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Forbidden City
"A teenage girl living in 1960s China becomes Mao Zedong's prot�eg�ee and lover--and a poster child for the Cultural Revolution--in this provocative, poignant novel from the bestselling author of A River of Stars On the eve of China's Cultural Revolution and her sixteenth birthday, Mei dreams of becoming a model revolutionary. When the Communist Party recruits girls for a mysterious duty in the capital, she seizes the opportunity to escape her impoverished village. It is only when Mei arrives at the Chairman's opulent residence-a forbidden city unto itself-that she learns that the girls' job is to dance with the Party elites. Ambitious and whip-smart, Mei makes a beeline toward the Chairman. Mei gradually separates from the other recruits to become the Chairman's confidante-and paramour. As he fends off political rivals, Mei faces down schemers from the dance troupe who will stop at nothing to take her place, as well as the Chairman's imperious wife, who has schemes of her own. When the Chairman finally gives Mei a political mission, she seizes it with fervor, but the brutality of this latest stage of the revolution makes her begin to doubt all the certainties she has held so dear. Forbidden City is an epic yet intimate portrayal of one of the world's most powerful and least understood leaders during the most turbulent period of modern Chinese history. Mei's harrowing journey toward truth and disillusionment raises questions about power, manipulation, and belief, as seen through the eyes of a passionate teenage girl"--
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 10, 2022
195 people are currently reading
14905 people want to read
About the author
Vanessa Hua
18 books451 followersVanessa Hua is the author of the national bestsellers A River of Stars and Forbidden City, as well the Arts Literature Fellow, she has also received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, a California Arts Council Fellowship, and a Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing, as well as honors from the de Groot Foundation, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Asian American Journalists Association, among others. She was a finalist for the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, and the New American Voices Award. Previously, she was an award-winning columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. She has filed stories from China, Burma, South Korea, Ecuador, and Panama, and her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. She teaches at the Warren Wilson MFA Program and elsewhere. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family. Her novel, COYOTELAND, and nonfiction narrative, UPROOTED, are forthcoming.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 264 reviews
March 12, 2022
Forbidden City tells the story of Communist China under Mao from 1965 and through the Cultural Revolution. It’s told from the viewpoint of Mei, a fifteen year old peasant girl plucked from her village to join a troupe of dancers, who dance with the Party elites. She loses her virginity to Mao, and soon becomes his paramour. She starts off as starry eyed, envisioning herself as the perfect revolutionary heroine. But with time, reality sets in. As with all communist regimes, there’s no such thing as true equality. Mao and his cohorts live a life of luxury while the peasants starve. Mei was a well fleshed out character and I appreciated learning the story from someone “on the sidelines” as Hua writes in her Author’s Notes.
I enjoyed this historical fiction, one of the few I’ve read about Communist China. I did have to google some background, as I was unaware of Yan’an or the earlier background of how Mao rose to power within the party. It did drag a little in the middle, but picked up once the Cultural Revolution started.
I would be interested to know if Mao’s sexual proclivities concerning teenage girls were true (a book by his doctor says they are). The book is well researched and gives us a lot of detail about the times. As Hua beautifully says “I believe that fiction flourishes where the official record ends, and that research should serve as the floor - and not the ceiling - to the imagination.”
My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.
I enjoyed this historical fiction, one of the few I’ve read about Communist China. I did have to google some background, as I was unaware of Yan’an or the earlier background of how Mao rose to power within the party. It did drag a little in the middle, but picked up once the Cultural Revolution started.
I would be interested to know if Mao’s sexual proclivities concerning teenage girls were true (a book by his doctor says they are). The book is well researched and gives us a lot of detail about the times. As Hua beautifully says “I believe that fiction flourishes where the official record ends, and that research should serve as the floor - and not the ceiling - to the imagination.”
My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.
March 25, 2022
4 stars for an excellent historical fiction book, set during the Cultural Revolution in 1966 China. The narrator is a 16 year old girl who is chosen to join a Beijing dance troupe. Chairman Mao dances with the girls and beds many of them. Mei Xiang, Third Daughter,comes from a rural village. She helps Mao start the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, all to demonstrate his power. She realizes that Mao Zedong has started a terrible movement.
Recommended to historical fiction fans. The author is a journalist who has traveled to China and interviewed survivors of the Cultural Revolution.
#ForbiddenCity #NetGalley.
Thanks to Ballantine Books for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.
Pub Date 26 Apr 2022 |
Recommended to historical fiction fans. The author is a journalist who has traveled to China and interviewed survivors of the Cultural Revolution.
#ForbiddenCity #NetGalley.
Thanks to Ballantine Books for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.
Pub Date 26 Apr 2022 |
June 18, 2022
4.5 stars
In her author's note at the end, Hua states: 'I believe that fiction flourishes where the official record ends, and that research should serve as the floor - and not the ceiling - of the imagination', a wonderfully programmatic statement for this novel which does what I always want from a book set in a historical past: it inhabits its setting without self-imposed hindsight, and offers a window into a different time and mindset that doesn't hit all the predictable milestones.
In this case, we're in mid-1960s China just before the Cultural Revolution and Mei is just fifteen, from a rural peasant family, when she is 'spotted' and whisked to the Lake Palaces of Beijing, the new 'Forbidden City', presided over by Chairman Mao. Joining a dance troupe, she is soon singled out by the Chairman, first as a dance partner, soon as protégée and, inevitably, mistress.
One of the things that makes this story work so well for me is that Mei is of her time: she is desperate to be a revolutionary heroine, and her inner journey is not a soap opera or melodrama. Hua takes the time to fill out the story with depth and detail, each scene built up out of nuance and complexity. There's a sense of realism that comes from deep research worn lightly and an imaginative sympathy that is surprisingly rare in historical fiction - Mei is no twenty-first century girl artificially placed in a 1960s setting.
From the girl-on-girl rivalries and friendships of the early chapters to the strangely intimate and yet distant relationship with Mao (Madame on the sidelines), Hua tracks her story with finesse.
It's only the last fifty or so pages where it starts to feel a bit processed and constructed, a bit neat and panoramic, even a little predictable. Which is a shame because so much of this book is exemplary in terms of how to write historical, politicised fiction without getting on a soapbox or falling into cultural clichés about, in this case, China.
The prose is quietly elegant with a strong narrative voice and Hua catches tone and register with similes and metaphors that reflect Chinese culture, as well as working in the poetry and mythology of the country, giving a solid foundation to the story itself.
I loved this and will certainly be checking out Hua's back catalogue - 4.5 stars because of that slight misstep in the final chapters but rounded up to 5.
In her author's note at the end, Hua states: 'I believe that fiction flourishes where the official record ends, and that research should serve as the floor - and not the ceiling - of the imagination', a wonderfully programmatic statement for this novel which does what I always want from a book set in a historical past: it inhabits its setting without self-imposed hindsight, and offers a window into a different time and mindset that doesn't hit all the predictable milestones.
In this case, we're in mid-1960s China just before the Cultural Revolution and Mei is just fifteen, from a rural peasant family, when she is 'spotted' and whisked to the Lake Palaces of Beijing, the new 'Forbidden City', presided over by Chairman Mao. Joining a dance troupe, she is soon singled out by the Chairman, first as a dance partner, soon as protégée and, inevitably, mistress.
One of the things that makes this story work so well for me is that Mei is of her time: she is desperate to be a revolutionary heroine, and her inner journey is not a soap opera or melodrama. Hua takes the time to fill out the story with depth and detail, each scene built up out of nuance and complexity. There's a sense of realism that comes from deep research worn lightly and an imaginative sympathy that is surprisingly rare in historical fiction - Mei is no twenty-first century girl artificially placed in a 1960s setting.
From the girl-on-girl rivalries and friendships of the early chapters to the strangely intimate and yet distant relationship with Mao (Madame on the sidelines), Hua tracks her story with finesse.
It's only the last fifty or so pages where it starts to feel a bit processed and constructed, a bit neat and panoramic, even a little predictable. Which is a shame because so much of this book is exemplary in terms of how to write historical, politicised fiction without getting on a soapbox or falling into cultural clichés about, in this case, China.
The prose is quietly elegant with a strong narrative voice and Hua catches tone and register with similes and metaphors that reflect Chinese culture, as well as working in the poetry and mythology of the country, giving a solid foundation to the story itself.
I loved this and will certainly be checking out Hua's back catalogue - 4.5 stars because of that slight misstep in the final chapters but rounded up to 5.
May 4, 2022
3.5 stars
In her third book (and second novel), journalist Vanessa Hua explores the political history of the years leading up to and during China’s Cultural Revolution from an angle that is rarely brought up or written about in mainstream works that discuss China: Mao Zedong’s fascination with ballroom dancing and the resulting practice of recruiting dance troupes to entertain him as well as other Communist Party elite at various gatherings. Hua states in her Author’s Note that seeing documentary footage of “Chairman Mao surrounded by giggling young women in tight sweaters” intrigued her, but when she tried to find more information, there unfortunately wasn’t much. By piecing together some revelations about Mao’s habits and proclivities relayed by his doctor in his memoir, it was understood that these young women existed, but rarely ever mentioned or acknowledged in official records. So based on this information as well as what is publicly known about Mao’s complicated relationship with his personal secretary Zhang Yufeng (who met Mao when she was 18 years old and he was in his sixties), Hua created the fictitious character of peasant girl-turned-revolutionary Mei Xiang in the hopes of giving a voice to the “impoverished women who have shaped China in their own ways yet remain absent from the country’s official narrative.”
