Rating: 
Summary: This was a love story - why the backlash?
Review: I picked this book up because of it's notoriety of being banned China. I was expecting some scintillating stuff; but it didn't happen; although the story was well worth reading. What I learned about banning books in China is this; China needs more problems to worry about than a fresh story of a modern couple.Coco is a young, educated writer from a supportive family. She meets and falls desperatly in love with Tian-Tian. She moves in with him regardless of her parents' unaproving stance... but she stands up as a modern woman in modern day Shanghai. The story revolves around Coco's life; her writing, her tremendous yet torcherous love for the impotent Tian-Tain, and her pull for her 'Western' German lover who fulfills her every physical need. All in all this was a great story full of real life stuff; and the bonus is that it is from a country we cannot understand (Communist China) and yet it is a story we can all relate to.
Rating: 
Summary: You gotta be kidding me...Shoddy, choppy and empty
Review: Shoddy, scrappy, and empty-Shanghai Baby tries very hard to expose the dark side of the so-called new Chinese generation. I'm not a native of Shanghai but I bet for sure this is NOT what it's like to be in Shanghai, at least not the representative of the new generation. I would say what the author tries to convey here does not serve as a credible source. OK the story is plain and predictable but deliciously naughty: Some carnal girl named Coco (her real name, by the way, is Nikki) waits tables at a local café and meets this hedonist artist Tian Tian, who is handsome in an effeminate way, and falls in love madly with him. Defying her parents, Coco moves in with this new lover of hers and throws herself into a frenzy of drugs, sex, and drunkenness. Tian Tian's impotence threatens the relationship and gives Coco a convenient excuse to flirt and eventually enters an affair with a German businessman named Mark, who has a penchant for S/M. Mark gives her a sense of thrill-not only he satisfies her life-long sexual hunger but opens her up her inner lust. So you can imagine what goes on next after these two hit it off. The novel becomes some silly bored erotica prose the author attempts to arouse readers. The protagonist, namely Coco, annoys me so much with her self-indulgence and self-worship. She really thinks she is good-looking and all that but she really isn't. The only thing that I "actually" like about this novel is her provocative portrayal of the cultural transition that goes on now in urban China. This is something that was not recognized, say, 10 years ago. The book provides the hip side of China and the rising cult status of lives led by younger generation. Yet this very "risqué" nature of the book has caused a wave of disapproval among parents who fear their teenaged daughters will follow suit. The result was a massive confiscation of the books followed by a nationwide ban imposed by the high-end: the Chinese Communist Party. I am not to judge whether Beijing has reacted with overhype or paranoia. But I really don't find anything about this book worthy of recommending to fellow readers. Not to get down on English-as-a-second-language writer like Wen Hui (in fact she only wrote the original Chinese version which was then adopted and translated into English), but the writing is really scrappy and shoddy. At one point I stopped and put the book down and asked if I should keep on reading. I would not call it a guidebook to the sleazy bars in Shanghai either simply because it doesn't reflect the scenes. I daresay less than 0.01% of all Shanghainese girls could somehow relate to what Coco has gone through. This one would at most be some filler book to kill time while you're searching for other great books to read. It will do you just fine while you're waiting for the connecting flight at the airport. Not recommended for serious readers. 1.5 stars. [Note] This book has received my lowest rating of all fiction work.
Rating:
Summary: Should I keep reading?
Review: Last night, I went to bed in eager anticipation of my new book, Shanghai Baby. I picked it up earlier in the day, looking for a good quick read, and alas! a book that was SUPPOSED to be good that takes place in my current area of obsession. Last night I flipped through the first chapter... and told myself.. this book is written by someone who knows English as a second language... of course she can't express herself as well as a native speaker... then i quickly fell asleep. This afternoon, I picked it up again, still with the same anticipated excitement; the book has gotten many great reviews... from strong.. to feminist.. to being compared to Anais Nin.. after I read chapter 2 and 3 however, I dont know if I can make it to the end of the book. Reading these three chapters has done something no other author has done in a long time.. made me hate her. I also took a step back, stopped reading for a good 10 minutes and analyzed myself... do I see parts of myself in the protagonist? Is that why I hate her so much? I then brushed off my worries... and decided I felt bad for all the smart guys out there dating self-important vain people, who give themselves too much credit than they deserve. Yes I do see parts of myself in the character... and now I am willing to change. If I write like a 12 year old, tell me. I have always prided myself with being somewhat liberated, moreso than your average Asian girl, and I never thought a book like this would disgust me. Context-wise, I give Wei Hui props for breaking through boundaries in China (the book has been banned there), but there are ways to express yourself rather than turning your novel into an erotically conceited piece of garbage. Stop telling me how beautiful and different you are. Stop telling me how your impotent artist boyfriend adores you. Stop telling me you were meant to write a novel, and that writing is your favorite outlet. Stop telling me about all the eccentric people around you who constantly tell you how great you are. Tell me once, but dont tell me again... I dont know how this book received good reviews, am I the first one who's got the balls to put down a Chinese author? I keep thinking that the reviews were good because of the risks she took to write this novel.. or maybe I just dont know what I'm talking about. Maybe I'm expecting too much... Tell you what, I'll finish this book (spare me the cheesy and boring metaphors), and maybe my feelings will change.. These are only the first three chapters.. so maybe it will all work out.
