The People’s Republic of Desire: A Novel
Product Description
An uncensored, eye-opening, and laugh-out-loud funny portrait of modern China as seen through the lives and loves of four professional women in contemporary Beijing. Divorce, oral sex, plastic surgery. Indulging in a Starbucks coffee, admitting to the emotional repercussions of a one-night stand, giggling over watching pornography. These once taboo subjects have become the substance of daily conversations and practices among urban women in contemporary Beijing. It seems that no one remembers what happened at Tiananmen Square in 1989. A cross between Sex and the City and The Joy Luck Club, The People’s Republic of Desire follows four sassy gals as they preen and pounce among Beijing’s Westernized professional class, exultantly obsessed with brand names, celebrity, and sex. … More >>
The People’s Republic of Desire: A Novel
… 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.
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.
Much of this book details the narrator’s (Niuniu) struggles to reconcile her Western-style beliefs and life with the traditional parts of Chinese culture. I liked this book for its insight into how China has changed and become more Westernized over the years, but I wish that the narrative hadn’t been rather rambling and disjointed. Though the writing style fits with characters’ feelings of being outside and inside their culture at the same time, it makes following a narrative a bit difficult.
Storylines talking about going home for the new year to families and some of Niuniu’s journalistic endeavors could have been fleshed out much more. I would have enjoyed more insight into Niuniu’s character and those of her friends, since the narrator stays mostly on the surface of their personalities.
A good, fun read for anyone interested in life in modern China.
Cute, fun book . . . characters are a little self-absorbed, but it’s an interesting cultural view of modern, upper-middle-class China.
Annie Wang grew up in Beijing, China but currently commutes back and forth between the California and Shanghai. She has published eight books in Chinese and The People’s Republic of Desire (PRD) is her second English novel. Her first was titled Lili.
In the preface Wang says, -Two types of people exist: those who admire power and wealth, and those who are being admired for their power and wealth.- This line basically sums up the existence of the main and sub-characters of this novel.
PRD is narrated by Niuniu, a twenty something returnee (those who return to China from abroad) to Beijing. She was born in the United States but returned with her Chinese parents to China at age five. Her parents were divorced when she was 11 and are otherwise engaged but doting. She works as a reporter and has a Buddhist background despite having a father who is a devout Christian. Poor Niuniu was recently dumped by an ophthalmologist in the United States who has abandonment issues and while her life doesn’t revolve around this event she has a tendency to force it to the top of many situations. The local Chinese call this devout fan of Jeremy Irons anything from a “cosmopolitan” woman to a “fake foreign-devil” but Niuniu is just trying to find a place where she can happily co-exist. She’s torn between where she thinks she wants to be and where she is at the moment.
When not working or travelling she is sharing the not so top secret lives of her friends. Partly, I guess because she lives precariously through them. There’s Lulu, the executive editor of a fashion magazine; Beibie, a 35 year old president of ChiChi Entertainment Company; and CC a fellow returnee / princess who’s also a successful business manager. These charming women easily fill Niuniu’s down time with gossip, drinks, and advice.
For most of the book I hadn’t a clue of a plot or purpose to this novel but I found it captivating to look into a culture I’ve only seen through samurai’s and geisha’s (which, it turns out, are both traditional Japanese figures, not Chinese). What I learned was both shocking and sad. China “has moved forward too fast, beyond the average person’s normal comprehension.” And completely beyond mine. The Chinese of the present have been rotted by the commercialism of their Idol. Everything and anything revolves around one’s education, money, contacts, clothing and vehicle of choice. The wrong choice in any of these can result in being a social outcast, every Chinese person’s worst nightmare.
Once I was over the shock of the lapse of traditional culture, a story emerged about the bonds of friendship. (quote)Women can be compassionate, sympathetic, and giving, but at the same time, we can be catty, jealous and moody. At a certain point in our lives, we all crave friendship to some degree. When it comes to friends, there have never been too many.(end quote)
When it was all over I found myself wanting more of these women, wanting to see them come out on top despite their own undoing. I’m sure you will too.