Growing up as the youngest in a family of 3 daughters in an impoverished village in China, Mei Xiang dreams of becoming a model revolutionary and a patriotic heroine adored and worshipped by many. During one of the Communist Party’s recruitment schemes in the villages, Mei Xiang jumps at the opportunity to leave her plight behind. Arriving at the capital, she comes to understand that the “duty” she was recruited for involves dancing with Party elite as part of a specially trained dance troupe. It is at these dances that she meets the Chairman, the head of the Party as well as the country — a man that she (as well as most of the population) has been taught to idolize ever since he come to power years ago. Soon, Mei Xiang becomes the Chairman’s close confidante and paramour, and when the Chairman starts to involve her in his political missions, Mei feels she is finally on the path to achieving her dreams. But as the Cultural Revolution becomes a reality and Mei witnesses the atrocities that result from it, she begins to doubt the truth of what she had been told her entire life. It’s not until she moves toward disillusionment that Mei starts to understand what this realization will ultimately cost her.
Vanessa Hua’s previous novel — her debut River of Stars — covered a topic that I rarely (if ever) saw written about in fiction: birth tourism. This time around, with her second novel, Hua once again explores yet another rarely-discussed topic — one that often gets buried when it comes to discourse surrounding China and the Cultural Revolution. As familiar as I was with this time period and the historical context of China’s Cultural Revolution, the angle of Mao’s relationship with the women in his inner circle and him possibly using them in his political machinations was an altogether less familiar topic for me. Hua’s research in this regard was meticulous, with both the historical and cultural elements especially well-rendered. Having said that though, I have to admit that I enjoyed Hua’s debut so much more than this one, mostly because I found it difficult to overcome my disgust with the relationship at the center of this story (a powerful man in his sixties manipulating a disillusioned sixteen-year-old girl). Even though I understood the reality and plausibility of such an arrangement during that period historically, it was still uncomfortable to read, particularly when it came to the more graphic details of the Chairman and Mei’s relationship (much of which I honestly felt was unnecessary). Structurally, while I liked the writing, I felt that the pacing overall was a bit off and he story dragged a bit too much towards the middle, with some of the plot points also a bit repetitive. I also found most of the characters difficult to like, which I guess isn’t surprising given the nature of the story. With that said, I did feel empathy for Mei Xiang and her harrowing, heartbreaking story — a coming-of-age story no doubt, but also one of self-discovery as well as self-preservation.
Even though I wasn’t too keen on the subject matter this time around, I’m still glad I read this, if anything, for the insights it provided. One of the things I appreciate most about Vanessa Hua’s works is that she doesn’t shy away from controversial topics and takes up the challenge of an uncomfortable story head-on (which probably has a lot to do with her journalist background). I look forward to seeing what Hua will write about next!
Received ARC from Ballantine Books via NetGalley.
In her third book (and second novel), journalist Vanessa Hua explores the political history of the years leading up to and during China’s Cultural Revolution from an angle that is rarely brought up or written about in mainstream works that discuss China: Mao Zedong’s fascination with ballroom dancing and the resulting practice of recruiting dance troupes to entertain him as well as other Communist Party elite at various gatherings. Hua states in her Author’s Note that seeing documentary footage of “Chairman Mao surrounded by giggling young women in tight sweaters” intrigued her, but when she tried to find more information, there unfortunately wasn’t much. By piecing together some revelations about Mao’s habits and proclivities relayed by his doctor in his memoir, it was understood that these young women existed, but rarely ever mentioned or acknowledged in official records. So based on this information as well as what is publicly known about Mao’s complicated relationship with his personal secretary Zhang Yufeng (who met Mao when she was 18 years old and he was in his sixties), Hua created the fictitious character of peasant girl-turned-revolutionary Mei Xiang in the hopes of giving a voice to the “impoverished women who have shaped China in their own ways yet remain absent from the country’s official narrative.”
Growing up as the youngest in a family of 3 daughters in an impoverished village in China, Mei Xiang dreams of becoming a model revolutionary and a patriotic heroine adored and worshipped by many. During one of the Communist Party’s recruitment schemes in the villages, Mei Xiang jumps at the opportunity to leave her plight behind. Arriving at the capital, she comes to understand that the “duty” she was recruited for involves dancing with Party elite as part of a specially trained dance troupe. It is at these dances that she meets the Chairman, the head of the Party as well as the country — a man that she (as well as most of the population) has been taught to idolize ever since he come to power years ago. Soon, Mei Xiang becomes the Chairman’s close confidante and paramour, and when the Chairman starts to involve her in his political missions, Mei feels she is finally on the path to achieving her dreams. But as the Cultural Revolution becomes a reality and Mei witnesses the atrocities that result from it, she begins to doubt the truth of what she had been told her entire life. It’s not until she moves toward disillusionment that Mei starts to understand what this realization will ultimately cost her.
Vanessa Hua’s previous novel — her debut River of Stars — covered a topic that I rarely (if ever) saw written about in fiction: birth tourism. This time around, with her second novel, Hua once again explores yet another rarely-discussed topic — one that often gets buried when it comes to discourse surrounding China and the Cultural Revolution. As familiar as I was with this time period and the historical context of China’s Cultural Revolution, the angle of Mao’s relationship with the women in his inner circle and him possibly using them in his political machinations was an altogether less familiar topic for me. Hua’s research in this regard was meticulous, with both the historical and cultural elements especially well-rendered. Having said that though, I have to admit that I enjoyed Hua’s debut so much more than this one, mostly because I found it difficult to overcome my disgust with the relationship at the center of this story (a powerful man in his sixties manipulating a disillusioned sixteen-year-old girl). Even though I understood the reality and plausibility of such an arrangement during that period historically, it was still uncomfortable to read, particularly when it came to the more graphic details of the Chairman and Mei’s relationship (much of which I honestly felt was unnecessary). Structurally, while I liked the writing, I felt that the pacing overall was a bit off and he story dragged a bit too much towards the middle, with some of the plot points also a bit repetitive. I also found most of the characters difficult to like, which I guess isn’t surprising given the nature of the story. With that said, I did feel empathy for Mei Xiang and her harrowing, heartbreaking story — a coming-of-age story no doubt, but also one of self-discovery as well as self-preservation.
Even though I wasn’t too keen on the subject matter this time around, I’m still glad I read this, if anything, for the insights it provided. One of the things I appreciate most about Vanessa Hua’s works is that she doesn’t shy away from controversial topics and takes up the challenge of an uncomfortable story head-on (which probably has a lot to do with her journalist background). I look forward to seeing what Hua will write about next!
Received ARC from Ballantine Books via NetGalley.
March 31, 2023
A harrowing coming of age tale that sheds light on one of histories most misunderstood revolutions. Through sure and fluid prose, Forbidden City tackles the nuance of manipulation, deceitful, idolization and disillusionment, creating a powerhouse of a narrative that is both haunting and alluring. This novel is a poignant tribute to women, who so often shape the course of history, but are lost to time and the men who steal the narrative. Mei is a fascinating character study, reflecting on harsh realities and healing in a way that is compelling and believable. This is a novel that holds a powerful echo of emotion, a yearn to learn more of its mysterious history.
June 2, 2022
I quickly put this book down when I realized what kind of fuckshit this was.
This story is, in short, speculation about Mao based on a picture that the author tried to research and then failed to glean any valid details. I'm tired of reviewers saying that this book is "meticulously researched" when all it does is combine the palace intrigue of a wuxia drama with the author's idea of Mao Zedong. Even the barest engagement with Chinese media reveals how actually mediocre this story is. This book and its research should not be seen as an authority. It is ahistorical as can be.
I want to address the source image that inspired the novel: "Chairman Mao ballroom dancing with a young woman" taken by Dimitry Balermants. That's all that we know. Not the event, not the woman, not even much about the photographer. You can't even see the young woman's face in the photo. How convenient that there is so little context from the source material. Defenders of the novel might point out that Hua also drew reference from a physician's memoir, when it should be noted that this physician was granted US immigration in exchange for making up lies about Mao Zedong posthumously. Part of me doesn't want to believe this book was funded by a grant. And yet, I read Finks by Joel Whitney, so I suppose I can.
No one's saying the Cultural Revolution wasn't a crazy time. It has left a lasting mark on China, both its positive and negative influences. But Western audiences (including many Asian Americans) are already ignorant, sinophobic, and under the spell of orientalism. The backcover of this very book can't even help self-orientalizing, describing Mao as "the most mysterious leader," which made me laugh out loud. It's not like there aren't literally billions of people in this world who know about Mao's history and legacy, including people who would be far more reliable sources than the physician. Mao was also a prolific writer, and there exist many books and scholars that critically engage with his ideas and decisions. But Hua's Forbidden City is not interested in that. All this novel is going to do is make readers think Mao was some lascivious cult leader. If you want to indict Mao, wouldn't it make more sense to do so based on the things he actually said and did? The reason why people mythologize and sensationalize major historical figures is because people in the West prefer to make up stories about why someone was a problematic person rather than engage with the ideas, struggles and contradictions that arose during their time of influence. They'd rather turn history into a soap opera, which the historically illiterate or ignorant will accept as truth or even partial truth.
History is a creative well, and historical fiction a long and expansive tradition. And one of the genre's strengths is that it can add to people's understanding of a complex time. This book perhaps had the potential to do so, too. Instead, Forbidden City squanders that potential. It fails to give nuance or critique, and instead brings the reader back to the conclusion that neoliberal individualism is valued at the highest order. Yawn.
This story is, in short, speculation about Mao based on a picture that the author tried to research and then failed to glean any valid details. I'm tired of reviewers saying that this book is "meticulously researched" when all it does is combine the palace intrigue of a wuxia drama with the author's idea of Mao Zedong. Even the barest engagement with Chinese media reveals how actually mediocre this story is. This book and its research should not be seen as an authority. It is ahistorical as can be.