Rating:
Summary: Can't get any cheesier?
Review: It was such a speed reading since this book was clichest of clichest of clichest of cliche. I did not need to use my brain nor it took any thought. All you need to do is just use a hand to turn pages over and over remembering any of the kind of cliche of a molded and uninventive bad girl story. However, this bad girl writer from China writes so,so,so Bad--- in a sense of skilless and talentless, SO BAD that only makes readers ashamed of having read this sort of stupid tale which even sounds almost more than eighty years old(-fashioned). It holds true that people are free even to write a stupid tale. The fundamental predicament of this book is, tho', that we readers have no idea if the author knew the freedom; I wonder if she wrote the way she did by choice or wound up stupid as it is without knowing so. I suspect the latter. This novel might be an outcome of the author's limitation of knowledges of literature as well as her being talentless and skilless. In that sense, it could offer a good documentation of how cultural revolution has fatally limited and damaged people's mind by abolishing any influence from outside China. All the more the author dared to reproduce a cliched bad girl image and brag the materialistic lifestyle seemingly inspired by Western role models such as Nin and Chanel, it could not get any cheesier.
Still, tragic cultural misunderstandings are always attributed greatly to the way it is introduced and why. In this context, the US's irresponsible curiousity for China is one thing that made this trash publication possible and we should comlain that first for causing uneven balance of cultural distribution and the manipulation of info between West and East. It is not fair to introduce Shanghi Baby as if that is the most representative work of literature from today's China.
Rating:
Summary: A Schoolgirl's Failed Attempt At Writing
Review: Author Wei Hui masturbates, takes drugs, has sex with foreigners, and other deeds no less shocking. I gave this book to my mother to read, thinking it would give her an impression of contemporary Shanghai. She read it in one evening and handed it back to me the next day with the comment: "A piece of [...]". After reading it myself, I had to agree. Unfortunately, this book was banned in China, which of course created a demand for it in the West. Equally unfortunate is that this will create an impression of Shanghai that is at best juvenile.
Rating: 
Summary: A fun read, but over-hyped and definitely not groundbreaking
Review: I agree with many of the other reviewers here--this book is a fun and quick read, (for instance, to read on the train or airplane) but great piece of literature it is NOT.
I am sure the novel is not an accurate depiction of Shanghai, though some of the descriptions do make me want to visit and read more about how Shanghai REALLY is. Also, had this book been written in the 'Western' world, it would hardly have registered a blip on the literary radar. Plus, the author needs to get over herself, because she is constantly obsessing over herself and talking about how great and good-looking she is. ANNOYING. Hate to break it, but she's not the only attractive young female novelist out there with nothing to say. She does capture a lot of the issues that young people have to struggle with, but only the young people that are in her type of social/peer group. It is a very limiting view. You would be better off reading Elizabeth Wurtzel if that is the kind-of thing you are going for. Plus, being a Chinese female, I find it extremely irritating that here is yet another 'highly-sexed asian female' in the media- a stereotype that is constantly perpetuated by roles taken on by such actresses as Lucy Liu. How bout let's try being more multi-dimensional with characters!! Bottom-line: don't expect too much but you'll be mildly entertained, along with wondering how people can be so vain, pathetic and narcissistic. The 'heroine' in this novel seems as though she is trying way too hard to be artsy, avant-garde, etc. But, you can only fake the funk for so long before people (and readers) grow disinterested. I am curious to see if this author will have something more meaningful to say the next time around. If you want great social commentary, read Bret Easton Ellis!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Less Shanghai than Baby, but little of either
Review: The self-indulgent "Shanghai Baby" isn't so much a novel as a guidebook to the damp, sticky underbelly of Shanghai's nightlife. Unfortunately, Wei Hui misses the ironies and idiosyncrasies of this decidedly skanky scene and rather proceeds to fawningly gush and name-drop throughout. It's quite humorous to us here in Shanghai, as we all know every one of the bar and restaurant owners she repetitively refers to... That does sum up, however, the culture that Wei Hui is depicting. Ignore the ads: this is NOT representative of China, NOT representative of Shanghai, NOT representative of the "new youth" and NOT representative of China's budding Bohemian crowd. The lifestyle it documents is unique to the anorexic, gaudily made-up gals who lurk in expatriate bars hoping to snare Caucasian sugar daddies who will provide them with visas, condos, cars and/or cash. They'll sleep with a rock musician or artist once in a while to prove that they're "alternative" and not just party girls. Wei Hui does little to tone down the highly autobiographical nature of the book, which is the reason why it so lacks any sense of humor or perspective. She didn't even change the name of her foreign boyfriend from his real-life version. The author tries to prove her literary credentials by dropping references to great modern Western writers throughout the book, both in the text and in really random quotes at the beginning of each chapter. She particularly uses and abuses Henry Miller and Milan Kundera, who were extremely popular among Shanghainese college students during Wei Hui's student days. She name-drops three different writers within the first five