Shanghai Baby by Weihui Zhou

It is a novel with a strong voice against China’s own social and sexual revolution. It is a semi-autobiographical novel and the story revolves around the story of Coco who works as a waitress in a café and has an enthusiastic and optimistic attitude towards life. Her feelings of love towards Tian Tian, a young man who is impotent and a drug addict forms the main plot of the novel. She moves to lead her life with her love despite objections from her family. The intensity of her love is hown through the way she leaves her job and engrosses herself in writing.

The twist in the novel comes when she gets in a physical relationship with another man named Mark who is a married youngman belonging to a western nation.  However, her guilt torments her and tears her apart between her two lovers. The novel which she had started writing after meeting Tian Tian remains unfinished and her conflicting emotions of love and betrays force her to find out who she really is.

Zhou