A Chinese Culture Club
By Jonathan Yardley,
whose e-mail address is yardleyj@washpost.com
Tuesday, April 18, 2006; C08
THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIRE
By Annie Wang
Harper. 445 pp. Paperback, $13.95
Annie Wang's second novel written in English has no discernible plot, meanders with no apparent purpose, bears far more resemblance to journalism than to fiction -- yet is interesting, amusing and pertinent. It is very much a book of the moment -- its subject is the "new" China -- and probably it will vanish as soon as the moment does, but it tells us a lot about what's going on right now in the world's most populous and exciting country. It is of considerably more consequence than its actual merits would seem to suggest.
Like Niuniu, the narrator of "The People's Republic of Desire," Wang is a native of China who has spent a lot of time in the United States, has absorbed and holds dear a great deal about American culture, yet has returned to China out of loyalty to her roots as well as a desire to participate in the extraordinary transformation taking place there. This is how Niuniu describes herself :
"Megacity girl, Asian, 5'2", 110 pounds, liberal, Democrat, and a cosmopolitan journalist. Plans to vote for Hillary Clinton once she runs for president; very much against American invasion in Iraq; believes that the UN Security Council should be used to balance the hawks; enjoys the busy city life of Beijing, Shanghai, New York, and Hong Kong; watches Ally McBeal and Oprah ; has gay friends and girlfriends who have had abortions; does not understand professional wrestling in any way, shape, or form."
In other words, a Thoroughly Modern Millie, Beijing-style. She's in her late twenties and writes for "the Beijing bureau of the English news agency World News," and she spends a lot of time in the company of her three friends: Beibei, several years older, who runs an entertainment agency and makes twice as much money as her husband, to whom she is routinely unfaithful, and vice versa; Lulu, another journalist, whose "dream is to be a good wife for a man she loves, but . . . [who] keeps bumping into married men and liars"; and CC, "business manager at an international public relations company called Ed Consulting," a "little princess" with "an acute identity crisis: she doesn't know whether she is Chinese or English."
They are, all in all, pretty much the women you'd run into on K Street, except that they're Chinese. They face the usual dilemmas and difficulties confronted by attractive young women in most countries, except that these are compounded and complicated by being in China at this particular moment in that country's history. All of them are looking for love and not having much luck finding it, torn as they are between East and West, and dealing as they must with men whose expectations are entirely different from their own. As another woman, a professor of psychology, puts it: "Chinese men like their women to admire them, not the other way around. They can't stand their women to be better than they are, especially in the education field. The more educated women are, the more difficult it is for us to find husbands nowadays."
All of which suggests, accurately, that "The People's Republic of Desire" is chick-lit, and doubtless some readers will be captivated by the romantic entanglements in which these four women find themselves. As such stories go theirs are mildly interesting, but they are essentially window dressing in what really is a report from the front lines of change in China.
As Wang is at pains to emphasize, what's going on boils down to a fundamental conflict between city and country. During a visit to Beijing last fall, staying at what is essentially an expat community, I was astonished to see, only a couple of miles from this fairly tony and decidedly Western development, a two-lane road in which one lane had been closed so that farmers could spread corn to dry. While BMWs and Volkswagens inched past, men and women with bundles of straw strapped to their backs walked slowly along the shoulder, and people on bicycles transported small bundles.
This aspect of contemporary China has been widely reported and thus scarcely comes as news, but Wang rather astutely contrasts the world of her four principal characters with that inhabited by so many other Chinese. Niuniu and her friends freak out over American music, movies and movie stars, live and die by the Internet, wear whatever is most fashionable and hip, yearn for American passports, proudly call themselves xiaozi , or petit bourgeois, which may have been "dangerous during the Cultural Revolution" but now "is one of the most glorious words in the Chinese lexicon, representing an emerging army of cool people." They own cars, or at least carry driver's licenses ("It's like a membership card"), they eat at the most expensive and visible restaurants, and they generally are on display as much as possible.
Venture outside Beijing, though -- or Shanghai, or Hong Kong -- and it's a completely different world: "With all of China's sweeping changes and economic reforms, the suffering of the poor is something that is often overlooked by the more successful city dwellers. Whether city people choose to ignore the poverty of their countrymen or whether they simply don't know about it depends on whom you ask." Beibei admits to feeling "guilty about my wealth" because "part of the reason I'm able to lead a luxurious life is there are so many poor Chinese people -- cheap laborers." Niuniu herself is taken aback by "the miserable world that some women still live in today . . . a world of dog-eat-dog poverty, despair, sixteen-hour workdays, struggle, tears, never seeing the light of day, unfairness, prostitution, rape, discrimination, abduction, and slavery."