I want to address the source image that inspired the novel: "Chairman Mao ballroom dancing with a young woman" taken by Dimitry Balermants. That's all that we know. Not the event, not the woman, not even much about the photographer. You can't even see the young woman's face in the photo. How convenient that there is so little context from the source material. Defenders of the novel might point out that Hua also drew reference from a physician's memoir, when it should be noted that this physician was granted US immigration in exchange for making up lies about Mao Zedong posthumously. Part of me doesn't want to believe this book was funded by a grant. And yet, I read Finks by Joel Whitney, so I suppose I can.
No one's saying the Cultural Revolution wasn't a crazy time. It has left a lasting mark on China, both its positive and negative influences. But Western audiences (including many Asian Americans) are already ignorant, sinophobic, and under the spell of orientalism. The backcover of this very book can't even help self-orientalizing, describing Mao as "the most mysterious leader," which made me laugh out loud. It's not like there aren't literally billions of people in this world who know about Mao's history and legacy, including people who would be far more reliable sources than the physician. Mao was also a prolific writer, and there exist many books and scholars that critically engage with his ideas and decisions. But Hua's Forbidden City is not interested in that. All this novel is going to do is make readers think Mao was some lascivious cult leader. If you want to indict Mao, wouldn't it make more sense to do so based on the things he actually said and did? The reason why people mythologize and sensationalize major historical figures is because people in the West prefer to make up stories about why someone was a problematic person rather than engage with the ideas, struggles and contradictions that arose during their time of influence. They'd rather turn history into a soap opera, which the historically illiterate or ignorant will accept as truth or even partial truth.
History is a creative well, and historical fiction a long and expansive tradition. And one of the genre's strengths is that it can add to people's understanding of a complex time. This book perhaps had the potential to do so, too. Instead, Forbidden City squanders that potential. It fails to give nuance or critique, and instead brings the reader back to the conclusion that neoliberal individualism is valued at the highest order. Yawn.
September 2, 2022
When Mei is selected to go to the capital to serve the Party, she doesn't imagine that it will lead her to the bed of the Chairman himself and bring her closer to her goal of becoming a revolutionary hero - if she can manage to not become disillusioned.
The only book I'd read set in this period of Chinese history before was Jung Chang's Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. I loved that book, but I was curious to see the perspective that fiction could bring to both the Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong.
The best part of this book was the character of Mei. The author wrote that she wanted to tell the story of the inner circle of the Communist Party at this time through the eyes of someone on the sidelines, and I thought she succeeded. It was interesting to get this up close and personal view of these historical figures, especially as Mei progressed from being fully indoctrinated to becoming disillusioned about the Chairman. She was a character I didn't always like, but you couldn't help but root for her to better her lot in life.
However, I found the plot sort of dragged, especially once Mei and Mao left the capital. I also never became too invested in the political plot, as I felt that Mei gave undue weight to her fairly minimal involvement in the things that were happening. I didn't really feel the intensity of her rivalry with Midnight Chang or the Chairman's wife either. And I felt that the ending kind of just petered out without a real sense of resolution.
Ultimately, I liked the first half of the book better than the second. But it was still an interesting read in how it gave me an insight into the world of China in the 1960s.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
The only book I'd read set in this period of Chinese history before was Jung Chang's Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. I loved that book, but I was curious to see the perspective that fiction could bring to both the Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong.
The best part of this book was the character of Mei. The author wrote that she wanted to tell the story of the inner circle of the Communist Party at this time through the eyes of someone on the sidelines, and I thought she succeeded. It was interesting to get this up close and personal view of these historical figures, especially as Mei progressed from being fully indoctrinated to becoming disillusioned about the Chairman. She was a character I didn't always like, but you couldn't help but root for her to better her lot in life.
However, I found the plot sort of dragged, especially once Mei and Mao left the capital. I also never became too invested in the political plot, as I felt that Mei gave undue weight to her fairly minimal involvement in the things that were happening. I didn't really feel the intensity of her rivalry with Midnight Chang or the Chairman's wife either. And I felt that the ending kind of just petered out without a real sense of resolution.
Ultimately, I liked the first half of the book better than the second. But it was still an interesting read in how it gave me an insight into the world of China in the 1960s.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
Read
January 27, 2022I kept thinking as I read this book that the author had to be my age, and had as a teen been part of the Red Guard--or endured their terrible violence first person, while living out in the Chinese countryside at the time. It's the details--the folk tales that endured among the peasants in spite of "the Four Olds" being forbidden, the folk tales that were given a red twist, the superstitions, and above all, the survivor-thinking that comes of generations of grinding poverty and watching one's family, and village, die of starvation, war, etc.
Turns out she researched the book more than ten years. Ten years on this impeccably written gut punch of a novel. It shows.
The basic storyline is a teenage peasant chosen by Chairman Mao's procurer to be a fresh "dance hall" girl, who gets picked by seventy-plus-year-old Mao to be a plaything as well as a tool against political enemies. Mao's actions are nothing new--this is what emperors did for thousands of years, in having a constant flow of teenage concubines* whose lives were often as disposable as any other service animal, while on the surface there was great political hoo-rah about the girls' dedication and importance to the party and how heroic they would be regarded if they died in service to the Cause.
Not an easy read, but gracefully written, with resonatingly real emotion and devastating detail. Wow.
*the West was no better in its misogyny, just different paradigm
Copy provided by NetGalley
Turns out she researched the book more than ten years. Ten years on this impeccably written gut punch of a novel. It shows.
The basic storyline is a teenage peasant chosen by Chairman Mao's procurer to be a fresh "dance hall" girl, who gets picked by seventy-plus-year-old Mao to be a plaything as well as a tool against political enemies. Mao's actions are nothing new--this is what emperors did for thousands of years, in having a constant flow of teenage concubines* whose lives were often as disposable as any other service animal, while on the surface there was great political hoo-rah about the girls' dedication and importance to the party and how heroic they would be regarded if they died in service to the Cause.
Not an easy read, but gracefully written, with resonatingly real emotion and devastating detail. Wow.
*the West was no better in its misogyny, just different paradigm
Copy provided by NetGalley
February 26, 2022
As someone whose parents grew up in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, I looked forward to "Forbidden City" in the hopes that I would better understand the situation and time they grew up in but... this wasn't exactly that. While labeled as a piece of historical fiction, Hua's work is probably better categorized as a historical retelling or reinterpretation of this time, as, in her afterword, she notes both the research done as well as the liberties taken when writing this novel.
The story is told from the perspective of Mei Xiang, a woman in San Francisco in 1976, but immediately jumps to her childhood in China in the 1960s, marked as a "peasant" during the Cultural Revolution. Not even 16, she's recruited into a specially commissioned dance troupe by Chairman Mao Zedong and leaves her family for the capital in Beijing. There, she becomes the Chairman's "paramour", and tries to become the model revolutionary, all while having a behind-the-scenes look at the political underworkings of his government.
First, the not-so-good: throughout the majority of this novel, I was disturbed by the relationship between (16 year-old) Mei Xiang and the Chairman, a married man in his 60s. I can understand Hua's desire to drive a point at the exploitation and brainwashing of women during this time (and many other periods) but the amount of detail that was written about multiple times throughout felt unnecessary, even just for shock value. So: a major TW for rape, as well as suicide, should be noted for this novel.
I did, however, appreciate that "Forbidden City" sheds light on such a major point in history that I feel is not written much about, and sharing it from the perspective of an individual who is both taken up by and eventually betrays the movement. Mei encountered some truly heartbreaking situations and decisions, and while I couldn't always agree with her actions, was able to empathize with her and the difficulty of her environment. The discovery of who she's actually narrating her story to was one of the emotional peaks for me, and one of the most poignant points of the novel.
Thank you Ballantine Books for an advance copy of this novel!
The story is told from the perspective of Mei Xiang, a woman in San Francisco in 1976, but immediately jumps to her childhood in China in the 1960s, marked as a "peasant" during the Cultural Revolution. Not even 16, she's recruited into a specially commissioned dance troupe by Chairman Mao Zedong and leaves her family for the capital in Beijing. There, she becomes the Chairman's "paramour", and tries to become the model revolutionary, all while having a behind-the-scenes look at the political underworkings of his government.
First, the not-so-good: throughout the majority of this novel, I was disturbed by the relationship between (16 year-old) Mei Xiang and the Chairman, a married man in his 60s. I can understand Hua's desire to drive a point at the exploitation and brainwashing of women during this time (and many other periods) but the amount of detail that was written about multiple times throughout felt unnecessary, even just for shock value. So: a major TW for rape, as well as suicide, should be noted for this novel.
I did, however, appreciate that "Forbidden City" sheds light on such a major point in history that I feel is not written much about, and sharing it from the perspective of an individual who is both taken up by and eventually betrays the movement. Mei encountered some truly heartbreaking situations and decisions, and while I couldn't always agree with her actions, was able to empathize with her and the difficulty of her environment. The discovery of who she's actually narrating her story to was one of the emotional peaks for me, and one of the most poignant points of the novel.
Thank you Ballantine Books for an advance copy of this novel!
June 11, 2022
I didn't mesh well with the writing style here. Very dry and slow-moving. It’s written very matter-of-factly throughout the abuse (sexual, mental, physical, minor-adult relationships, etc), the mysteries, or the amazing determinations, which could be accredited to an older Mei narrating her own story; It’s basically in the voice of someone talking to you, I suppose.
Where this story excels is in making us believe as Mei does in the revolution, in the Chairman, and in her own role in the movement. The fear and anxiety Mei has about being replaced hovers over readers too. We see class issues and women’s worth questioned here as well.
But despite the inner circle scrabbles, the hidden sides of the Chairman, and the pitting girls against each other, I didn’t feel much motivation to keep reading. This is supposed to be how Mei rises to #1 mistress, then gets disillusioned until her inevitable fall. I wished I could have liked the journey to getting there better. None of this was boring per se, but I almost dnf’ed it.
