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2.91 AVERAGE
2.91 AVERAGE
2.5
While I don’t always love it, there’s something special about early 2000s contemporary fiction by Chinese women.
While I don’t always love it, there’s something special about early 2000s contemporary fiction by Chinese women.
chinese novels are strange in their memoiry fictiony-ness. candy, shanghai baby, and now beijing doll all read as fictionalized autobiographies, which is a "genre" that usually drives me crazy. but it's also an interesting read to get a different perspective, see what life is like in a different country, and, if you're a writer, to learn a different style of writing. at times the story got boring and repetitive, but it would be worth reading, even if you didn't finish it.
i got this book from a friend at a yard sale for $1 and she never read it but the cover looked interesting. so it's autobiographical about a teenage girl in china and it's kind of annoying teen-angsty and cynical but it doesn't seem like she has any real problems except she falls in love and sleeps with lots of stupid guys. and the sexually explicit nature of the book got it banned in China. she wrote it when she was 17, so those facts alone made it worth reading.
2010 bookcrossing review:
I finished reading this one this evening. I see that she is the same generation as me, but having grown up in China. Also, I'm not sure if this is memoirs or fiction based very closely on her actual own life or what...
So, in a lot of ways it seems like teenagers are the same all over the world. She's precocious, reckons she knows it all, is convinced no one understands her, hops from boyfriend to boyfriend and is desperate to rebell against something and stick out as something special. This is the story of a few years in a Chinese teenage girl's life. She's very into her rock music, and hangs out with local bands a lot and goes out with quite a few musicians. She's not happy at school and ends up dropping out, setting her sights on journalism and writing as her future. As if things are as easy as all that!
So, it's an all right read, although nothing amazing. And it's been banned in China? It's not particularly graphic, and she's not that shocking a person. I suppose the casual sex and the rebelliousness, including dropping out of school got it banned. School did sound quite grim from the way she described it - very regimented. Although secondary schools in general aren't great places.
I finished reading this one this evening. I see that she is the same generation as me, but having grown up in China. Also, I'm not sure if this is memoirs or fiction based very closely on her actual own life or what...
So, in a lot of ways it seems like teenagers are the same all over the world. She's precocious, reckons she knows it all, is convinced no one understands her, hops from boyfriend to boyfriend and is desperate to rebell against something and stick out as something special. This is the story of a few years in a Chinese teenage girl's life. She's very into her rock music, and hangs out with local bands a lot and goes out with quite a few musicians. She's not happy at school and ends up dropping out, setting her sights on journalism and writing as her future. As if things are as easy as all that!
So, it's an all right read, although nothing amazing. And it's been banned in China? It's not particularly graphic, and she's not that shocking a person. I suppose the casual sex and the rebelliousness, including dropping out of school got it banned. School did sound quite grim from the way she described it - very regimented. Although secondary schools in general aren't great places.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A lot of people have heard of this book only because it was banned in China, and insist that it has gained unjust fame simply because of this fact. This is not true. Bejing Doll is a complicated coming of age novel that does fall in to many teenage angst cliches but never completely surrenders to them due to philosophical ruminations. The main character, Chun Sue, is just a very confused girl, portrayed realistically and believably. The portrayals of almost all the males in the book were very disturbing... all of them are cruel, possessive, or vicious. Still, this is a great eye-opener to modern Chinese culture, specifically underground punk culture, and the mind of the Chinese teenager.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
idk why but i really liked this and i think i re-read at least a bit of it. something about the personality of it all was really appealing and i didnt have any trouble with trying to slog through it or anything.
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I saw this book in the library and was really excited about it until I saw the reviews on here. I really didn’t think it deserved the negativity on here. It’s definitely a ‘no plot just vibes’ sort of book, and the vibe is predominantly angst. The characters aren’t ever particularly likeable at any point but I still appreciated the book as a window into teenage angst. It’s better than the reviews would suggest, in my opinion.