11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Superficial Ramblings about Four Mostly Unlikable Women, June 28, 2006
This review is from: The People's Republic of Desire: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)
In the grandly failed spirit of CANDY (Mian Mian), SHANGHAI BABY (Wei Hui), and BEIJING DOLL (Chun Sue) now comes Annie Wang's THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIRE. Less fiercely rebellious and shock-seeking than her predecessors, Ms. Wang has apparently set out to pen the New China version of "Sex and the City." She succeeds, at least to the extent that she portrays four attractive, well-educated, financially successful and independent Chinese women as vain, shallow, superficial, parochial despite their travels, grotesquely self-centered, (mostly) sexually liberated, and manipulative, and a host of Chinese men as either sex-starved schemers, morons, greedy show-off businessmen, or any combination of those attributes.
As typical of New York City/urban women as Carrie Bradshaw and her friends were in "Sex and the City" were (and as atypical of most American women), so it is with Annie Wang's cast of characters. They may well represent a small group of arts and media types in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, but they would hardly seem to be models of Chinese women in general. After all, these are ostensibly the same women who, to celebrate one of their group's birthdays, decide to have an afternoon tea party in Shanghai followed by dinner in Shenzhen, some 400 - 500 miles distant.
Ms. Wang builds her tale, really more a series of loosely connected vignettes modeled on a newspaper column, around four women. The narrator is Niuniu (pronounced nyee-oh nyee-oh, faintly like "no no?"), recently rejected by her older boyfriend/lover Len and now a returnee, a fake foreign devil escaping her romantic rejection in America and searching China for her cultural roots. Niuniu is a writer for the World News, researching and writing what would loosely be called human interest stories about the emerging "new China." Her friends are Beibei (pronounced bay-bay, a variant of Britany Spears' pronunciation of "baby"), Lulu, and CC. Beibei is president of the aptly named Chichi Entertainment Company, representing a quarter of China's top singers and actors. Lulu is the executive editor of a women's fashion magazine, Women's Friends. CC, who can only be described as a Chinese princess (wealthy parents, educated at Oxford, plays the piano, violin, and chess, dances ballet and sings opera, speaks fluent French and some Spanish, etc., etc. etc. ad nauseum), is a business manager at an international public relations company whose job seems to consist largely of organizing parties and events.
From this rather unlikable cast of silver spoon swallowers, Ms. Wang offers a liberated woman's view of contemporary China. Of course, this view is largely filled with searches for lovers and prospective husbands, club-hopping and dining at the best and most expensive restaurants, buying designer apparel and shoes, and offering snarky comments on the tragic state of Western and Chinese males. Along the way, her four protagonists offer occasional cultural insights into the curiosities of modern China: that it's more shameful now to be poor than to be a whore, that youthfulness in China is worshipped to a ridiculous degree, that orderly lines are not part of the Chinese psyche, and that "when women turn bad, they get money, and when men get money, they turn bad." Chapters typically run just three or four pages each, mimicking a gossip column in their length and cursory presentation. Their titles tell all one really needs to know about this book: "Attention Whores," "Me, Me, Me!" "The Gossip Party," "Fake Nose, Fake Breasts," "Fake Car, Fake Man,""The Gold Diggers," Cat Fights," "Going Gaga for Designer Labels," and so on. You get the picture.
As the book draws to a close, Ms. Wang appears to have altered course toward some higher literary value by introducing a fifth woman, Mimi, as Niu Niu's foil and ostensible soul mate. Mimi is Western educated, having attended the same school (UC Berkeley) as Niu Niu before becoming a lawyer and social activist. Mimi appears to be everything Niu Niu is not - happily married, pregnant, helping others. Mimi and Niu Niu even work together to raise 250,000 yuan (about $30,000) for charity. However, their relationship is abruptly shattered by a wildly improbable set of circumstances that leave Niu Niu alone and contemplating surrender and return to the United States.
THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIRE aspires toward a vaguely Chinese take on Thomas Wolfe's thesis that you can't go home again. However, what it achieves instead is an ugly portrait of "the good life" in China that puts to shame the most venal aspects of American culture and life. Given China's lack of a moral or ethical center following its abandonment of Confucianism under Mao, Ms. Wang's China comes across as greedy and grasping, exasperatingly selfish and obsessed with form and face over substance and depth. No one can be taken at their word, and no one can be trusted. Altruism is non-existent, with everyone looking out only for themselves or, at most, their immediate family. In such a world, all's fair and no behavior is out of bounds, no matter how blatantly dishonest or self-serving. It is hard to know what to make of Ms. Wang's portrayal of modern, educated, urban Chinese women, except to say that the picture is far less attractive than the writer's four heroines are purported to be. While this book is not without merits as a profile of today's urbanized China, that profile is jaded indeed.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"I feel like a migratory bird traveling across the globe with the changing seasons. For what? Stories, perhaps.", August 13, 2006
This review is from: The People's Republic of Desire: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)
Annie Wang's second fiction release follows the lives of four modern metropolitan professional women, dealing with issues ranging from adultery to high fashion to the corporate ladder and even the inevitable nip/tuck. Sound like yet another Sex and the City pink cover wannabe? While it does have a pink cover, Wang's novel has a little more to offer--our sassy females live in Beijing. They might live a life full of New York fashion, pastimes, and careers, but there is an underlying element of cultural change (which does not come without conflict). The slang phrases used and then defined at the end of each chapter get to the heart of the cultural conflict between old and new China.
Wang herself knows the cultural conflict--she is a migratory bird who actively moves back and forth between the East and West. The fictional narrator, Niuninu, is also one of these "fake foreign devils," a Western-educated woman has returned to homeland, to never blend in with her elders or her miniskirted peers. Ultimately, the tale of Niuninu and her three gal pals is about finding satisfaction in life. That is, the novel is about desire--desire for those items which can give a modern woman satisfaction.
An excellent reading group guide can be found on the Harper Collins web site. As chick lit, this book ranks high, but as literary fiction, it is a mediocre offering.
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