Thursday, July 22, 2010

Candy

After reading Candy by Mian Mian, it is obvious why the Chinese government would want to ban this book. Mian Mian exquisitely brings together the feelings of isolation and the quest for freedom, individuality, and control in modern China. Her at times too detailed scenarios really bring the characters on the page to life. There is no doubt in my mind that although this story is a work of fiction, that many of the characters were based on people that Mian Mian had either seen or interacted with in her real life. After reading interviews and information about her chaotic and eccentric life, I would not be very surprised to learn that many of the events in this book were actually exaggerated parts of her or an acquaintance's real life experiences.

This story brings many harsh but interesting aspects of modern China's society to light that we had never seen before this. Which is more than likely the exact reason why the Chinese government did not want this book to circulate among the population of China. There are quite a few themes in this novel. The fight for control over others and against dangerous substances, the search for one's own individuality and dreams, the immersion and temptation of substance abuse, sex, prostitution, etc in daily life, and many more. Mian Mian also portrays how much the West began to influence modern China. Not only in their food and clothing, but also in the music and club scene as well. Westernized fast food joints and foreigner based clubs began to pop up all over Shanghai and Beijing. The music as well began to phase from Cui Jian and Teresa Teng to Nirvana, the Doors, and miscellaneous foreign punk bands.

Sex, drugs, and beyond dysfunctional romantic relationships also played a major part in Mian Mian's novel. The battle with drugs not only affected the health of the characters, but their social life as well. Drugs and sex seemed to be an escape from the horrible life they were living, and gave them a sense of control. However, this freedom that they felt they gained through this control only lead to inevitable consequences. Such as HIV resembled ailments, overdoses, increased depression, suicide attempts, rehab, and even severed many relationships with those around them. This book shows that even though the drugs and sex can give you a release and temporary sense of control, there is no escaping the consequences. It will take a toll mentally, emotionally, physically, and socially.

This novel also brings up the concept of the different types of love. Family love, companionship love, self love, friendship love, sexual love, material love, and of course romantic love. Each love was just as complicated and confusing as the next, and in the end the characters were still lost in the search for an answer to the question of "What is Love?"

This book is not as risque when you look at face value. The story mainly revolves around the search for oneself through sex, drugs, love, and everyday hardships. However, when you look at the background of where this story takes place and in regards to the painful history of China, many concepts in this book could quite possibly carry hidden meanings. In an interview Mian Mian states, "I don't want to teach anybody--My only message is: The world is cruel. But you can survive." Even though she claims that she did not have ulterior motives to write the things that she did, I believe that the issues that she did address truly had an impact on the youth of China, and brought to light many problems that I am sure everyone at the time was thinking about, but never dared to bring up or talk about in public.

Mian Mian is not only an exceptional writer and a truly eccentric character, she is brilliant writer. This is proven with her depiction of the underground society of modern China in the 90's. Some of the issues that are dealt with in the novel are not all exclusive to China, and it really makes you think about how similar the people of the world are when dealing with various social hardships. All in all, this book was extremely entertaining and a great read.

2 comments:

  1. although she says the book is not her autobiography, I definitely think she's telling the story of her life in a "more settling" way. she added a bit of "sweetness" in those stories comparing to her real life experiences.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree. There is positively a relation between this book and Mian Mian's real life experiences. In an article about her, it says that there were 5 years that she lived in the South that she refuses to talk about and that is still unknown. No doubt that during these 5 years she must have experienced many horrendous and "unsettling things." More than likely there were some events in that time that to this day are still hard for her to fully write about. Thus, she wrote certain elements out, put certain ones in, and surely changed things in a way that would be a little more accepting to her audience.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.