Chinese Anqi Min is an American writer. She wrote her first story, “Red Azalea,” shortly after moving to the United States in a new language for her, English. And despite all the riskiness of such a debut, she achieved unconditional success. The book hit the bestseller lists and went through several reprints. Readers forgave the novice author for some stylistic errors and rough edges, so captivated were they by the story of a girl whose coming of age occurred during the years of the Chinese “Cultural Revolution.” A school, a detachment of Red Guards, a paramilitary labor camp at the state farm, and then a sudden, almost fabulous change of fate, the main role in the film "Red Azalea", the filming of which is closely watched by Comrade Jiang Qing, the wife of Chairman Mao. "Red Azalea" is an autobiographical story , built on documentary material, although (perhaps unconsciously) Anqi Min follows the ancient Chinese tradition of fictionalized biographies, in which real facts seem to be colored with clearly artistic details. At the same time, Anqi Min (and here quite consciously) is guided by the tastes of the Western audience, trying to some extent to “facilitate” their perception of the material. This was expressed, for example, in the attempt to translate most Chinese names into English.