pages of the book, and one Kundera quote gets repeated three different times. Editorial oops. What's most galling, though, is her supposed adulation of Henry Miller, who so despised the sort of artifice which fills this book to gagging. Much has been made in the Western press of how "Shanghai Baby" was a bestseller that got banned. Well, it was in the top 5 in Shanghai for a few weeks, but hardly registered as one of China's major successes in 2000. By the time it got banned, its sales and accompanying buzz had already dropped from any radars. It was banned not for its sexual or subversive content but rather because its main audience was teenybopper Shanghainese girls, whose parents complained in mass that the book was encouraging a perception that being going to sleazy bars and bopping middle-aged white men is cool. Sad that such a shoddy novel got picked up for English translation and distribution when the much better and more significant literature that comes out of modern China never gets noticed.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth a look
Review: Shanghai Baby is an intriguing novel, perhaps more intriguing than first appears. Others have compared it with the work of Jack Kerouac and the author herself makes frequent references to Henry Miller, but what I found most striking were its parallels with Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. Both feature a love affair which cannot be consumated because of the impotence of the man involved, and both seem cluttered with superficialities. One is set among the aimless "Lost Generation" bar-hopping through 1920s Paris, while the other is in modern Shanghai among a generation the author seems to be saying has been similarly disoriented, except by the wave of Western-style materialism sweeping through China instead of disillusionment from "The War To End All Wars." Although both are written in the first person Wei Hui's book comes across as more autobiographical, which raises the question: how much of its literary quality is due the author's artifice and how much is simply "life imitating art?" This is all the more difficult to determine because Coco, the heroine of the novel, is writing a novel, perhaps this very one. Is the tension between the deeper meaning the protagonist is struggling to create and her own shallowness intentional? After wrestling with this question for some time my guess is that it is. Stepping back from the work itself for a moment, according to her jacket bio - and as suggested by her dedication - the author has studied literature. Also, naming the heroine "Coco" after a fashion designer speaks volumes about how she means the character to be seen. Returning to the text, Coco's frequent references to prominent authors and her earnest attempts to see deeper truths around her contrast sharply with her own tendency to evaluate people and things superficially, hinting that although the protagonist's dream is to write a literary-quality bestseller she simply isn't equipped to do so. Supporting this is Hui's portrayal of Coco's love for the nihilistic, impotent Tian Tian, which forms the heart of the book. This might seem to be something deep and noble and platonic, except that even it is based largely on the beauty of his face, "who could help loving a flawless face like his?" As in Hemingway's work, the human condition rears its head and ambitions and dreams, ethics and morals, are all compromised. Seen in this light, Shanghai Baby is worth a look. Just as The Sun Also Rises isn't really just about bar-hopping and bullfighting, this isn't just a slice-of-life in modern, materialistic Shanghai.
Rating: 
Summary: a dark look into China's urban culture
Review: Coco is a 25-year-old writer in Shanghai, living with her artist boyfriend Tian Tian. She is madly in love with him, he provides her with everything that a woman needs from a man, except sex -- Tian Tian is impotent. Like most sexual conditions, this seems to be a secondary symptom of something going on in his head, and there are implications that it has to do with his mother, who went to Spain 10 years ago when his father died, and has suddenly decided to return to China. Coco, meantime, has sought out gratification from Mark, a handsome mysterious man on business from Germany. She loves Tian Tian and is sure that her affair is a purely physical matter. Rounding out the book are other Shanghai babies: among them are Madonna, a forty-something madam, her artist boyfriend Ah Dick, makeup artist Flying Apple, and Coco's perfect cousin Zhu Sha, who shockingly has divorced her husband. The book is dark, gritty, harsh and mean but also full of love and sorrow. It's a great read and opens the reader's eyes to China beyond the world of Amy Tan.
Rating:
Summary: A Guilty Read
Review: Two things made me buy this book. First and foremost, I read it because the Chinese government outlawed it and that cracked me up because they have to be [not too bright] to not understand that only increases sales. And second, the author was pretty and the cover seemed to promise tales of intriguing spoiled rich girl sex, just the kind of book to read after reading too much heavy non-fiction. I also vaguely thought it might have some comment on modern life in Shanghai, a place I'm visiting soon. Unfortunately, I didn't get a new glimpse at Shanghai. It just reaffirmed my judgment that is already extremely Western and materialistic in outlook. I did get a big dose of Wei Hui's arrogance, but the cover pretty much told me I'd get that. I fail to see why this book offends the Communists. The author clearly has no interest in criticizing the Communist party. She focuses on love and money, two topics the Chinese must already be quite well informed about. If you are in my situation, and just need to read some basic airport reading, this book is fine. Just don't expect more than the cover promises. I hope there are other authors of this generation in Shanghai that can better explain the life of the young educated than Wei Hui.
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