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.

Takes place during the 1960s in China. A young peasant girl is recruited to be the model revolutionary and begins an affair with Chairman Mao. An excellent intriguing heartbreaking story. Mei starts out as a naive girl willing to do anything for her country and ends up disillusioned. The writing is beautiful and poetic and fascinating history

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. And 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."

At age 15, Mei Xiang seizes the opportunity to leave her rural village and move to the capital, where she is groomed to entertain the Communist Party leadership. With determination, smarts and fervor for the Revolution, she becomes a lover, confidant and collaborator of Chairman Mao. Forbidden City is compelling, thoughtful and devastating, and offers a clandestine view of sex, class and power during some of China’s most tumultuous years.

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.

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 labeled 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 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.

Forbidden City follows Mei, a teenager living in 1960s China. Mei becomes Mao Zedong’s lover and eventually his protégé.

Mei is recruited from her village to join a dance troupe in the capital. The Chairman (Mao Zedong) is intrigued by Mei and she becomes his lover. As Mei spends time with the Chairman, she learns more about the Communist Party and the Revolution. Mei is given a political mission that leads her on an even bigger journey.

Mei was just about the only character I liked, but I was able to empathize and understand some of the other characters. Mei has such good character development! You can tell she’s growing up throughout the book (especially at the end).

Vanessa Hua spent years researching and writing this book and it shows. It was such an intimate story with excellent details and character description. I did have to google to see if Mei was real! She fit into the story so well.

I would definitely recommend this book. Historical fiction isn’t always my favorite genre, but I couldn’t put this book down! Forbidden City comes out April 19th, and it won’t be one to miss!

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.

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 keep thinking about this historical novel and will probably read it again, drawn by the experiences of the fictional Mei Xiang as she immerses herself into the Forbidden City and interacts with The Chairman, Madam, the Secretary and the President, and ultimately manages to influence China's history herself.

I 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

Historical fiction is my favorite genre and I find I always learn something about historical events. That was the case as well with this novel about Mao’s reign and the Chinese Cultural revolution. I certainly had no idea about the Chairman’s personal tastes and likes. However, I did not like the book, couldn’t identify with Mei’s character, neither with the other girls. Overall this was only a two star book for me.

I picked up this one after receiving an email offering an egalley that contained a blurb recommended because of other books I’ve reviewed. To be perfectly honest, historical fiction is not my favorite genre. This novel illustrates what doesn’t work for me with this genre: the fictionalization of the life of an actual person (rather than a fictional character in an actual historical setting) I just find too blurry.

I really enjoyed this book! It was a fascinating look into an enclosed world. Mei’s voice was really entertaining and interesting. A look behind the smiling faces of party members was fascinating. Highly recommend!

Forbidden City is an interesting read offering up a unique look at a area and time that I'm not all that familiar with. I was eager to learn more about this period and was disappointed to find the focus of Forbidden City to be incredibly narrow, offering little atmosphere and limited history of the time. Much time was spent on the characters, although I never felt especially connected to any of them. For a story of a unique circumstance, and an incredibly compelling period, there was surprisingly little drama. I found myself skimming through the last quarter of the book, as it had become rather tedious. This book could have benefitted from additional characters offering a wider window to the time. I found it to be rather disappointing.