ETA: I forgot something. GOLLY did Mei ask questions. There are literal pages of her just asking questions. She said she gon know what's going on.
Where this story excels is in making us believe as Mei does in the revolution, in the Chairman, and in her own role in the movement. The fear and anxiety Mei has about being replaced hovers over readers too. We see class issues and women’s worth questioned here as well.
But despite the inner circle scrabbles, the hidden sides of the Chairman, and the pitting girls against each other, I didn’t feel much motivation to keep reading. This is supposed to be how Mei rises to #1 mistress, then gets disillusioned until her inevitable fall. I wished I could have liked the journey to getting there better. None of this was boring per se, but I almost dnf’ed it.
ETA: I forgot something. GOLLY did Mei ask questions. There are literal pages of her just asking questions. She said she gon know what's going on.
May 28, 2022
CW: rape, teenage girl’s relationship with an old man, suicide, miscarriage, torture
I read historical fiction so rarely, that I usually don’t know what are the new releases in the genre or what’s popular. But I recently saw a couple of tweets praising this one and I was immediately intrigued. I have so many fantasy arcs but when mood reading strikes, I can’t help it. So here I am after finishing this very uncomfortable and unflinching book set during 1965-66 China.
I have to warn you first about a couple of things. Within the first couple of chapters, you’ll encounter a rape scene of a 15 year old girl, our protagonist and who then continues to become a paramour/lover of her rapist, Mao Zedong. Their “relationship” is the central part of this story, and while it did creep me out to read about a 70+ man having taking advantage of a teenage girl and continuing to have sex with her, the story and the protagonist Mei kept me going. But if you are very uncomfortable with these dynamics, it’s better you avoid this book.
Coming to the writing, I have to say it was very gorgeous without being lyrical, capturing each character’s feelings very deeply and making us feel the emotions. But I think the writing itself had to be beautiful because the story is really an ugly one. The pacing can be a bit slow too, especially in the middle portions because it mostly feels like a slice of story, but I was engrossed enough that I didn’t notice these issues. The author’s meticulous research shows in the way she perfectly captures the ethos of China before the Cultural Revolution and once it begins, the lives of the peasants in remote villages and how removed they are from the kind of lives the elite live in the capital, the veneration of Chairman Mao like a god and how it fuels the survival of the people - it all felt very real and palpable but it was also told in a way that I was able to read it, unlike Yang Jisheng’s nonfiction book about the time period which I couldn’t really handle. The reason is that the brewing Cultural Revolution is mostly towards the last quarter of the book and we as a reader are mostly at a remove from the reality of what is happening - there are only few scenes which capture in detail the fervor and cruelty of the Red Guard during those times - this makes it more palatable to read but if you are looking specifically to read about the Revolution in detail, then you will be disappointed.
I think what the author manages to do successfully is show us the ways in which power and manipulation works; how lies and half truths and insinuations are the weapon of the powerful to quash any rebellion against them; and how easy it is to get seduced by proximity to power, expecting that one will get a share in it too. It’s a searing look at how meaningful words like “revolution” and “power of the people” are misused to rile up the ignorant masses - especially young students who are eager to be a part of the fight against the capitalists just like their parents and grandparents were - and become clarion calls for resolving grudges and revenge and power struggles instead. And finally it’s about the effect a cult/god like figure can have on people who just want to better their lives and get out of abject poverty, how easy it is to make such people feel like they belong to something greater and their contributions matter. The motivation of the people in those times might be different than the qanon and right wing supporters of today, but the utter devotion they feel for their leader is eerily similar.
Our protagonist and the only POV we get is a 15 year old peasant girl who is handpicked to become part of a dance troupe in Beijing, whose job it is to entertain the elite and occasionally sleep with the Chairman. She idolizes him like a god (actually all the girls of the troupe do) and they all fight with each other to get the opportunity to service him. But Mei has ambitions too - she totally believes in his words, and dreams of becoming a model revolutionary, who can tour the whole country spreading his message to the people. It’s hard to like her when we see her manipulate her way into being in his good graces and being so anxious to do anything to please him, but then we realize she is just a 15-16 year old girl who has been taught since she was born that the Chairman was their savior, and what can be more rewarding for her than being his companion as well as close confidant/protégé. But we also slowly realize that she is smart and observant, can see the flaws in what’s happening, maybe does realize that he isn’t as infallible a leader as she thought he was, but is not in a position to question authority or give up the little power that she thinks she has gained. It’s heartbreaking to see her be manipulated, gaslighted, and cajoled into being just a tool in a powerful man’s hands - easily disposable and replaceable; but equally hopeful when she manages to see through the illusion and finally makes decisions for herself.
I mean what can I say about Mao Zedong’s character. I probably can’t separate my feelings about the character in the book from the real life person, so bear with me a bit. It was fascinating to see him from the POV of a young girl who worships him and how larger than life, all powerful, and all capable he feels like when seen through her eyes. But as she slowly starts living with him, we see him for what he is (even if she doesn’t) - someone who likes his dancing and company of young girls, indulging in his riches when most of the country is starving; a leader who is scared of losing his authority and will do anything to regain it all even if it leads to death and destruction, but strategic enough to ensure nothings harms him or his image; who is mercurial in his moods, occasionally depressed, and has a progressing illness which he has to hide from everyone; and ultimately be in control of everything and everyone. It’s hard to feel anything else for him except loathing. There are also side characters like Teacher Fan and Secretary Sun, who can also be called Mei’s mentors, who show some kindness to her but not always in a way that she can feel it. We also have members of her dance group like Busy Shan and Midnight Chang who are all mirrors of each other, each finding the possibility of what they could be in the other, leading to some very antagonistic dynamics.
The way the story starts in the book, we know Mei has escaped and lives in the US and this book is her narrating her story and relationship with the Chairman to someone - and it’s a very unsettling and sad revelation when we realize to whom she is her story. And ultimately that is what Forbidden City is - a young woman’s coming of age story, her grappling with agency and proximity to power and the desire to be a part of something, until till she realizes the reality of her choices. This may not be for everyone but I found myself deeply engrossed in the book and thought it was a great historical fiction book, bringing those less talked about times to life. I’m now definitely interested to checkout the author’s previous works.
I read historical fiction so rarely, that I usually don’t know what are the new releases in the genre or what’s popular. But I recently saw a couple of tweets praising this one and I was immediately intrigued. I have so many fantasy arcs but when mood reading strikes, I can’t help it. So here I am after finishing this very uncomfortable and unflinching book set during 1965-66 China.
I have to warn you first about a couple of things. Within the first couple of chapters, you’ll encounter a rape scene of a 15 year old girl, our protagonist and who then continues to become a paramour/lover of her rapist, Mao Zedong. Their “relationship” is the central part of this story, and while it did creep me out to read about a 70+ man having taking advantage of a teenage girl and continuing to have sex with her, the story and the protagonist Mei kept me going. But if you are very uncomfortable with these dynamics, it’s better you avoid this book.
Coming to the writing, I have to say it was very gorgeous without being lyrical, capturing each character’s feelings very deeply and making us feel the emotions. But I think the writing itself had to be beautiful because the story is really an ugly one. The pacing can be a bit slow too, especially in the middle portions because it mostly feels like a slice of story, but I was engrossed enough that I didn’t notice these issues. The author’s meticulous research shows in the way she perfectly captures the ethos of China before the Cultural Revolution and once it begins, the lives of the peasants in remote villages and how removed they are from the kind of lives the elite live in the capital, the veneration of Chairman Mao like a god and how it fuels the survival of the people - it all felt very real and palpable but it was also told in a way that I was able to read it, unlike Yang Jisheng’s nonfiction book about the time period which I couldn’t really handle. The reason is that the brewing Cultural Revolution is mostly towards the last quarter of the book and we as a reader are mostly at a remove from the reality of what is happening - there are only few scenes which capture in detail the fervor and cruelty of the Red Guard during those times - this makes it more palatable to read but if you are looking specifically to read about the Revolution in detail, then you will be disappointed.
I think what the author manages to do successfully is show us the ways in which power and manipulation works; how lies and half truths and insinuations are the weapon of the powerful to quash any rebellion against them; and how easy it is to get seduced by proximity to power, expecting that one will get a share in it too. It’s a searing look at how meaningful words like “revolution” and “power of the people” are misused to rile up the ignorant masses - especially young students who are eager to be a part of the fight against the capitalists just like their parents and grandparents were - and become clarion calls for resolving grudges and revenge and power struggles instead. And finally it’s about the effect a cult/god like figure can have on people who just want to better their lives and get out of abject poverty, how easy it is to make such people feel like they belong to something greater and their contributions matter. The motivation of the people in those times might be different than the qanon and right wing supporters of today, but the utter devotion they feel for their leader is eerily similar.
Our protagonist and the only POV we get is a 15 year old peasant girl who is handpicked to become part of a dance troupe in Beijing, whose job it is to entertain the elite and occasionally sleep with the Chairman. She idolizes him like a god (actually all the girls of the troupe do) and they all fight with each other to get the opportunity to service him. But Mei has ambitions too - she totally believes in his words, and dreams of becoming a model revolutionary, who can tour the whole country spreading his message to the people. It’s hard to like her when we see her manipulate her way into being in his good graces and being so anxious to do anything to please him, but then we realize she is just a 15-16 year old girl who has been taught since she was born that the Chairman was their savior, and what can be more rewarding for her than being his companion as well as close confidant/protégé. But we also slowly realize that she is smart and observant, can see the flaws in what’s happening, maybe does realize that he isn’t as infallible a leader as she thought he was, but is not in a position to question authority or give up the little power that she thinks she has gained. It’s heartbreaking to see her be manipulated, gaslighted, and cajoled into being just a tool in a powerful man’s hands - easily disposable and replaceable; but equally hopeful when she manages to see through the illusion and finally makes decisions for herself.
