Candy-sex, drugs and rock n' roll

“This book exists because one morning as the sun was coming up I told myself that I had to swallow up all of the fear and garbage around me, and oce it was inside me I had to transform it all into candy. “

Mianmian’s ten year old novel “Candy” illustrates a world filled with sex, drugs and rock n’ roll for the first time in contemporary Chinese literature. As one might assume, “Candy” was initially banned in China. Despite the CCP’s censorship control, “Candy” was a sensation amongst the post-consumerist new generation Chinese. (70后&80后， people who were born during the 70s and 80s) Set in the Westernized Chinese cities, "Candy" reveals a new Chinese culture influence by American ideas of sex, drugs and rock n' roll that resonates with China's young contemporaries.

Mianmian’s tale tells the story of a girl named Hong. Devastated by the suicide of one of her classmates, Hong, at the age of 17, drops out of high school leaving her home in Shanghai for Shenzhen, a new frontier of the Special Economic Zones the CCP created in the 1980s. Being a Special Economic Zone, Shenzhen is the "relaxation of state control and the relative freedom soon created a frontier mentality, and many forms of vice and corruption came to flourish alongside more legitimate private enterprises." (This tells us why there aren’t very many cultural references to authority and CCP in the novel.) Here in Shenzhen, Hong falls in love with Saining, a young musician who grew up in England and lives off his wealthy mom after he moved back to China. Their happiness is short-lived, however, as the two lovebirds Hong and Saining soon descend into the dark world of drug addiction. As is the case in many typical love stories, their love rapidly falls apart. Saining cheats on Hong, who quickly forgives him. Hong’s compassion, however, is met by denial as Saining dumps her leaving her to battle her drug addiction alone while Saining overcomes his own demons and turns his life around.

Another theme that I found quite interesting is divorce, a new phenomenon in the modern Chinese society that once was considered a social taboo. “Chinese marriages can withstand hardship and disaster, but they can’t survive the good times." Chinese divorce rate has nearly tripled since China ended its isolationist approach in the late 1970s and opened its doors to the world. Consequently, we can see a direct correlation between western influence and contemporary notions of materialism and individualism.

While the novel is about personal struggle and discovering one’s own identity, the fact that the story is written under the oppressive CCP forces readers to carefully consider the stories behind this confused, rebellious and zealous Chinese girl. Perhaps, it’s a story about political freedom as the author notes in the last page: “ My name is Mian Mian. The story above is not my autobiography. My autobiography will have to wait until I've been stripped naked as a writer."