No doubt Niuniu (i.e., Wang) is sincere in saying this, but the real center of her world is with-it Beijing. It's a world of which she accurately can say: "Conspicuous consumption may be an American invention, but it has been perfected in China," where "being wealthy is a justification for being rude," where a friend who "works for a Beijing newspaper, drives a European car, and has just bought a condominium costing 800,000 yuan" (about $100,000) is "considered 'just so-so.' " Everyone, it seems, "is a braggart and an attention-seeker." As Wang writes in her preface:
"Back in China, I hear people discuss at length the experience of their first taste of Starbucks coffee, the first time they drove a Buick, chatting on the Internet, experiencing a one-night stand or watching an adult movie. Divorce, oral sex, affairs, boob jobs, abortion, homosexuality, overcharged libidos, impotence -- these once-taboo subjects have become daily conversations among urban women who take great pride in owning a bottle of Chanel No. 5. It's cool to be a sex dissident as long as you are not a political dissident."
It's the stuff of news stories we read and hear every day. "The People's Republic of Desire" puts a human face on what often seems -- whether one is in China or half a world away -- a social and cultural revolution too vast to comprehend. It's not much of a novel, but it's pretty good human-interest journalism.
- posted on 04/19/2006
原来就是这个 Annie Wang 啊!算是跟我一起长大的朋友了,叫王蕤。她父亲和我父亲是大学好友。他们家是王氏三姐妹,我们家是王氏二姐妹,年龄相仿,都住在北京。自小我们几个就是暗地里较劲的,比写作,比书法,比绘画,比音乐,比舞蹈,比名校,后来又比出国,比学历,比婚姻,比工资,比绿卡,比老公,比这比那的。或许是我们的父母在暗地里以我们来较劲吧,又或许只是我自己太在意为父母争光,误以为是一场长期的竞赛。她们姐妹三个很早就成名了(她们的名字都比我们的帅气),无奈我们姐妹俩总是一再让父母失望。不过好在我父母早他们几个月做了外祖父母。:)
- Re: Review of Annie Wang's novel THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIREposted on 04/19/2006
ah shan, you are funny. :))
阿姗 wrote:不过好在我父母早他们几个月做了外祖父母。:)
- posted on 04/19/2006
阿姗 wrote:
原来就是这个 Annie Wang 啊!算是跟我一起长大的朋友了,叫王蕤。她父亲和我父亲是大学好友。他们家是王氏三姐妹,我们家是王氏二姐妹,年龄相仿,都住在北京。自小我们几个就是暗地里较劲的,比写作,比书法,比绘画,比音乐,比舞蹈,比名校,后来又比出国,比学历,比婚姻,比工资,比绿卡,比老公,比这比那的。或许是我们的父母在暗地里以我们来较劲吧,又或许只是我自己太在意为父母争光,误以为是一场长期的竞赛。她们姐妹三个很早就成名了(她们的名字都比我们的帅气),无奈我们姐妹俩总是一再让父母失望。不过好在我父母早他们几个月做了外祖父母。:)
嘿嘿,有意思。你父母赢得了对人类前途与未来都最为重要的一场比赛。 - Re: Review of Annie Wang's novel THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIREposted on 04/19/2006
嘻嘻,感谢我妹妹为我们家争光。其实我妹妹是我们五个女孩里对文艺创作最不感冒的了,可能因为年龄最小,早就看透,读了工科,赚钱,结婚,卖房,生子。
上个月我母亲问她母亲美国移民官面试问什么问题,她母亲趁机问我母亲怎么帮女儿坐月子。这种无形的比赛看来要比一辈子的,可能从他们大学时代就开始的了。可怜天下父母心啊! - Re: Review of Annie Wang's novel THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIREposted on 04/20/2006
- Re: Review of Annie Wang's novel THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIREposted on 04/20/2006
- Re: Review of Annie Wang's novel THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIREposted on 04/20/2006
这个书名太难看。是考虑国内市场吧。
看到会买本她的书。终于不是写文革和旧中国了。好。看了她的介绍,好一个从小就风光的女孩。不是丑小鸭鸭变天鹅鹅的老套路。好。
当然,要看了文字再说真好还是假好。 - posted on 04/20/2006
阿姗 ,我有绝招贡献,帮你打败对手,赢得父母心。不过我自己还没用过。要不,我先试试再告你:)
阿姗 wrote:
原来就是这个 Annie Wang 啊!算是跟我一起长大的朋友了,叫王蕤。她父亲和我父亲是大学好友。他们家是王氏三姐妹,我们家是王氏二姐妹,年龄相仿,都住在北京。自小我们几个就是暗地里较劲的,比写作,比书法,比绘画,比音乐,比舞蹈,比名校,后来又比出国,比学历,比婚姻,比工资,比绿卡,比老公,比这比那的。或许是我们的父母在暗地里以我们来较劲吧,又或许只是我自己太在意为父母争光,误以为是一场长期的竞赛。她们姐妹三个很早就成名了(她们的名字都比我们的帅气),无奈我们姐妹俩总是一再让父母失望。不过好在我父母早他们几个月做了外祖父母。:)
- Re: Review of Annie Wang's novel THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIREposted on 04/20/2006
..... - Re: Review of Annie Wang's novel THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIREposted on 04/20/2006
我说的是书名难看, 什么MAINLAND 到什么 MAINSTREAM的。
你在瞎想 集团打过工吧:)
聪聪 wrote:
<因为主人公太漂亮,此处图片暂时隐藏> - Re: Review of Annie Wang's novel THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIREposted on 04/22/2006
ben ben wrote:
阿姗 ,我有绝招贡献,帮你打败对手,赢得父母心。不过我自己还没用过。要不,我先试试再告你:)
ben ben MM 教我!