I mean what can I say about Mao Zedong’s character. I probably can’t separate my feelings about the character in the book from the real life person, so bear with me a bit. It was fascinating to see him from the POV of a young girl who worships him and how larger than life, all powerful, and all capable he feels like when seen through her eyes. But as she slowly starts living with him, we see him for what he is (even if she doesn’t) - someone who likes his dancing and company of young girls, indulging in his riches when most of the country is starving; a leader who is scared of losing his authority and will do anything to regain it all even if it leads to death and destruction, but strategic enough to ensure nothings harms him or his image; who is mercurial in his moods, occasionally depressed, and has a progressing illness which he has to hide from everyone; and ultimately be in control of everything and everyone. It’s hard to feel anything else for him except loathing. There are also side characters like Teacher Fan and Secretary Sun, who can also be called Mei’s mentors, who show some kindness to her but not always in a way that she can feel it. We also have members of her dance group like Busy Shan and Midnight Chang who are all mirrors of each other, each finding the possibility of what they could be in the other, leading to some very antagonistic dynamics.
The way the story starts in the book, we know Mei has escaped and lives in the US and this book is her narrating her story and relationship with the Chairman to someone - and it’s a very unsettling and sad revelation when we realize to whom she is her story. And ultimately that is what Forbidden City is - a young woman’s coming of age story, her grappling with agency and proximity to power and the desire to be a part of something, until till she realizes the reality of her choices. This may not be for everyone but I found myself deeply engrossed in the book and thought it was a great historical fiction book, bringing those less talked about times to life. I’m now definitely interested to checkout the author’s previous works.
September 16, 2022
I had hoped that I would learn more about Mao and the Cultural Revolution than I did in this book. Although the reader gets to know him through the eyes of his teenage mistress (our narrator, the main character), Mao remains enigmatic. Too enigmatic for my tastes.
We see many of Mao's weaknesses and shortcomings without getting a sense of how this man could wield such incomparable power over such a large nation.
The backstory and post-Mao life of the main character are quite interesting but they are a bit disjointed from the Mao section of the book. I understand that it had to be that way because of the constraints placed on our young main character (hard to say more on that without spoilers).
The section of the book with Mao does give a sense of how bizarre it must have been for such a young, naive girl to have an ongoing, intimate relationship with one who was almost revered as a God in his own time. Even more bizarre, this girl becomes the conduit of communication between Mao and the rest of the world.
I suppose the book stays too much in the character's head to give the reader much overarching meaning to the thing. I missed that part of the book that I kept looking for.
We see many of Mao's weaknesses and shortcomings without getting a sense of how this man could wield such incomparable power over such a large nation.
The backstory and post-Mao life of the main character are quite interesting but they are a bit disjointed from the Mao section of the book. I understand that it had to be that way because of the constraints placed on our young main character (hard to say more on that without spoilers).
The section of the book with Mao does give a sense of how bizarre it must have been for such a young, naive girl to have an ongoing, intimate relationship with one who was almost revered as a God in his own time. Even more bizarre, this girl becomes the conduit of communication between Mao and the rest of the world.
I suppose the book stays too much in the character's head to give the reader much overarching meaning to the thing. I missed that part of the book that I kept looking for.
August 28, 2022
I was looking forward to a good hate-reading experience but this was honestly just…really boring. Very sorry to say that the highlight of this novel was reading smut ft. 70yo mao zedong and his pear-shaped man boobs.
March 19, 2022
Several years ago, I read “The Secret Piano,” which opened my eyes about China’s “Cultural Revolution.” I put quotes around that, because generally one would think of a revolution as being a move toward the positive. But Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution was anything but. Honestly, it was horrendous and I was interested that I’d been alive during the time (1966-1976) although I really knew almost nothing about it. I remember junior high social studies, in the late ’70s, and learning about Mao Zedong (it always sounded to me like the teacher was saying Mousie Toong). I wonder whether we knew at that time how awful things were there? During the revolution, Mao had the Chinese people get rid of any books other than those promoting his ideas. Classical and other “old” music was discarded and only revolutionary tunes were allowed. Many people starved and died in other ways.
So, when I saw “The Forbidden City,” a fictional account of a Chinese girl during this time, I thought it would be interesting. Mei is 15 when Communist party workers choose her and take her away from her parents and two older sisters to go to the capital city. She is told that “the Party would provide our families with two months’ worth of work points because of the hardship our absence caused. Those points determined how much food we received.” Although she doesn’t know it at the time, Mei will never again see any of her family members.
Once in the capital, Mei is put into a class to learn dancing. And soon, she catches the eye of Dear Leader Chairman Mao himself. The 72-year-old leader claims her, you can probably guess for what purpose. This is described several times in the book, which is icky, but seems plausible. Mei becomes enthralled with the Chairman rather than repulsed. “When he spoke like this, he seemed to see history all at once, thousands of years of oppression and failed revolts, millions upon millions of lives wasted until revolution arrived. I strained to understand what seemed just beyond the limits of my perception.” The Chairman lets Mei learn various things and she is used for some of his plans in bringing down other politicians.
But, she sees what goes on in the highest echelons of power, and knows that every girl in her position is eventually replaced. She sees her dance teacher and others fall from favor, and one girl in her dance troupe even commits suicide.
This book felt long, and I found myself really immersed into what life might have been like for a teenage girl of that time and in that place, “swept up into the patriotism of those times and to meet a man she’d been raised to worship as a god,” as author Vanessa Hua writes in her author’s note. Hua is a daughter of Chinese immigrants, which adds interest I think. I can’t say the book was very pleasant for the most part, but it wasn’t a pleasant part of history.
Interesting, well-written book. I also think the cover looks great; very “of the time.”
So, when I saw “The Forbidden City,” a fictional account of a Chinese girl during this time, I thought it would be interesting. Mei is 15 when Communist party workers choose her and take her away from her parents and two older sisters to go to the capital city. She is told that “the Party would provide our families with two months’ worth of work points because of the hardship our absence caused. Those points determined how much food we received.” Although she doesn’t know it at the time, Mei will never again see any of her family members.
Once in the capital, Mei is put into a class to learn dancing. And soon, she catches the eye of Dear Leader Chairman Mao himself. The 72-year-old leader claims her, you can probably guess for what purpose. This is described several times in the book, which is icky, but seems plausible. Mei becomes enthralled with the Chairman rather than repulsed. “When he spoke like this, he seemed to see history all at once, thousands of years of oppression and failed revolts, millions upon millions of lives wasted until revolution arrived. I strained to understand what seemed just beyond the limits of my perception.” The Chairman lets Mei learn various things and she is used for some of his plans in bringing down other politicians.
But, she sees what goes on in the highest echelons of power, and knows that every girl in her position is eventually replaced. She sees her dance teacher and others fall from favor, and one girl in her dance troupe even commits suicide.
This book felt long, and I found myself really immersed into what life might have been like for a teenage girl of that time and in that place, “swept up into the patriotism of those times and to meet a man she’d been raised to worship as a god,” as author Vanessa Hua writes in her author’s note. Hua is a daughter of Chinese immigrants, which adds interest I think. I can’t say the book was very pleasant for the most part, but it wasn’t a pleasant part of history.
Interesting, well-written book. I also think the cover looks great; very “of the time.”
September 6, 2022
This novel is set in China just before, and at the beginning of, the Cultural Revolution. The main character is a 16 year old peasant girl who is “recruited” to go to the capital to serve the Party. She is full of revolutionary zeal and wants to serve her country beyond all else. Upon her arrival at the capital, she is sent to the Lake Palaces (where Chairman Mao and Madam Mao reside), where she learns that she is required to join a dance troupe and serve the country by dancing for, and providing sexual favors for, the Chairman and members of the cadre. She becomes Mao’s mistress, which at first seems to be a fulfillment of her life/revolutionary goals. She participates in Mao’s schemes against those politicians he wants to weaken, and for a time she is fully immersed in his world and beliefs – and actually helps start the Cultural Revolution. Finally, as she witnesses the horrors of the Cultural Revolution and begins to find her own true self in the midst of person into she which she has ostensibly become, she realizes that the world of Chinese communism and Mao adoration is not what it is held out to be – and she responds accordingly. The character development is very well done. We first see this young, adamant woman in her peasant life, then as she adapts to life in the palace, then as Mao’s mistress, then as his cohort in mischief and deception, and last as a woman who just wishes to escape it all. On the downside, as someone else said, this novel is really more fiction in a place in history rather than historical fiction. I do think the research was good. However, there is a lot of time spent on jealousies among the dancers/mistresses and sex with Mao. All are likely, but for me it was a little overdone. The basis of the novel is Mao’s penchant for teenage girls – again likely but not at all well documented. That said, this is an extremely interesting view of life in Mao’s world before and at the start of the Cultural Revolution.
Read
January 24, 2022Excellent engrossing story of a young peasant woman who wants to be a hero for Chairman Mao and her relationship with him. Loved this - recruited from her village describes the hardships and training she ensures to help bring down the President and start the ten year cultural war - so so good
June 12, 2022
There are no “reveals” here that aren’t covered in the book blurb, chapter 1, or Wikipedia’s entry on Mao Zedong.
Forbidden City may be set during China’s Cultural Revolution, and author Vanessa Hua may have started the novel 15 years ago, but it is uncannily timely. What it has to say about cults of personality, and how easily the masses are swayed to believe and do things ranging from stupid to terrible, is very relevant to today. It’s a reminder that the moment we live in may feel unique, but it’s not without precedent.
