Candy chronicles the escapades of Hong, a teenage Chinese girl lost in a world of endless drugs, drunken parties, and anonymous sex. It is semi-autobiographic of author Mian Mian's own life, who too had been through a period of emotional turmoil in the 1980s. The story spans for 11 years, starting with Hong's escape from the confines of her stagnant life in Shanghai triggered by her friend's suicide. She left for Shenzhen, where she meets her musician boyfriend Saining. Together, they would lead a degenerate lifestyle surrounded by drug addicts and prostitutes. The narrative crisscrosses between first and third person, allowing glimpses of Hong's life from different perspectives. In the first person, readers are treated to extended monologues of her feelings towards her external surroundings. In the third person, we get to see how other people react to her presence. On occasion, mostly in the latter half of the novel, the narrative shifts its focus to other seemingly irrelevant characters, providing additional insight to the kind of crowd Hong interacts with everyday.
Bizarre as the scenery may seem, the premise of the story is not unheard of. The same slacker-esque lifestyle can be found here in the United States, where stories of lost souls aimlessly drifting around the city are a dime a dozen. Yet considering the context in which Hong's tale unfolds, the narrative takes on an entirely different meaning. Rather than highlighting the suffering of wandering souls, Candy is a novel that explores how Hong decides to spend every ounce of her limited personal freedom in a conformist society. Shenzhen, being a Special Economic Zone encouraged to thrive, is not tied down by as much traditions or control as the rest of China. Hence, it is the perfect setting for exploration of formerly forbidden vices. There are no moral lessons behind her story. But that is not the author's aim anyways. The goal is to explore the underbelly of China, of how youths are choosing to rebel against their restraints as they break every rule their parents worked so hard to up hold. The concept of marriage and chastity are long forgotten. Purity is no longer a barrier. Such is the result of a forced economic boom, where the generation gap widens as quickly as the money comes in. Mian Mian brings readers into the minds of party-hoppers and addicts, revealing their inner most thoughts to try and explain how they got there, and why they cannot get out of the lifestyle.
I agree with your analysis that the goal was to explore the underbelly of China, how the youth is taking every chance to rebel.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job identifying sudden increase in economic wealth and activity as a likely catalyst for generational differences represented in the novel.