Anchee Min was born in Shanghai in 1957. At seventeen she was sent to a labour collective, where a talent scout for Madame Mao's Shanghai Film Studio recruited her to work as a movie actress. She moved to the United States in 1984. Red Azalea is an international bestseller with rights sold in twenty countries. Her novels, Becoming Madame Mao, Katherine, Empress Orchid and The Last Empress were published to wonderful reviews and impressive foreign sales.