It’s not just the cult of personality and mass hysteria that’s eerily relevant, it’s also the whole Roe situation. As the protagonist finds herself in a situation where her bodily autonomy is compromised, she is constantly thinking of how to have agency over at least her uterus. She combs the hills and gardens for an herb called dong quai, and I wonder how many women reading this book are already looking to buy some seeds for their own post-Roe garden. What a thought. The author couldn’t have known how relevant this plot point would be, but she didn’t need to, because it’s been relevant since at least the dawn of agriculture, when, arguably, patriarchy became a thing.
Backing up, the story follows a 15-year-old peasant girl, Mei, who is taken from her rural village into an urban “dance troupe” designed to entertain Chairman Mao and his cadre, and if this sounds like a harem, you would be correct. It’s horrifying to imagine this child falling into the hands of an elderly bloated narcissist, but that’s what happened. Not this exact character—she is invented. But Mao did surround himself with teenage girls, many of whom he probably bedded. I don’t know how I would have handled writing about this, but I appreciate Hua’s choices. Her focus is not on how awful this was for Mei, how she suffered, or what a victim she was—that would have been fair, but that’s not the story she tells. (Though there is some of the terribleness, so if that’s a trigger, be warmed.) Hua gives Mei as much agency as a person in her situation can have. Mei is sharp, calculating, and ambitious, and she figures out how to turn the situation in her favor as much as possible.
A parallel story happened in Mao’s Zedong’s real history: Zhang Yufeng was a young woman who ended up Mao’s personal secretary and paramour. She was at his side for latter part of his life and maneuvered herself to become the most powerful person in his orbit, more powerful than any of his counselors or even his wife. She had total control of access to him by the end; nobody got close without her permission. She was even interpreting his speech, garbled as it was by his struggle with ALS. Mei’s story is not the same as Zhang’s but is clearly inspired by it. I didn’t know this initially, but learned it when I looked up Mao’s history. Side note: Zhang Yufeng is still alive and wrote a memoir about her time with Mao, but it was (surprise!) censored.
Hua imagines Mei as not just a confidante of Mao’s, but an advisor. She plants ideas in his head. In fact, Hua imagines Mei as central to Mao’s idea for the Cultural Revolution. Mei was born at the same time as the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, so she has never known anything else, she is steeped in the mythology of Chinese Communism and the cult of Mao. She is a true believer. At first. As things continue, someone as sharp as her is forced to reconcile what she was raised to believe with what she’s seeing with her own eyes. This is one of the central tensions of the novel.
I didn’t know much about the Great Leap Forward (which is in the recent past as the novel begins) or the Cultural Revolution, and it’s fascinating to be in Mei’s point of view as we learn the outlines of both of those horrors. You wonder how one person could so badly fuck up a huge country and pay so little a price for it, but that’s the history of autocrats.
You can read this as a history of latter-day Mao, but it really is Mei’s story—told from her viewpoint much later in life. She is a remarkable, infuriating, inspiring character. She sometimes steps aside and reminds her audience* that she is aware how problematic her thinking seems, “But remember: I was a child.” It is a useful reminder. What was important to Hua was to tell the story of someone who might have existed in real life, but whose story would have been erased. She wants to imagine the history of the marginalized, dismissed, and forgotten.
[*Who is her audience? She is clearly addressing someone, but we don’t know who. Neither did Hua, interestingly. When she figured it out, “it was like a key turning in a lock.” We probably learn it at the same time in the unfolding of the narrative as she did. It’s not a shock, but it’s quite poignant.]
I listened to an interview on KQED with Hua and May-Lee Chai, an author who teaches at San Francisco State University. The interviewer was Alexis Madrigal, a writer for The Atlantic who was born in Mexico. The three talked about how there’s an appetite now, finally, for these stories—those of the marginalized, dismissed, and forgotten. More than ninety percent of novels coming out of New York publishers were, until recently, written by white people, and in particular men. Now there’s enough interest in marginalized voices that we can move past the one big story (which makes me think of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story,” on the same subject). Writers can assume a certain level of familiarity in their readers and can therefore drill down into the smaller, more nuanced stories within “the big story” of a place or a time. Chai includes, with Hua’s novel, Vauhini Vara’s The Immortal King Rao and Jenny Tinghui Zhang’s Four Treasures of the Sky as novels by Asian-American writers that explore history in surprising, creative ways.
Edition note: The audiobook is engagingly narrated by Catherine Ho, I recommend the audio version for any book that has names and phrases in a language other than English, because it’s so useful (to me) to hear things pronounced correctly. It was worth it alone to hear the Chinese tongue-twister read aloud: Māmā qí mǎ. Mǎ màn, māmā mà mǎ. Translation: “Mother is riding a horse. The horse is slow, mother scolds the horse.”
I got the physical book from the library. Some books you need a physical copy of, if there are loads of characters or confusing plot points you need to reference, but I didn’t find that to be true with this one. It was pretty easy to follow.
Forbidden City may be set during China’s Cultural Revolution, and author Vanessa Hua may have started the novel 15 years ago, but it is uncannily timely. What it has to say about cults of personality, and how easily the masses are swayed to believe and do things ranging from stupid to terrible, is very relevant to today. It’s a reminder that the moment we live in may feel unique, but it’s not without precedent.
It’s not just the cult of personality and mass hysteria that’s eerily relevant, it’s also the whole Roe situation. As the protagonist finds herself in a situation where her bodily autonomy is compromised, she is constantly thinking of how to have agency over at least her uterus. She combs the hills and gardens for an herb called dong quai, and I wonder how many women reading this book are already looking to buy some seeds for their own post-Roe garden. What a thought. The author couldn’t have known how relevant this plot point would be, but she didn’t need to, because it’s been relevant since at least the dawn of agriculture, when, arguably, patriarchy became a thing.
Backing up, the story follows a 15-year-old peasant girl, Mei, who is taken from her rural village into an urban “dance troupe” designed to entertain Chairman Mao and his cadre, and if this sounds like a harem, you would be correct. It’s horrifying to imagine this child falling into the hands of an elderly bloated narcissist, but that’s what happened. Not this exact character—she is invented. But Mao did surround himself with teenage girls, many of whom he probably bedded. I don’t know how I would have handled writing about this, but I appreciate Hua’s choices. Her focus is not on how awful this was for Mei, how she suffered, or what a victim she was—that would have been fair, but that’s not the story she tells. (Though there is some of the terribleness, so if that’s a trigger, be warmed.) Hua gives Mei as much agency as a person in her situation can have. Mei is sharp, calculating, and ambitious, and she figures out how to turn the situation in her favor as much as possible.
A parallel story happened in Mao’s Zedong’s real history: Zhang Yufeng was a young woman who ended up Mao’s personal secretary and paramour. She was at his side for latter part of his life and maneuvered herself to become the most powerful person in his orbit, more powerful than any of his counselors or even his wife. She had total control of access to him by the end; nobody got close without her permission. She was even interpreting his speech, garbled as it was by his struggle with ALS. Mei’s story is not the same as Zhang’s but is clearly inspired by it. I didn’t know this initially, but learned it when I looked up Mao’s history. Side note: Zhang Yufeng is still alive and wrote a memoir about her time with Mao, but it was (surprise!) censored.
Hua imagines Mei as not just a confidante of Mao’s, but an advisor. She plants ideas in his head. In fact, Hua imagines Mei as central to Mao’s idea for the Cultural Revolution. Mei was born at the same time as the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, so she has never known anything else, she is steeped in the mythology of Chinese Communism and the cult of Mao. She is a true believer. At first. As things continue, someone as sharp as her is forced to reconcile what she was raised to believe with what she’s seeing with her own eyes. This is one of the central tensions of the novel.
I didn’t know much about the Great Leap Forward (which is in the recent past as the novel begins) or the Cultural Revolution, and it’s fascinating to be in Mei’s point of view as we learn the outlines of both of those horrors. You wonder how one person could so badly fuck up a huge country and pay so little a price for it, but that’s the history of autocrats.
You can read this as a history of latter-day Mao, but it really is Mei’s story—told from her viewpoint much later in life. She is a remarkable, infuriating, inspiring character. She sometimes steps aside and reminds her audience* that she is aware how problematic her thinking seems, “But remember: I was a child.” It is a useful reminder. What was important to Hua was to tell the story of someone who might have existed in real life, but whose story would have been erased. She wants to imagine the history of the marginalized, dismissed, and forgotten.
[*Who is her audience? She is clearly addressing someone, but we don’t know who. Neither did Hua, interestingly. When she figured it out, “it was like a key turning in a lock.” We probably learn it at the same time in the unfolding of the narrative as she did. It’s not a shock, but it’s quite poignant.]
I listened to an interview on KQED with Hua and May-Lee Chai, an author who teaches at San Francisco State University. The interviewer was Alexis Madrigal, a writer for The Atlantic who was born in Mexico. The three talked about how there’s an appetite now, finally, for these stories—those of the marginalized, dismissed, and forgotten. More than ninety percent of novels coming out of New York publishers were, until recently, written by white people, and in particular men. Now there’s enough interest in marginalized voices that we can move past the one big story (which makes me think of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story,” on the same subject). Writers can assume a certain level of familiarity in their readers and can therefore drill down into the smaller, more nuanced stories within “the big story” of a place or a time. Chai includes, with Hua’s novel, Vauhini Vara’s The Immortal King Rao and Jenny Tinghui Zhang’s Four Treasures of the Sky as novels by Asian-American writers that explore history in surprising, creative ways.
Edition note: The audiobook is engagingly narrated by Catherine Ho, I recommend the audio version for any book that has names and phrases in a language other than English, because it’s so useful (to me) to hear things pronounced correctly. It was worth it alone to hear the Chinese tongue-twister read aloud: Māmā qí mǎ. Mǎ màn, māmā mà mǎ. Translation: “Mother is riding a horse. The horse is slow, mother scolds the horse.”
