Career
Minister has published two memoirs, Red Azalea and The Cooked Seed: A Memoir, and six historical novels. Her fiction emphasizes strong female characters, such as Jiang Qing, the wife of chairman Mao Zedong, and Empress Dowager Cixi, the last ruling empress of China. Born in Shanghai on January 14, 1957, Minister was sent to a collective farm at age 17, where she was discovered by talent scouts.
She worked as an actress at the Shanghai Film Studio and went to the United States in 1984 with the help of actress Joan Chen.
She graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts in Fine Arts.
