You must be open to change -and hard work. I started learning English at age 13 and was exposed to an English-speaking environment when I visited my grandparents in India. While attending college I pursued both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English Literature. Working as an editor and reporter in the early nineties at a Chinese magazine published in English further helped to improve my English communication and writing skills.
As a part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Min Tan.
Min Tan is a native Chinese author, whose debut novel, The Last Red Empire, is a sweeping generational story, told from the birth of Chinese Communism through the Tiananmen
Square protests.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I’ve wanted to write a novel since I was a teenager. I strove to find an appealing plot but kept rejecting my own ideas. After I retired from my local government career in 2019, an idea for a story about several families who took different paths and had different fates, after the Chinese Communist Party took over China, occurred to me and allowed me to fulfill my dream of becoming a novelist.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you became an author?
I am honored and humbled to see my dream of being a published author come true. It is so fulfilling for me to be able to read a print copy of my book, and to share with readers everywhere. This is something I had never expected to become a reality.
Can you describe how you or your book is making a significant social impact?
I hope that my novel will enable those from other countries to gain an appreciation of what life was like in China after the Communists took control in 1949.Hopefully, my readers will gain a better understanding of modern-day Chinese history.
Great changes have taken place since China experienced reform and opened itself up to the outside world in the 1980s. China experienced economic prosperity and the living conditions of the Chinese people greatly improved. People of my generation tend to forget about the dehumanizing nature of Communism and the miseries and sufferings of the older generations.
Because my contemporaries don’t talk about the time period in which my novel takes place, today’s youths in China do not have an appreciation of what their parents and grandparents lived through. By telling a story involving ordinary people, I am offering my readers a glimpse into life under Communism and informing today’s young people about what occurred in China in the four decades between 1949 and 1989.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
Many people have commented about how they learned so much about Chinese history through a work of fiction. A writer in Philadelphia, for example, told me that reading my book opened her eyes to the traumatic experience millions of Chinese people had within Communism came into power.
She said it inspired her to share the book with others, especially in the Chinese community, and that it struck a chord between the older and younger generations to understand the history of China and their own families. It connects generations!
Are there things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
I believe it is the other way around. My story will help others to understand the true nature of communism. Before communism, China was a great country with a several thousand-year history of civilization and culture.
The current People’s Republic of China under the Chinese Communist Party betrayed and deviated from the essence of the true Chinese spirit and culture. I hope my book will help readers everywhere to understand the disingenuous nature of the Chinese Communist Party.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership is organic, in my opinion. When an author writes a novel, for example, she can inspire and educate readers about the reality of a foreign country and its people. This eye-opening experience via a novel can lead to more connections between cultures, which our world sorely needs.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why.
Try to keep these about 5 sentences each.
A work of literature is a production of inspiration and perspiration combined.
1 . You need to be inspired to write and have ideas. If you don’t have ideas, you cannot write, no matter how hard you work. You must strive for perfection — work hard to choose the best vocabulary, create genuine dialogues and interesting plots to captivate the readers and appeal to their emotions. Good writing is the production of imaginative creativity as well as self-discipline and effort.
2. You must be open to change -and hard work. I started learning English at age 13 and was exposed to an English-speaking environment when I visited my grandparents in India. While attending college I pursued both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English Literature. Working as an editor and reporter in the early nineties at a Chinese magazine published in English further helped to improve my English communication and writing skills.
3. Connect the dots and don’t be afraid to make it personal. Converting thoughts heard in Mandarin to words in the English language is more than simple translation. Fluency comes only from immersion in that culture.
I do not consider myself a Chinese historian. I was born in China in 1962 and lived there and India until 1995 when I emigrated to the Unites States. In my book, I wrote about a period in China from 1949 and 1989. My knowledge of Chinese history and culture is based on self-experience and those of family members and friends who lived through China’s turbulent past.
My grandfather went to college in Changsha, China with Mao Zedong, the founder of Communist China. As a young man in the 1920’s, he participated in some of the activities led by Mao and could have continued to follow Mao in his revolutionary activities. Had he remained Mao’s comrade, he would likely have been killed or imprisoned, as were most of Mao’s early followers.
4. Edit and edit again and again. No successful writer can be both author and editor. It is important to have someone detached from one’s ego act as your editor. Two heads are usually better than one. The goal of editing is to improve the readability of your work.
As I mentioned in my acknowledgment, I am grateful to my husband for his hard work in editing the book to make it more readable. There were times during the process when he omitted certain paragraphs and I was upset, for I felt he changed my meaning. After discussion, we either decided to put it back, or I agreed to keep it out because he convinced me that it was superfluous, by taking it out the book would be much “cleaner. As I mentioned in my acknowledgment, I am grateful to my husband for his hard work in editing the book to make it more readable. There were times during the process when he omitted certain paragraphs and I was upset, for I felt he changed my meaning. After discussion, we either decided to put it back, or I agreed to keep it out because he convinced me that it was superfluous, by taking it out the book would be much “cleaner.
I am grateful to my husband for his hard work in editing the book to make it more readable. There were times during the process that we debated the merits of cutting material from the book and vigorously defended our positions. As an author, I value every paragraph I create and am reluctant to cut it out. But I accepted my husband’s suggestion when he convinced me that certain contents were superfluous and that the book would be much “cleaner” without them.
5. Don’t be afraid to change your writing when you edit.
Rather than reading word by word from my own book, I would rather, re-narrate the story from my memory in words different from the original writing.
Also, I was open minded and cut out numerous pages and even the table of contents, which was not necessary. It is vital to be flexible when you are submitting your final draft to publish!
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would love my book to be read by children studying world governments in American schools, so that they understand the stark reality of communism. This would also foster acceptance among cultures!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Be benevolent and trustful to your fellow human beings, even though there are many that are undeserving among them.”
Throughout my life, I have been hurt and betrayed by people I thought trustworthy. The best way to deal with those who disappoint you is to simply forget about them and walk away and continue to be yourself and preserve your own integrity and goodness. Instead of losing faith and trust, I would rather be trustful, kind and compassionate to other human beings, for I believe God protects the truly innocent and good.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I would like to have breakfast or lunch with either Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, or Marco Rubio to hear their views about the dangers posed to the world by the Chinese Communist Party. I think they might enjoy hearing about the pitfalls and effect of Communism on people from a Chinese national who has experienced life under both autocratic and democratic governments.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can purchase my book on Amazon here: https://bit.ly/thelastredempire
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Social Impact Authors: How & Why Author Min Tan Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.