是啊是啊,我的对手就是从小风光到大。就算我现在开始风光也来不及了。:( - posted on 04/22/2006
抢老公?
ben ben wrote:
阿姗 ,我有绝招贡献,帮你打败对手,赢得父母心。不过我自己还没用过。要不,我先试试再告你:)
阿姗 wrote:
原来就是这个 Annie Wang 啊!算是跟我一起长大的朋友了,叫王蕤。她父亲和我父亲是大学好友。他们家是王氏三姐妹,我们家是王氏二姐妹,年龄相仿,都住在北京。自小我们几个就是暗地里较劲的,比写作,比书法,比绘画,比音乐,比舞蹈,比名校,后来又比出国,比学历,比婚姻,比工资,比绿卡,比老公,比这比那的。或许是我们的父母在暗地里以我们来较劲吧,又或许只是我自己太在意为父母争光,误以为是一场长期的竞赛。她们姐妹三个很早就成名了(她们的名字都比我们的帅气),无奈我们姐妹俩总是一再让父母失望。不过好在我父母早他们几个月做了外祖父母。:)
- Re: Review of Annie Wang's novel THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIREposted on 04/22/2006
American is almost a miracle in mankind history, mostly due to it's truly a true "United States of Desire", isn't it. China has a long way to go in this kind. - Re: Review of Annie Wang's novel THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIREposted on 04/22/2006
It does sound like a sociology book, an interesting one, though. Consumerism is indeed what brought the United States to where it is today. Kind of scary to see China - with all its mighty 1.3B population - following suit. - posted on 04/24/2006
阿姗 wrote:
原来就是这个 Annie Wang 啊!算是跟我一起长大的朋友了,叫王蕤。她父亲和我父亲是大学好友。他们家是王氏三姐妹,我们家是王氏二姐妹,年龄相仿,都住在北京。自小我们几个就是暗地里较劲的,比写作,比书法,比绘画,比音乐,比舞蹈,比名校,后来又比出国,比学历,比婚姻,比工资,比绿卡,比老公,比这比那的。或许是我们的父母在暗地里以我们来较劲吧,又或许只是我自己太在意为父母争光,误以为是一场长期的竞赛。她们姐妹三个很早就成名了(她们的名字都比我们的帅气),无奈我们姐妹俩总是一再让父母失望。不过好在我父母早他们几个月做了外祖父母。:)
To have been able to compare and to compete with people who have earlier established their names was itself quite a success, wasn't it? Congratulations!!! :) - posted on 04/24/2006
呵呵,不用安慰我了,现在就是说着玩玩罢。不过,小时候父母洒下的阴影,的确很难走出。我走出来了,父母辈还在其中。
这里是介绍她们妈妈写的《王氏三姐妹》的一篇文章。
王葳、王菲、王蕤(从左至右)
-- 看,名字多帅,哪象我们这样阿三阿四的.... (阿姗注)
国际型人才是这样成长的
——《中国“勃朗特”三姐妹》出版
陈海
中国的“勃朗特”三姐妹?她们是谁,她们就是被称为“京城三才女”、“新闻界三枝花”的“王氏三姐妹”:王葳、王菲、王蕤。“勃朗特三姐妹”,是对她们推崇备至的美国《波士顿环球报》政治评论员迈克·肯尼送给她们的美誉。
迈克·肯尼为什么这样称呼“王氏三姐妹”?她们的魅力在哪里?
