The following review was contributed by: John Walsh: CLICK TO VIEW John Walsh's Reviews

China has nearly always been squeamish about sex. Historical shyness and its
twin prurience were overlaid by the heavy hand of the Chinese Communist Party
which defeminised generations of Chinese women.

One of the more interesting effects of the opening of the Chinese economy and the influence of globalisation has been the flowering of the expression of female sexuality for the first time.
Various authors have taken the opportunity to describe women protagonists as
sexually active and in control of their biology, more or less.

Annie Wang has added to this emerging genre with a book that is as close to being a Chinese
version of ‘Sex in the City’ as anyone is ever likely to want to see. In scores
of short (two or three pages on average) chapters, Ms Wang introduces her
post-modernist female protagonists, Niuniu the narrator, Beibei, Lulu, CC and
Little Fang, among others, as they enjoy the fine things of life, chat and
gossip, go shopping and be massaged and pampered and, endlessly, search for and
talk about the ideal man.

Along the way, they surely experiment with just about every sort of man that there is to have in China, preferring those who have returned from an international education (Harvard, for choice) and have high-paying jobs and income and taste to match but who have not been spoiled by
their success. Instead, they must make do with the Little Emperors who have – by
virtue of China’s one child policy – been spoiled their entire lives, the MBAs
(married but availables), the boorish but successful Chinese businessmen who
have no international experience and the inevitable foreigners, many of whom
have caught ‘Yellow Fever,’ a disease which seems to cause them to try to sleep
with every woman in Asia. All of this is related in a frank and enjoyable style
and many readers will find this very funny. Women in similar circumstances as the author and her heroines may also find the book to be empowering or, at least, enlightening.

The narrator Niuniu is a journalist and this means she occasionally gets a
chance to mention the lives of people outside the glitterati of Beijing society
– the 800 million Chinese peasants for example, although these masses are given
no more than a walk-on part before being ushered off into the wings once more.

There is very little if any discussion of the threat of HIV/AIDS, which is a
major and growing problem in China, drug abuse or other of the less salubrious
aspects of the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

 The book is also too long – anacerbic editor could have requested the author to reduce the number of pages by at least one third while sharpening its focus by using that old dictum of
writing schools, ‘show don’t tell.’ However, this is probably just carping. This
is a coruscating journey through 21st century China and well worth the ride.