Rating: 
Summary: Don't
Review: After seeing that the book is on the bestseller list, I decided to read it. It was so disappointing - Hui was trying hard to be an Amy Tan, which she clearly isn't.Even the use of Shanghai as a location was a bad idea. The reader could not get a feel of the city - in fact, the characters could be living in another country. Instead of reading this novel, buy a fashion magazine instead.
Rating:
Summary: don't waste your money
Review: As typical as other new generation of Chinese popular writers nowadays, this's a tasteless so-call semi-autobiography, full of self worshiping, and it's shallow to the point of laughtable. Not to mention very poor writing skill and story telling. Reading along, none the characters seems to gain your sympathy, until you couldn't careless about how their fate develop...
Rating:
Summary: No story, with peaks of mediocrity
Review: "Shanghai Baby" reads like a young girl's diary, unedited, with long boring diatribes about what she wore today, what her friends wore, what she ate, and how she feels about all of this. The characters in her book are one-dimensional, and seem to lead fascinating lives until you realize they are cartoon characters more than real people. They do not evolve throughout the story, other than the fact that they change partners without suspense. Oh yes, this book also has some sex scenes tossed in every 60 pages or so (it's a 300-page book; you do the math) but they are brief and straightforward. The fact that Nikki lives in Shanghai is irrelevant. The rich colorful culture of this city never blossoms in the story. It could easily be Toronto or Londor or New York, or any other big city with neon lights, nightclubs, apartment buildings and a big university. The story focuses mainly on the main character, her wooden friends, and a contrived and predictable story that had the potential to possibly come to life under a more insightful author's hand. To her credit, Wei Hui does have a gift for using similes and metaphors to create a mood. And I'm sure that with time and maturity she can spin a more compelling yarn. But let's face it. This book's claim to fame is that it was banned in China. But it's tame -- and worse, boring -- by American standards.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This book was brilliant when I first read it, and even better the second time. Coco is a writer in Shanghai, living with her impotent boyfriend. Coco begins a passionate affair with Mark from Berlin, and soon trouble arises - the arrival of Mark's wife and son, Tian Tian's mother and the drug-taking that takes away Coco's closest friend. This is a beautiful book. Perhaps the best writers are for whom English is not their first language. This is certainly the best translated book I've read. (A+)
Rating: 
Summary: Writing what you know
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book even though I cringe at her pretentiousness (the party, ugh!)Overall,she spoke for a speficic group of her generation and her own experiences and to me that is no different from the writer of Sex & The City who sees the funny side of her life and the people she hangs around with. It takes a while to learn to write about everybody but even then I don't think it is possible. Perharps in her next book, Wei Hui might want to inject a bit of humour. In conclusion, I praise her for being bold. I prefer this to someone writing a sorry story and expect the rest of the world to be moralistic about their plight.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost a TORTURE to read
Review: I found this book hidden in my basement. The book started badly and ended even worse. As I was reading, I kept wishing that it would get better but it never did. However, this is a good book for quick reading on the subway or bus. It is extremely shallow and does not require much thinking. It reminds me of a poorly written Harlequin. In fact, some Harlequins may even be better. The author attempts to tackle modern day issues but failed miserably. Her views in life is limited and unrealistic. The characters lacked depth - every character was vain and sex crazed. Her constant description of how beautiful the heroin was and the tight clothing she wore got annoying. The sex scenes are repetitive to an extent where it appears that the same words are used. The setting of Shanghai appears to be irrelevant and misrepresented in many ways. I give this book 2 stars. Why? I made it through the book and got a party idea from it.
Rating:
Summary: Chinese Daniel Steel, but that might be an insult to Steel
Review: Being 'Banned and burned in (her native) China' seems to have greatly helped the popularity of this novel than actually hurt it. A tame Daniel Steele novel, this book about a young author and independent woman from modern Shanghai is more of a self-given tribute of how smart and beautiful the author is. There is no reason to keep the reader drawn in, and really brings out no emotion until about the last 20 pages. I can vaguely see why it would be banned in China, because it does unveil a side of Shanghai's underbelly that a modernly jingoistic society would not want the world to see.
The few parts that were interesting (but were sadly far and few between) involved Coco (the main character) discussing the culture in China and the varied lifestyles between the north and the south. She is a Fudan University Graduate and explains that many modern women in the 'New Shanghai' study there and are interested in the arts and music. She tries to show the differences between the new and old 'Shanghainese', comparing herself, her older sister, and her mother; however she fails to completely give the reader a good grasp of the new Shanghainese as all of her examples are an obsession with western culture and involve drugs, adultery, and prostitution. When her boyfriend goes on vacation to the south, it does give us a modern view of china that has been around forever. We see that she stays in the fast paced north where the power is, and her boyfriend tries to relax in the south where the pace of life is slower as well as the economy.
I expected a story of a younger new Shanghai, displaying the culture and political ideas of today. What I got was an adventure of a hedonistic young Chinese woman that does represent a sample of Shanghai woman, I just do not know how large of a sample. The themes of feminism, western adoration, and the generation gap of modern Chinese are mentioned but barely explored. The blurb on the back of the book is very misleading, they never mentioned the reasons it was even banned, when it was probably mostly due to the amount of sex scenes that are brutally described.
Overall, I would not give this book a very good rating. The plot is probably its highest point, although it is still too romanticized. The themes are one dimensional and not given enough depths, while we are told much more about the characters than we are actually shown. The setting also, had great promise, but was barely touched on as well. For a book with such potential, it seems the fact that it was banned in its native country is its only saving grace.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reading, 'Shanghai Baby,' and for several diferent reasons. 1). It showed a side to China that we rarely see; it showed a side of Chinese youth culture that we never see; and it showed how a generation of 'modern' chinese are growing up. As an avid reader of anything on China, this I found extremely interesting. 2). Because I related to Coco, a lot of what she said and what she did, I could relate to, and understand, based on who I am, and what I think. It's a very touching book, a very truthful book, not a lot happens in the course of the plot, but that doesn't seem to matter. I was completely engrossed in the character of Coco and her life. Read it!
Rating:
Summary: not horrible but not very readable either
Review: I was at the San Francisco airport when I first saw this book. I almost bought it based on the sexy sounding blurb and the picture on the cover. However, I decided to wait until I returned home and now I'm glad I did. When I came home, I borrowed this book from the library, and am so glad I didn't make an impulse buy at the airport. It might be due to the translation, (something almost always gets lost in the translation) but this book seemed quite shallow to me, and overall it was not very interesting. As I said, it may be due to the translation, but the writing style irritated me, and there were many tired cliches. I enjoy reading literature by Asians and Asian-Americans, but for some reason this story didn't sit well with me. My advice is to borrow this, not buy it. The author is very pretty and the story sounds sexy and exciting, but it's really not very interesting when you get down to it.
Rating:
Summary: not recommended
Review: i work at an independent bookstore and this caught my eye. however, as soon i started to read it, it became clear to me that this book book is badly written. it's obtuse, with unbelievable characters. the protagonist is unusual at best, and the plot is just not engaging. i exchanged it the next day for something else
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