Mian Mian 棉棉 is one of China’s most controversial contemporary authors, famous for covering topics that were once off-limit to China’s literary world. Her semi-biographical novel ‘Candy’ 糖 became famous for portraying a dark, underground, post-reform China where life of the country’s young generation is ruled by sex, drugs and violence. Candy has received a lot of attention in the Western world, so I naturally wanted to know what the buzz was about. Since the book had been banned in China, I wasn’t able to get my hands on a copy until I returned to Europe, though.

Candy manages to get off on a good start. The first half of her book is a quite compelling read. The story is emotional, but well structured and the insights into Mian Mian’s dark underground world are fascinating. But after a while you can’t help but feeling like walking in circles.  Mian Mian keeps writing about the same issues over and over again, which may be an attempt to make the reader feel her emptiness, but stylistic means like that just don’t work. What is even worse, her book kind-of ‘deteriorates’ after the first half. Her writing looses focus. She discusses things which don’t seem to be of any relevance to the main storyline and  she constantly switches the perspective of the narrator, which gives her book a rather immature feel.

The book doesn’t read so much like a novel, but rather like a diary. And with all the drug-related stories I wondered if Mian Mian has written parts of Candy when she was high. Nevertheless, I still liked her book. I just hope her future works will have more substance.

• Wiki.en: Mian Mian
• Amazon.com: Candy by Mian Mian
• China Daily (2005-03-01): Mian Mian reaches maturity with ‘Panda Sex’
• Anxiety Neurosis: Article on ‘Shanghai Panic’, a movie written by Mian Mian

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