[2] As a child, she was a member of the Little Red Guards and was made to report her favorite teacher, who was accused of being an anti-Maoist, to the authorities.

[2] When Min was 17, she was sent to a collective farm[3] near the East China Sea, where she endured horrific conditions and worked 18-hour days.

[citation needed] At the collective farm, Min was discovered by a team of talent scouts from the Shanghai Film Studio and was selected to become an actress for her ideal "proletarian good looks.

[4] After Mao Zedong's death and the subsequent downfall of Jiang Qing,[4] Min was ostracized and treated badly.

[4] With the assistance of her friend, actress Joan Chen, and the sponsorship of her aunt living in Singapore, Min obtained a passport and applied to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

As she was initially entering the country, she was nearly deported when it was discovered that, contrary to what she had put on her visa application, she did not speak English.