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The Diary of a New York love-seeking doll
By Stephanie Klein (Independent)
Updated: 2004-08-06 13:59

More than 100,000 copies of Beijing Doll were sold in China within the first few weeks of its publication in May 2002.

The book 'Beijing Doll' gave birth to a cult following among disaffected Chinese youth who identified with the sentiments of author Chun Sue, then 17.

Chun Shu is reported recently to have already shaken off her once punk image and turn on the look of a fair lady. [ynet.com]

Now available in English, the semi-autobiographical novel, based on Chun's diaries, chronicles the life of a naive teenager whose fascination with Western pop culture and sex flies in the face of her parents' wishes and societal mores. Beijing Doll was quickly banned by the Chinese government but continues to be popular on the Chinese black market.

Chun, now 20, has been anointed by some in the Asian media as one of the leaders of a "cruel youth" movement, which is inspired by the movies, books and, of course, rock music of the West. Her second book, Fun and Game, was banned in China when it made its debut in May 2003.

Chun Shu shown on the cover of Time's February edition. [sina/file]

Any thinking adult in the USA probably would be bored by Beijing Doll and dismiss it as the narcissistic musings of a spoiled teenager. But the audience for this work, of course, is not adults. They're teenagers, and whether American or Chinese, youth has a language all its own.

The voice in Chun's book is that of a lost soul, searching for who she is and who she wants to be and rarely learning anything from the things she goes through. As she writes, "I've never been the sort of person who has goals. Never. ... should I transfer? ... drop out of school? ... The flowers in spring, the winds of autumn, and the setting sun of winter ... these were the silly thoughts of a melancholy young girl."

If this narrator is the voice of a generation, she's no different from any other teenager who feels misunderstood, unappreciated and bored. She does, however, have a lot of sex, going from one partner to another, and she is honest enough to admit that "maybe I knew that the only time I was in control of a situation was when I said good-bye."

American teens will relate to the narrator's struggle to define herself and her values, but only those who are totally turned off by their lives will agree with her feeling that there is little hope of finding happiness. Reading between the lines, you know Chun is not going to lay that unhappiness at the feet of government repression.

While teens may identify with the book's disillusioned narrator, her constant complaints may be too tedious for adult readers.

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