“王氏三姐妹”中,王菲、王蕤在美国,王葳在中央人民广播电台工作。自1993年成立“王氏三姐妹文学艺术工作室”以来,三位记者姐妹在各自的事业上各有所成:王葳,多次应邀访日、访美,受到国际友人的称赞和嘉奖,主要作品有散文集《王氏三姐妹的天空和梦》、长篇小说《男人的贞节》。广播作品多次在全国获奖,其中音乐专题《即兴之音》获2001年上海之春国际音乐节最佳制作奖、中国广播文艺奖(专家奖)一等奖,《徒步走世界》获2001年中国广播电视学会小说连播研究会最佳推广奖。
王菲,美国硅谷多媒体制作人,在国内曾获北京市大学生艺术节器乐演奏一等奖,曾任光明日报社记者,多次在中国、美国、日本等国举办音乐会。1993年访美期间,被美国马里兰州长授予“巴尔的摩荣誉市民”称号。1997年去美国留学,是第一个获得多媒体硕士的中国人。拥有“中国文化网”、“中国姐妹”、“中国作家”、“北京人”、“中国乐器”、“北美琴社”等网络,并且是其制作人。2001年,她的北美琴社网站获得由国际网站管理人与设计师协会颁发的2001—2002年度金网站奖。在美国,她还在著名的伯克利大学音乐系讲授古琴,并出版古琴演奏CD。
王蕤,14岁开始写书,她的第一本专集《寻找的欢歌》连续三次再版,17岁又写了第二本专集《玫瑰色与灰色的和谐》。这一年被北京青年报评选为十大“希望之星”,并保送上人大新闻系。她的画11岁时曾在日本展出,13岁在加拿大展出。1994年去美国伯克利大学留学,留学期间曾荣获美国政府奖和全A大学生优秀奖。毕业后在一家出版社工作,三个月就被提拔为国际部副主任,现为美国国务院特聘翻译,1998年又当选为北加州地区美中友协主席,被全球最大的出版集团之一———美国兰登书屋视为最有潜力的华裔女作家之一,其作品《莉莉》2001年1月被兰登书屋、贝塔斯曼出版公司出版,全球发行。
2002年1月,中国城市出版社隆重推出《中国“勃朗特”三姐妹》一书,本书由“王氏三姐妹”的母亲楼旨君女士执笔,真实记录了“王氏三姐妹”成长的历程。
透过此书,楼妈妈告诉你,怎样培养孩子开阔的视野,怎样营造良好的家庭氛围,怎样加强心理修养,在留学的日子里,怎样面对孤独与无处不在的挑战,怎样树立国际化的视野,树立竞争意识……
随着中国加入世界贸易组织,中国参与国际竞争已是势在必然,而国际竞争的关键就在于人才的竞争。如何培养能够迎接挑战的国际复合性人才,已是本世纪我国发展的一个战略重点。在这样一种时代背景下,《中国“勃朗特”三姐妹》的出版,也许为我们在人才培养方面提供了一个鲜活而经典的范例。
该书的独特之处还在于,文字是母亲写的,插图是女儿画的,附赠的CD是女儿演奏的。
http://www.people.com.cn/GB/paper53/5242/549604.html - Re: Review of Annie Wang's novel THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIREposted on 04/24/2006
阿姗不用急,
谁笑得最后,谁笑得最好。
学作曲要有目的性,我觉得目前搞多媒体很时髦,但能写歌剧更是华
人世界中难得的,要学真功夫才行。
华人戏剧中有太多小聪明的东西,比之普契尼都差十万八千里,当然
他们会玩什么禅啦,还有什么先锋,主义之类的。
玛雅跟我说阿姗心很善的,文字中读着就很真诚。你的博客中的音乐
文字(英文)相当好,既诚实,又很大方。
不要跟我说你作曲又是在学着玩的。OK?
- posted on 04/24/2006
我是很好呀,只是不够骄傲。自小老师就给我灌输,满招损,谦受益。
作曲是刚开始认真学着玩,想花两年时间看看后天的努力是否能弥补先天的不足。如果这条路可行,就继续下去。我的学校是不入流的,同学也大多是打算毕业后去中学教书的。幸运的是,这学期的两位老师都很好,音乐素质也高,又热心教学。发现学作曲是需要很多基本功的。前两天我翻看 Hindemith 的课本 The Craft of Musical Composition,提到作曲没有捷径,必须学好巴赫时代传下来的和声和对位。我觉得自己的脑子还好,要利用自己的优势,打好基本功,才能“笑到最后”。磨刀不误砍柴工嘛。
明天有一个学生作品演奏会,我有一曲管乐四重奏。
好了,自恋够了。本来这条线讲 Annie Wang 的,我全拉到自己头上来了。下不为例。 - Re: Review of Annie Wang's novel THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIREposted on 04/24/2006
我说着玩的.
阿姗父母肯定是很为阿姗骄傲的. 连我都为咖啡有阿姗骄傲.
我那天想的是父母总是要越来越老的,那时候谁能够端茶送水,
膝下承欢,谁就是世界上最好的女儿. 其它的,早就不比了:)
阿姗 wrote:
ben ben wrote:ben ben MM 教我!
阿姗 ,我有绝招贡献,帮你打败对手,赢得父母心。不过我自己还没用过。要不,我先试试再告你:)
是啊是啊,我的对手就是从小风光到大。就算我现在开始风光也来不及了。:(
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