The People's Republic of Desire

Having lived in Asia for almost a decade and spent long stretches in China, both the cites and the countryside, I giggled, frowned and smiled my way through the escapades of Annie Wang's four heroines of Beijing's upper-middle class, Nuinui, Beibei, Coco and CC, as they attempt to find love, meaning and happiness in, as Wang ironically puts it, the Peoples Republic of Desire. Annie Wang nails the girls, their class and their generation spot on as a group of confused, self-centred, hardcore, materialistic, sexually liberated yet also poignantly fragile and lonely New Chinese Women, free and rich at last in a country where sexism for thousands of years kept women downtrodden, where appearances meant everything and tyrannical despots ruled the provinces with an iron fist. Bound feet and rickshaws have been replaced by silky thongs and expensive cars with which to impress one's neighbours, Chairman Mao and communist frugality with Gucci and Louis Vuitton - but all at a pace that has even young twenty-something Nuinui, perhaps the brightest and most thoughtful of the group, gasping for breath. It's a vibrant cocktail - and it's funny. Nuinui's is a new China - but in such days of female emancipation, the men can no longer keep up with the women, and desperately attempt, in the classic way of the Chinese middleclass, to impress them with status and money, not realising that a heart would suffice. The irony is that the women themselves can't keep up with all the money and freedom either, and the tragic flaw of Annie Wang's quartet is exactly that they are equally blinded by and addicted to the very materialistic existence that has given them more freedom and opportunity than any Chinese generation prior to them. Life in the fast lane is fun, but it's hollow - even soul crunching, though none dare truly admit it, for it is their whole identity - and the light at the end of the tunnel is just another bar. Having sipped cosmopolitans with many Nuinuis, Beibeis, Cocos and CCs in neon glittered Beijing and Shanghai, I tore through Annie Wang's book, marvelling at just how well she has managed to capture this schizophrenic generation in the guise of these four women, and especially the innocence that lies at the centre of their coming of age, despite all the erotic debauchery that Nuinui and her gang gets up to. The front cover itself serves as an excellent image - bizarre, beautiful and desperate for attention, though attention craved not to chase away any sense of insecurity, but rather a hidden loneliness of the heart.

As a Chinese-American female who's been to Shanghai and Beijing, I felt these voices were genuine, and found it great fun living vicariously through the characters. They may seem superficial to some of the reviewers here, but then so do many of the housewives and single women on this side of the hemisphere. Niu-Niu is indeed a Chinese version of Carrie Bradshaw in the sense that she carries a little bit of old world, new world, plus a soupçon of the global soul --- in other words, a bit of the individual qualities that we find in her other friends. I was sorry to see the tale end. I'm hoping there will be more adventures of Niu-Niu as our world evolves, and China becomes the center of the universe and the US joins Great Britain, France, and Spain as powerful on-lookers.

... interested in Chinese girls. If you are a white male, in China, you're exotic. This book will clue you in on Beijing's red-hot dating scene *and* teach you how not to make an ass of yourself. Each chapter is self-contained and makes a useful point. For example, Chapter 3: "Most Chinese men don't like strong women. They like servile women who suck up to them. But a servile woman who relies on her man financially can be miserable. No matter how much she has done for him, he will still underestimate her." Or Chapter 7: "Status, prestige, and education are what people care about most in a Confucian society. Perhaps that explains why Harvard is the most desired brand name in China." Vocabulary you won't learn in Chinese class includes: Xin Xin Renlei ("The 'new' new generation: Gen Xers and Gen Yers whose lifestyle includes bar culture, multiple sex partners, and the Internet. A far cry from the simpler and traditional lives of earlier generations") and Huli Jing ("The fox spirit comes in the guise of a beautiful maiden to seduce men and slowly devour them. Refers to attractive young women who make men crazy for them."). Perhaps a little silly at times, but still well worth a read, especially for guys who think the only cultured Asian women are from Japan.

The People's Republic of Desire is a collection of columns from the South China Morning Post, telling the story of the reporter's character Niuniu and her cross-cultural friends, living the elite life in the New China... What at first might seem to be a disconnected set of viniettes gradually becomes a facinating story achieving thematic closure by the end... While some may find some of the characters a little unbelievable, I can testify that I've met some members of Niuniu's Jeremy Irons Fan Club! Well written, entertaining, and worth reading...

I picked up an uncorrected proof of this book at a bookseller convention and read the book over Christmas vacation. A GREAT Read! A fun read! It would be too easy to dismiss it as ChickLit, a la "Sex in the City" set in Beijing. But like all good fiction (ChickLit or otherwise), it explores the needs and desires of four friends without devolving into stereotypes. Very nuanced view of the changing Chinese society. Loved the extra "vocab" section at the end of most chapters in which the author explains Chinese slang. Loved the running commentary about the "lust for freedom" vs. crass consumerism. Loved the attraction/repulsion of the China and America "relationship". Loved the book!