חשמל, לא עוזרים להחיות אותה מחדש וחבל. בכריכה האחורית העורך כתב ""כאשר היא נכנסת למערכת יחסים עם שניים מתלמידיה, גבר ואשה, ויוצרת משולש אהבה סוער ויצרי, היא אינה מסוגלת לתפוש שתוצאות מעשיה עלולות להיות הרות גורל וטראגיות לשלותם גם יחד"". הרות גורל וטראגיות, לא מצאתי בספר והעורך קצת הגזים בתיאורים לא דובים ולא יער, לא סערות ואפילו לא שערות. קראתי אותו במשך חודש או יותר, כי הייתי חייבת לוודא שאין שם משהו מעבר. אז גיליתי שאין. ונשים סיניות הן כמו הנשים התימניות, התורכיות או כל אישה אחרת שטרם הפמניזם. ישנם מקומות בגלובוס בהם נשים נמכרות לזנות, לעבדות, לחיי השרצה, בסין הן נדונות לשבירת כפות רגלים ואם לא אז להיות הכלי של הגבר שיסכים לקחת אותן. אם חיפשתי אמירה מרטיטה, חדשה, מפעימה, לא מצאתי את הבשורה בספר הזה. מומלץ כספר לשירותים. "

[Liz Seasalt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The love in this book is so easily felt.

[Heidi Burkhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young woman travels to China during the Cultural Revolution to work on her book about Chinese women, and to teach. Of course she has much to learn, as do her students about the Western wold.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As usual, Anchee Min astounds with her use of relatively simple English that still affects the heart.

"I went to work dressed in stars and came back to the tent carrying the moon on my head."

I would recommend this book to anyone who is planning on being an ESL teacher, particularly those headed to Asia.

SPOILERS BELOW...

I had a hard time understanding what language the narrator and Katherine are using throughout the book. She speaks of how Katherine's Chinese is improving, but no real analysis is given, so when it comes to parts of the novel where phrases like 'You have to judge by the concrete content of your experience, and not by its conformity with purely theoretical standards,' are being spoken, I have a hard time believing it goes understood in either language between the two characters.

Overall, I feel like perhaps more research needed to be done regarding some of the finer points of the plot to make it more believable. Since I read Min's memoir prior to this novel, I felt like I, personally, could really feel what Min was speaking about from first-hand experience and what she had fictionalized and created.

I HATED Katherine. I didn't like her at a character at all. She was kinda flat, but beyond that, completely naive, to the point where I really felt like she made Americans look bad. Perhaps this was part of the purpose, but I ended up feeling bad for the narrator, who was so incredibly in love with Katherine by the end of the book. I felt that Katherine didn't deserve any of it, as she was truly blind for most of the book. She didn't want to play by the rules because she saw herself as somehow above them since she was an American, and that, in part, was what the narrator admired about her: the ability to be above and beyond the great propaganda machine that rules China even to this day.

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"We waited patiently until Mao died on September 9, 1976, only to discover that the pictures blurred with passing time, that the ink on the posters dripped with the wash of each year's rain, that the paper peeled off and was blown away by the wind, that our youth had faded without a trace. We 'awakened' with horror, and our wounded souls screamed in devastation. How am I to explain what I have become?"

"Our heads were jars of Maoist pork marinating in five-thousand-year-old feudalist soy sauce."

"A little girl, playing with her dolls in a garden. I began to see the picture. I could also picture myself, wearing shoes with the soles falling off, walking the streets on a rainy day, collecting pennies for starving American children. I could see the young Katherine singing songs, visiting an imaginary zoo in her backyard, and I remember how I had to kill my only pet--a hen with the reddest crown--to heed Mao's call to abolish disease in the city and prove one's loyalty. I listened to Katherine talk about her loneliness as a child, and I thought of how many nights I was left waiting at the gate of my daycare school, the last one to be picked up, waiting for my parents to finish their shifts, and the times they never showed. The images mixed, superimposed themselves on each other, and her tears became mine, and mine hers."

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

After several aborted attempts, I finally finished “Katherine” in a flurry this morning. In my previous attempts, it was difficult to get past the first third of the novel, as it was slow in starting and setting characters and plot. Once past that point, however, things snowballed furiously towards the end. What had started as a slow tale about an American ESL teacher coming to China in the early 80s quickly warped into a harrowing, tense and rapidly paced drama. Author Anchee Min expertly illustrates the dangerous and random world of authority in the post-Mao years, and how such power can determine one’s future. The book is bound together with frequent contrasts between the positivity and endless opportunity of the American approach to life with that of the pessimistic and gray pragmatism of the Chinese, as demonstrated in the dialogue, interactions, and thoughts of the protagonist Zebra.