I got the physical book from the library. Some books you need a physical copy of, if there are loads of characters or confusing plot points you need to reference, but I didn’t find that to be true with this one. It was pretty easy to follow.
February 21, 2023
Any book that keeps me gripping it, to the point that I'm writing a goodreads review for it an hour after I was supposes to go to bed cause I HAD to finish, is good. This book, while starting from a premise I'd consider... odd, is really, really good. Telling the story of a peasant who finds herself in the dance troupe / concubineship of Chairman Mao, you really get a feel for how life might have been. The Authors notes section at the end goes into detail about how much could / could not have been real, which is nice. Setting the book at the onset of the cultural revolution is a good touch. Learned a lot about Mao, too.
In response to reviews dinging this book for its lack of historical accuracy, allow me to posit: A book can be entertaining without being historical accurate. A book, movie, television show, artwork, videogame, or any other type of media can be entertaining without being fully historically accurate.
SPOILERS BELOW
Throughout the whole book, the narrative is framed around two central guarantees: that the main characters survives the whole time and makes her way, eventually, to San Fransisco, and that she is writing the story as a letter to someone. You find out relatively close to the end that it's to her son. A short time later, you find out that her son dies immediately after birth. Brutal. I audibly gasped when this happened, much to my sleeping roommate's chagrin. Absolutely stunning plot twist.
In response to reviews dinging this book for its lack of historical accuracy, allow me to posit: A book can be entertaining without being historical accurate. A book, movie, television show, artwork, videogame, or any other type of media can be entertaining without being fully historically accurate.
SPOILERS BELOW
Throughout the whole book, the narrative is framed around two central guarantees: that the main characters survives the whole time and makes her way, eventually, to San Fransisco, and that she is writing the story as a letter to someone. You find out relatively close to the end that it's to her son. A short time later, you find out that her son dies immediately after birth. Brutal. I audibly gasped when this happened, much to my sleeping roommate's chagrin. Absolutely stunning plot twist.
September 21, 2022
A slightly uncomfortable read as it deals mostly with a relationship between a powerful man and an almost captive underage girl. Through this we learn much about Mao Tse Tung and the psyche of Cultural Revolution era Red China. The atrocities of time are described but not in graphic detail, and because of that, despite the uncomfortable subject matter, it ended up being an entertaining read.
September 18, 2022
Nothing is more embarrassing than a self-proclaimed progressive socialist/leftist/whatever who still glorifies the imperialist communist leaders of the 20th century. This historical novel explains through narrative why the Great Chairman might not have been so great after all, from a very close and personal (fictitious) view.
The perspective of the young protege helps us understand why people were so on board with Mao and his revolutional ideas, while also revealing the underlying power structures that contradict many of the ideals the revolution was supposed to stand for. Forbidden City shines in its chapters where the Cultural Revolution kicks into full throttle. Its most interesting during its gradual shift from blind adoration of Mao to critical distance.
Whenever the bigger historical figures and events fade into a background and the novel focuses on its protagonist for pages on end, however, the overall slow pace begins to drag. The protagonist is what makes the novel work and what makes it unique, from a modern feminist perspective as well. But in general, Forbidden City loves overly detailed descriptions and inner monologues a bit too much. They hit just as often as they miss.
And then there is the after taste that seems awkwardly pro-capitalist. Very surprising for a novel that - at least for the most part - is very nuanced and adequately ambiguous when it comes to complex social and political issues, not giving in to the temptation of easy answers. Though, in a way, it is a logical conclusion for the arc of the protagonist.
The perspective of the young protege helps us understand why people were so on board with Mao and his revolutional ideas, while also revealing the underlying power structures that contradict many of the ideals the revolution was supposed to stand for. Forbidden City shines in its chapters where the Cultural Revolution kicks into full throttle. Its most interesting during its gradual shift from blind adoration of Mao to critical distance.
Whenever the bigger historical figures and events fade into a background and the novel focuses on its protagonist for pages on end, however, the overall slow pace begins to drag. The protagonist is what makes the novel work and what makes it unique, from a modern feminist perspective as well. But in general, Forbidden City loves overly detailed descriptions and inner monologues a bit too much. They hit just as often as they miss.
And then there is the after taste that seems awkwardly pro-capitalist. Very surprising for a novel that - at least for the most part - is very nuanced and adequately ambiguous when it comes to complex social and political issues, not giving in to the temptation of easy answers. Though, in a way, it is a logical conclusion for the arc of the protagonist.
February 20, 2022
A thoughtful and meticulously-researched piece of historical fiction from which I learned a lot. However, the story fell a little flat for me as it progressed.
First, the strengths... I love the idea of creating this character Mei as a stand in for the many young girls that have served in this capacity for powerful male leaders for centuries. I loved that Mei both bought the party programming, but also was able to acknowledge, (perhaps only in looking back on her life) the reality of the situation she was in. For instance, the Chairman was both a great thinker and a charismatic man, AND a fat, old man with mental health issues who raped her on sight.
(Yeah, trigger warning on that opening sex scene.)
The book does not shy away from this duality, and also creates space for Mei to have big dreams of her own as well as the same ordinary concerns as any other teenage girl, (for instance, her constant battles with Midnight Chang, "a mean girl" before the term was even invented!) It is understandable that being so close to all that power made Mei believe that some would be allotted to her too, even though you can see on some level that she (rightly so) has her doubts.
I think for me, the book felt really solid up through Mei's role in fooling the President. Then, the book just seemed a little aimless to me. The Cultural Revolution kicks into high gear, but the Chairman and Mei spend much of it away from the city. Mei tries to find ways to ride the movement to fame, while also continuing to obsess over Midnight Chang. All of it felt a little petty-like the worst inclination of a teen girl, to be totally self-obsessed about how it all impacted HER during a time of national crisis and uprising.
I think the problem with this later half of the book is that Mei's lens felt a little TOO narrow for me. There is a lot happening in the country, but our view of it, the country's feelings about it, The Chairman's role in it, all of it is reduced to Mei's shallow perspective. This was an artistic choice that respected of the narrator of the story, but perhaps less so the reader.
Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
First, the strengths... I love the idea of creating this character Mei as a stand in for the many young girls that have served in this capacity for powerful male leaders for centuries. I loved that Mei both bought the party programming, but also was able to acknowledge, (perhaps only in looking back on her life) the reality of the situation she was in. For instance, the Chairman was both a great thinker and a charismatic man, AND a fat, old man with mental health issues who raped her on sight.
(Yeah, trigger warning on that opening sex scene.)
The book does not shy away from this duality, and also creates space for Mei to have big dreams of her own as well as the same ordinary concerns as any other teenage girl, (for instance, her constant battles with Midnight Chang, "a mean girl" before the term was even invented!) It is understandable that being so close to all that power made Mei believe that some would be allotted to her too, even though you can see on some level that she (rightly so) has her doubts.
I think for me, the book felt really solid up through Mei's role in fooling the President. Then, the book just seemed a little aimless to me. The Cultural Revolution kicks into high gear, but the Chairman and Mei spend much of it away from the city. Mei tries to find ways to ride the movement to fame, while also continuing to obsess over Midnight Chang. All of it felt a little petty-like the worst inclination of a teen girl, to be totally self-obsessed about how it all impacted HER during a time of national crisis and uprising.
I think the problem with this later half of the book is that Mei's lens felt a little TOO narrow for me. There is a lot happening in the country, but our view of it, the country's feelings about it, The Chairman's role in it, all of it is reduced to Mei's shallow perspective. This was an artistic choice that respected of the narrator of the story, but perhaps less so the reader.
Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
July 16, 2022
One day in 1965, a Party member arrives in Song Mei Xiang’s hometown. Chosen by the headman (thanks to a little blackmail on Mei’s part) to go with the Party member, Mei quickly finds herself part of a troupe of young girls whose purpose is to entertain the highest-ranking Party members in China, including the Chairman, Mao Zedong, himself. The first time she meets Mao, she manages to catch his attention, such that he draws her away from the dance party and rapes her in his bedroom. From then on, she’s his favored mistress, someone in whom he can confide, and who he ultimately decides to use in some strange plot to humiliate the President. Eventually Mei begins to realize Mao is just a man, and an very old and very ill one at that. She escapes from Mao at the height of the Cultural Revolution and ultimately makes her way to San Francisco.
I really, really wanted to love this book. I’m a sucker for a good historical fiction, but unfortunately this one just didn’t deliver. I kept finding myself reading and re-reading passages, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Everything is so vague, which is because you can’t exactly dissent out loud when you’re in Mao’s inner circle, not if you want yourself and your family to stay alive. But the vagueness was so frustrating. It didn’t help that not a whole lot happened in the middle of the book. Mao fell into a deep depression so he and Mei holed up in his stinky, stuffy, smelly room for weeks on end. She mentions that she reads Mao’s mail until it stops arriving, but honestly I seem to have missed the part where she was controlling any part of the Cultural Revolution, except where she started a rumor that the President was having an affair with a 13-year-old child.
It almost feels like Hua absolutely missed the forest for the one particular tree she wanted to describe in painful detail. I can’t even blame it on inattention since I read the second half in one sitting. I also couldn’t really conjure up the setting, or submerse myself in the story. It was just too utterly vague.
I really, really wanted to love this book. I’m a sucker for a good historical fiction, but unfortunately this one just didn’t deliver. I kept finding myself reading and re-reading passages, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Everything is so vague, which is because you can’t exactly dissent out loud when you’re in Mao’s inner circle, not if you want yourself and your family to stay alive. But the vagueness was so frustrating. It didn’t help that not a whole lot happened in the middle of the book. Mao fell into a deep depression so he and Mei holed up in his stinky, stuffy, smelly room for weeks on end. She mentions that she reads Mao’s mail until it stops arriving, but honestly I seem to have missed the part where she was controlling any part of the Cultural Revolution, except where she started a rumor that the President was having an affair with a 13-year-old child.
