Full name: Lynn Minmei (spelled Lynn Minmay in Japan)
A character in the original anime series Macross, and in its Americanized version, the first "chapter" of Robotech. The description follows the Robotech story; any differences from the Japanese version would be good node fodder.
Minmei is an ethnic Chinese resident of Macross Island in the Pacific, where the SDF-1 crash-landed in 1999. She and the rest of the island population were swept into space when the SDF-1 executed an emergency space fold during a Zentraedi attack. As the Macross inhabitants rebuilt their city within the giant battlefortress, Minmei became an important morale booster after she earned celebrity winning the Miss Macross pageant.
She began a singing career aboard the SDF-1. The military were surprised to learn that music and song caused great pain and distraction to the Zentraedi, who had been purged of emotion. She therefore became the secret weapon that was key to their defeat.
In grand anime tradition, she was involved in a love triangle. Veritech fighter pilot Rick Hunter could not decide whom to pursue: Minmei or fellow officer Lisa Hayes. One would think that this were a no-brainer; particularly as characterized in Robotech, Minmei is a spoiled whiner. She fell into an emotionally abusive relationship with her kissing cousin, pacifist and alcoholic Lynn Kyle.
Minmei was voiced by Reba West, who was a capable speaker but a decidedly limited singer. Of course it didn't help that the Americanized songs were pitiful and she had little accompaniment. The name "Minmei" has been used as an epithet or expletive by many American otaku.