By Jason Morgan
Jiang Qing was born in 1914 in an unremarkable corner of China. After a series of family hardships and an early disappointment in love, Jiang ended up at Qingdao University. There she underwent a conversion to radical left-wing politics and became a party activist. Attracting the attention of the media, Jiang made the cover of several magazines and became known nationwide as the face of the youthful left.
Jiang tried hitching her wagon to several rising stars, but none of them went high enough fast enough for her. Movie directors, actors, student radicals – no one was ambitious enough to suit Jiang's tastes.
This changed when she went to the political backwater of Yan'an in 1937 and there met Mao Zedong. Having found work as a drama teacher at the Lu Xun Academy of Arts in 1938, Jiang was thrilled when Mao came to her school to give a lecture. She finagled an invitation to his cave for "further study."
Mao had many women, including his wife (by whom he had many children), but Jiang did not seem to mind. Guided by dark forces, and in particular the Chinese secret service kingpin Kang Sheng, Jiang maneuvered her way past all others. It was not long before she was pregnant with Mao's child, and not long after that that she had cleared the field and established herself as Mao's photogenic wife.
A professional actress, Jiang Qing was setting the stage for her and Mao's debut in national politics.....
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