One interesting thing to me was that there weren’t that many likable characters, even the titular one, who is written as a self-absorbed and arrogant westerner who dances condescendingly above the meek and obedient Chinese. Granted this was intended, but it made it hard for me to see her in the manner the locals did, which brings up an interesting aspect of the novel. This is certainly a novel that could have many different interpretations based on your heritage and history. I understand how Katherine would be hailed as an alien force for change and admiration, even as I found her to be an unsavory cliché of western arrogance. The only character I rooted for was Zebra, the heart and soul of the novel.

I recommend this novel as a great study of China prior to the huge economic explosion, capitalism-Chinese style, and even before Tianammen Square, as well as for a page-turning emotional roller coaster. Stick with it for the first seventy-five pages of so and you’ll be quite glad you did.

[Carl R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anchee Min has been around for a while, but I didn’t run across her till just now. Katherine was published in 1995, and seems to have been Min’s first novel after having received wide acclaim for her memoir Red Azalea, about her life in China of the cultural revolution, during which her acting talent and the attentions of actress Joyce Chen bought her a ticket to America. Katherine gives us a taste of both worlds Min has become familiar with. Our narrator (first person) is a hard-life Chinese woman of twenty-nine who has struggled her way out of a reeducation camp to a small apartment in the Shanghai slums where she lives with her mother, father, and brother (age thirty-four).

She volunteers to learn English so her factory boss can have someone to translate his manuals. This buys her a few days a week in class where she won’t have to endlessly fashion switch plate covers. “Katherine” is the American teacher, and of course everyone’s life will never be the same.

There’s a lot that’s typical about this story of the naïve, well-intentioned American blustering and bumbling her way through a culture she doesn’t understand, try though she may. However, none of it feels cliché because the characters are so believable, and their relationships make such emotional sense even when they are unpredictable. Near the end, the heartwarming, though difficult comedy of Katherine-as-misfit turns disastrous, even deadly.

After that, matters get solved a little too simply quickly for my tastes. But that doesn’t spoil the book entirely. Sociologically, it’s a good lesson in how we look—positive and negative—to some people from another culture. I’ve spent only a little time in China, known some Chinese here in this country, and the conflicts and enjoyments and misperceptions all ring true. If I’m not mistaken, Min has another book just out. I want it.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The novel Katherine written by Anchee Min tells the story of a Chinese Girl "Zebra" living in China during the 1980's after the chaotic, and painful years of the Cultural Revolution in China during which the lifestyles of the rich were condemned and the peasants and the good of the people and modern knowledge were held up as the standard as well as Chairman Mao's teachings and beliefs. These philosophies led to many underground cruelties and a generation who was now living under a government who controlled almost every aspect of their lives, they were used to living in a restricted environment and with restricted emotions.

Into this world walks Katherine, an American in her thirties who has been married and divorced, who loves color, and dances to music and dares to speak her mind in a country where this is not only discouraged but it can get you arrested just to speak out against a party official. Zebra; and her friends quickly come to both admire and yet at times hate their new teacher for her outgoing ways because she is the opposite of everything they have been taught to be and yet they yearn to be able to feel and act as freely as she does.

With love triangles, arrests made in the middle of the night, and moments when you just want to cry along with the characters this is not a book that will lose your attention. The writing was a little choppy at times for my taste, but overall it was a good read.

Check out more of my reviews on my blog:http://booksalicious.blogspot.com/

[Stephen Gallup · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the time that has elapsed since I read this one, I remember two aspects of it quite clearly.

First, for at least the first half I forgot it was a work of fiction. That's partly because virtually everything I'd been reading previously about China was memoir or biography, so I was predisposed to think this was more of the same. But also it was very easy to assume from the narrative that the author was recounting real events -- until a point at which a jarring change of perspective forced me to stop and recall that this was a novel after all.

The other thing that stands out in my memory is the author's apparent hatred of the system in her native China. That's understandable. I personally love Chinese culture and the Chinese people but abhor the government and wonder at the nationalism that leads so many young Chinese to excuse or even deny what it has done. Even so, I was put off by the vehemence of the emotion, expressed via her caricatures of individuals like the boss who'd never heard of America but accepted that the place was ok when told it was near Communist Albania.