It almost feels like Hua absolutely missed the forest for the one particular tree she wanted to describe in painful detail. I can’t even blame it on inattention since I read the second half in one sitting. I also couldn’t really conjure up the setting, or submerse myself in the story. It was just too utterly vague.
November 6, 2022
Exposed me to a new culture and piece of history for which I was unfamiliar.
February 12, 2022
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I so wanted to love this book as historical fiction is a favorite. And, I have an MA in International Affairs with a minor in China. So, I was familiar with the setting and the timeframe.
Background:
"A teenage girl living in 1960s China becomes Mao Zedong's protégée and lover--and a poster child for the Cultural Revolution... On the eve of China's Cultural Revolution and her sixteenth birthday, Mei dreams of becoming a model revolutionary. When the Communist Party recruits girls for a mysterious duty in the capital, she seizes the opportunity to escape her impoverished village. It is only when Mei arrives at the Chairman’s opulent residence—a forbidden city unto itself—that she learns that the girls’ job is to dance with the Party elites. Ambitious and whip-smart. Mei makes a beeline toward the Chairman.
Mei gradually separates from the other recruits to become the Chairman’s confidante—and paramour. As he fends off political rivals, Mei faces down schemers from the dance troupe who will stop at nothing to take her place, as well as the Chairman’s imperious wife, who has schemes of her own. When the Chairman finally gives Mei a political mission, she seizes it with fervor, but the brutality of this latest stage of the revolution makes her begin to doubt all the certainties she has held so dear."
What did I think? I was disappointed. I found it quite repetitious and flat. While the book begins in San Francisco in 1976, it really isn't until the very end until we find out how Mei got there. [Ok the story is China pre- and during the Cultural Revolution, but...] I felt much bashed over the head [as those living in China in the time of the Cultural Revolution must have felt--althought they had to be fearful and I did not.] I kept waiting and wanting to know the trajectory [which was almost anti-climatic--though no real spoiler from me--even her journey took a long while.]
So, somewhat interesting but not enough. Not sure how to rate but since the writing didn't grate on me, a 3.
So, how true? Far-fetched? Probably not. {Read the author's note--many details recorded, of course some liberties taken but...]
And the cover--so reminiscent of the time and place/spot on!
I so wanted to love this book as historical fiction is a favorite. And, I have an MA in International Affairs with a minor in China. So, I was familiar with the setting and the timeframe.
Background:
"A teenage girl living in 1960s China becomes Mao Zedong's protégée and lover--and a poster child for the Cultural Revolution... On the eve of China's Cultural Revolution and her sixteenth birthday, Mei dreams of becoming a model revolutionary. When the Communist Party recruits girls for a mysterious duty in the capital, she seizes the opportunity to escape her impoverished village. It is only when Mei arrives at the Chairman’s opulent residence—a forbidden city unto itself—that she learns that the girls’ job is to dance with the Party elites. Ambitious and whip-smart. Mei makes a beeline toward the Chairman.
Mei gradually separates from the other recruits to become the Chairman’s confidante—and paramour. As he fends off political rivals, Mei faces down schemers from the dance troupe who will stop at nothing to take her place, as well as the Chairman’s imperious wife, who has schemes of her own. When the Chairman finally gives Mei a political mission, she seizes it with fervor, but the brutality of this latest stage of the revolution makes her begin to doubt all the certainties she has held so dear."
What did I think? I was disappointed. I found it quite repetitious and flat. While the book begins in San Francisco in 1976, it really isn't until the very end until we find out how Mei got there. [Ok the story is China pre- and during the Cultural Revolution, but...] I felt much bashed over the head [as those living in China in the time of the Cultural Revolution must have felt--althought they had to be fearful and I did not.] I kept waiting and wanting to know the trajectory [which was almost anti-climatic--though no real spoiler from me--even her journey took a long while.]
So, somewhat interesting but not enough. Not sure how to rate but since the writing didn't grate on me, a 3.
So, how true? Far-fetched? Probably not. {Read the author's note--many details recorded, of course some liberties taken but...]
And the cover--so reminiscent of the time and place/spot on!
April 17, 2022
Vanessa Hua has written a thoroughly researched and deeply moving saga of growing up female in 1960’s China during the Cultural Revolution. At times, this is a difficult story to read, but it’s an accurate portrayal of life in a slowly evolving China during the 1960s.
Mei is chosen to go to the Forbidden City; her purpose isn’t clear but she’s determined to be the best and catch the eye of the Chairman. It’s quickly revealed that one of her main duties is to pleasure the Chairman. She sees an opportunity to succeed and provide a better life for her family back home.
The recruits, girls from various parts of the country, are cut-throat competitive. Nothing is sacred or safe, and they quickly become vengeful animals capable of anything to get ahead. This is how things are throughout the dynasty; anyone will do anything to gain favor, and the most common cost is death.
Mei continues to believe that her family is being provided for, thanks to her undying devotion to the Chairman and her ability to please him, both in and out of the bed. But as she’s exposed to more of the reality, she begins to see through the cracks of the shiny veneer she’s become a part of.
Historically accurate, emotional, and fast-paced, this book should be a must-read for anyone who is interested in modern Chinese history or for those who think they have it rough in their own country.
Sincere thanks to Random House- Ballantine for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is May 10, 2022.
Mei is chosen to go to the Forbidden City; her purpose isn’t clear but she’s determined to be the best and catch the eye of the Chairman. It’s quickly revealed that one of her main duties is to pleasure the Chairman. She sees an opportunity to succeed and provide a better life for her family back home.
The recruits, girls from various parts of the country, are cut-throat competitive. Nothing is sacred or safe, and they quickly become vengeful animals capable of anything to get ahead. This is how things are throughout the dynasty; anyone will do anything to gain favor, and the most common cost is death.
Mei continues to believe that her family is being provided for, thanks to her undying devotion to the Chairman and her ability to please him, both in and out of the bed. But as she’s exposed to more of the reality, she begins to see through the cracks of the shiny veneer she’s become a part of.
Historically accurate, emotional, and fast-paced, this book should be a must-read for anyone who is interested in modern Chinese history or for those who think they have it rough in their own country.
Sincere thanks to Random House- Ballantine for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is May 10, 2022.
May 10, 2023
Boring, ridiculous, and just not very good…to say this is historical fiction is a stretch.
September 1, 2022
DNF’d — LOVED Hua’s first two books so I was excited to delve into her third book. Hua is a fantastic writer, and this was no exception but the story of in itself was not my cup of tea. And the characters, characterization, and imagined relationships, didn’t care for at all. — mo✌️
March 10, 2022
In Vanessa Hua's Forbidden City, the Cultural Revolution in China is seen through the eyes of Mei, a teenage girl, who is Mao Zedong's confidant and lover. Mei has a revolutionary spirit and is plucked from her small village to live in the capital with other girls her same age who entertain party leadership at dances. She is ambitious and sets her eyes on the Chairman. Everyone in this story has their own ambitions which are revealed over time. Mei was not a super compelling character to me, but the way she was used in the book to showcase this point in history was informative. The cultural revolution and the tumult in the country is fascinating and this was an interesting avenue to provide historical context. I appreciated the look in on a country's history that I was not very familiar with.
Thank you to Ballantine Books via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.
Thank you to Ballantine Books via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.
March 1, 2022
Received through FirstReads...
I didn't expect this to be such an absorbing read. Something about the cover made me think it was going to be dull, but quite the opposite. It's one of those you want to read right through. The conflicting emotions of the main character are very vividly brought to life. You are able to feel sympathy for her, while at the same time cringing at some of her actions. It also illustrates the cult of personality that surrounds a dictator, and how easily large groups of people can be convinced to commit atrocities in that person's name, self-righteous all the while.
I didn't expect this to be such an absorbing read. Something about the cover made me think it was going to be dull, but quite the opposite. It's one of those you want to read right through. The conflicting emotions of the main character are very vividly brought to life. You are able to feel sympathy for her, while at the same time cringing at some of her actions. It also illustrates the cult of personality that surrounds a dictator, and how easily large groups of people can be convinced to commit atrocities in that person's name, self-righteous all the while.
August 1, 2023
[6.8/10]
I love reading historical fiction from periods I know little about. I learned a lot about the Cultural Revolution through this book. My main gripes with this book was the pacing and where the focus was. I would have loved to learn more about the history of the opposing movements, but I acknowledge that this might not have been the right book for that. Instead, we focus (in my opinion too much) on the drama between the girls in the troupe. Also, I felt like Mei's change of heart was sudden, rather than her gradually losing faith in the Chairman and his movement. I think if the pacing was adjusted, the ending would have felt more satisfying. The time skips and the second-person addressing that was scattered throughout the book didn't really wrap things together, and felt like a poor attempt at tying the past and present together. I did overall enjoy this book, there are just things I wish were done differently to make the book feel more compelling to read.
I love reading historical fiction from periods I know little about. I learned a lot about the Cultural Revolution through this book. My main gripes with this book was the pacing and where the focus was. I would have loved to learn more about the history of the opposing movements, but I acknowledge that this might not have been the right book for that. Instead, we focus (in my opinion too much) on the drama between the girls in the troupe. Also, I felt like Mei's change of heart was sudden, rather than her gradually losing faith in the Chairman and his movement. I think if the pacing was adjusted, the ending would have felt more satisfying. The time skips and the second-person addressing that was scattered throughout the book didn't really wrap things together, and felt like a poor attempt at tying the past and present together. I did overall enjoy this book, there are just things I wish were done differently to make the book feel more compelling to read.
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