Again, my memory has gaps, but I believe the author also tossed in one of my pet peeves in literature -- the unrealistic, unexplained recovery of a disabled child for the convenience of tying a pretty bow on her story. If I'd still believed it was factual at that point, this would have disabused me.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a chinese girl in her late twenties, who having grown up during the cultural revolution, like so many thosands of others has life stunted by chairmans mao's policy of sending students to work on isolated labour camps or collective farms for years on end, resulting in a lack of proper education and limited career prospects. The protagonist in this book faces a bleak future as a production line worker in a state factory until she manages to enroll on a government sponsored langauge class where her life is transformed by her liberal American langauge teacher. This book was quite well written, and at times seemed more of a biography than a work of fiction, although i think that may be down to the fact i previously read wild swans before i started on this book. The book really did a good job showing her dysfunctional chinese society became in the post mao period and how bleak life turned out for many growing up during the period of the cultural revolutionn. Overall it was quite a simply written but entertaing read, with some gripping moments towards the end, defintley recommended for fans of 'wild swans' and those interested in 20th century communist china, mao zedong and the cultural revolution.

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 2016 I read both Katherine and the Empress Orchid duology by Anchee Min, and I can definitely say she has become a new favourite author of mine.

Min is extremely talented at writing stories which stay with you long after you have finished reading them. I really loved the Empress Orchid duology, but Katherine was even better for me. It is a short book, but it is an incredibly powerful and heartwrenching story which hit me hard. I really think this is a novel which deserves more attention, even if it is not an easy read. For example, the part where Zebra aborts her baby is one of the most heartbreaking scenes I have ever read. I had to stop a moment while I was reading it, because I was too overwhelmed.

Some might find the plot slow moving, but it is understandable, because this is a very character-driven book. Personally, I loved reading from Zebra’s point of view and seeing her evolution through the story, and I also really liked her relationship with Katherine. Seeing all their differences, and how each of them changed the other in some way, was fascinating.

Highly recommended. There is no doubt that I will read Anchee Min again in 2017.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anchee Min’s novel Katherine is a nifty little potboiler of a Chinese operatic kind. The setting is Shanghai, 1983, and a group of 20-something students, some of whom are fresh off hinterland farms where they had been exiled during the Cultural Revolution, vie for the attention of their American English-language teacher. The novel has interesting characters, mildly engaging plot developments, some steamy scenes, and a generous peppering of Chinese turns of phrase. I picked up the novel, which was the only one of hers in my school library, because Anchee Min is going to give a talk at the L.A. Public Library and I find knowing something about the author’s work helps me crank up my attention when I am sitting in a listening mode. I also find her interesting because her spoken English, as I remember from a televised panel of U.S. and U.K based novelists in English, was heavily accented and totally without charm, at least, in comparison to the other two writers. Her prose has charm, though. A quick read.

[Rachal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Itis very interesting book. It gets into the culture following the cultural revolution. It's great how Anchee Min is able to describe the fear and inability of older Chinese students to use their imagination because it was pounded out of them during the revolution. By creating the main character, Kathrine, she is able to show how the Chinese and American cultures can be very different and misunderstood while at the same time human-beings are very similar in their physical and emotional needs. Excellent book!

I'm now onto my second book by Anchee Min, called Wild Ginger. You have to get used to her writing style, I think some of the words she chooses don't come off as poetic in english as they would in Chinese, but she is able to communicate the subtlties in the chinese culture that aren't visible on the surface.

[Susan L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this novel has one of the more fascinating portrayals of complex, cat-and-mouse type relationships. It was definitely what interested me the most. Unfortunately, for a book that's less than 250 pages it felt quite long. There was too much exposition for me, and aside from building up the relationships between the characters, not much happened in the first half. The overall structure of the narrative calls to mind the countless other novels and films (both well-known and obscure) where an action that is meant to be a joke or initially seems harmless, takes a tragic turn, usually resulting in someone's death. I was both disappointed (b/c I was expecting it) and relieved (b/c it defied expectations and led to a fairly happy ending) that wasn't the case in this novel.

Grade: B

[Kristel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book written by Anchee Min, a Chinese author, is about an American teacher who goes to China to teach English and complete a paper for her dissertation on women in China. The author contrasts the differences between American women and the Chinese woman's freedom of self expression. All her students are captivated by her but the not as much as Lion Head, Zebra and Jasmine who's trianglulated relationships are ever moving and changing. Zebra fears Jasmine, doesn't have much respect for Lion Head and is in love with the teacher. Of the three, Zebra has the most to lose. Katherine fails to understand how she endangers her students and Lion Head and Jasmine are the most self centered. This may not be the most entertaining of novels but I think it was realistic in its depiction of being Chinese when compared to Wild Swans, Three Daughters of China a memoir written by Jung Chang.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book from 'Book-sale' I think it's really good so I bought it. When I'm reading the first few sentences. I was like, "okay.. another novel. what's up?" I felt nothing in this book so I have a hard time finishing it. But when I saw the flaws of Chinese communism, I realized that there are countries that suffer too. I thought it was only my country who suffers the most. It's my first time to read this kind of novel. I'm a teenager so I'm mostly overwhelmed with fiction.

I loved the way Katherine was the 'opener' of the minds. It's a foreign devil who opened their minds and not a person from their own country. I loved the selfishness of Lion Head. Jasmine's love sickness, Mr. Han's tactics, and of course, Zebra Wong who never gave up.

All-in-all, I loved it.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first response is that this book was a disappointment, but in thinking about it, I'm not really sure how I feel about this book--it never really grabbed me. I kept waiting to get into it, but that never happened. Hmmm ... There are, though, some beautifully written passages, which I liked very much.
I don't want to spoil anything for future readers, so stop here if you're concerned about that. There are some things about the book that bother me as a teacher--and as a teacher in a (now formerly) communist country (mine was the GDR--"East Germany" in the late 1980s). Ethical behavior on the part of the teacher--rather stupid behavior (for the sake of the students, if not for her own sake) on the part of a teacher in that governmental / social system.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

i discovered this book by accident one day, on the bargain table at borders. i don't remember why i bought it, just felt strangely compelled and drawn to it. so now i have to say a big thank you to my intuition, since this book has been read and loved many times.

anchee min writes from the quiet place inside of us that roars. her prose is almost painted with a brush. she's an amazing woman...she's a painter, a musician, an actress, a writer, and to boot, englih is her second language-one i think she learned later in life.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fortunate to have read Min's memoir 'Red Azalea' before perusing this novel so I had some background as to Chairman's Mao's teachings.

There were many moments in this story that captured me. It's amazing that the early teachings in China under the Mao's tutilege, has born a society that was taught to 'feel nothing'. Katherine represented something contemporary for her students who teaches them english and how to be individuals. Her classroom and associations with her students were both tragic and liberating.

I look forward to reading more of Min's work.

[Virág · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I'm not giving the book 5 stars, I'm really glad I read it. I know next to nothing of China, and the main charater's story (I forget her Chinese name) is so heart-wrenching and inspiring. The plot had a slow burn to it, but was in a weird way very exciting to read. I never knew what to expect from this book; it always surprised me.
It's true that the author writes very simply, but her words still hold a lot of power. I'm looking forward to reading Anchee Min's other books.

[Tallia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is definetly an interesting one. At first, I didn't mind it so much but as I progressed I hated each character more and more. There was not one character in the book in whom, i liked. I felt like Katherine was a complete idiot, Zebra was too desperate and annoying, and Lion Head was just a complete jerk. I felt like this book cast America and China in a very negative night! I would not recommend reading this book at all!

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not Min's most powerful work, Katherine nevertheless tells a compelling story of what happens when an American teacher captivates a group of rigidly raised adult Chinese students. The tale moves at a brisk pace and captures the distinctive mindset of young adults trained not to think for themselves who nonetheless find the open-minded ways of their bewitching teacher both disturbing and fascinating.

[Aj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katherine is a work of art that introduces so many questions about the nature of love, resilience, imperialist, racism, and the human spirit. This is only the second book by Anchee Min I've read, the first being "The Cooked Seed." I can see how she mined parts of her life to write this novel. Her writing is clear, strategic, masterful. She can create images packed so tightly with meaning that you chew on them for some time. I may have found a new favorite writer!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Min is one of my favorite authors and this is one of her first books. It explores the relationship between Katherine- a teacher from the United States that comes to China at the end of the cultural revolution, and her students that are both facinated and in love with her. It shows a contrast between East and West that's facinating and maddening.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never read any of her stuff before, but this one really impressed me. I was so caught up that towards the end, I was reading at stoplights on my way to work so I could finish! Taking place in Shanghai in the eighties, this was an interesting insight into the post-Mao psyche of the chinese people. Very cool!