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New York, Milan, Shanghai. A trendy global youth culture in the spotlight. I had traveled across the globe to discover a scene that is a replica of scenes just blocks from my apartment in San Francisco. There were lots of exotic drinks and pills being passed around here, too. |
Mian Mian's parents don't get her life of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It's beyond them. But they're proud of her status as a pop icon. They collect all the articles about her and keep a stack of counterfeit books -- illegal copies of Candy, her banned novel. Her father once managed a large factory; he finds her glitzy life almost unimaginable. Yet he's not resentful. His daughter's success makes him more confident about China's future. |
Mian Mian compares Shanghai to a casino. "So many people come here and take a risk," she says. "That's why I say, in Shanghai you need more than luck." And a lot happens underneath these neon lights. At times I felt like I was in New York's Times Square, or Leicester Square in London, or Shibuya in Tokyo. I wanted to rent a hotel room and stay a few days in the midst of all those bright lights. |
Mian Mian can go on and on about the Shanghai woman: "Beautiful and aloof, lives life with abandon, always ready for love, ready to die for love, the best in China." But China is dealing with a young population that's more male than female. With the official one-child policy in place, people kept fewer baby girls. In rural areas, unmarried women are in great demand. In the cities, many young people, including Mian Mian, say the one-child policy has turned them into spoiled brats. They are not ready to make any compromises at all, even if they're always ready for love. |
In the case of this "performance art," pushing artistic boundaries and asserting personal freedom in China means shedding your clothes for a quick run on the Bund. And recording it all for an underground art film. In Shanghai, such an act got little notice. In the South, it landed the streaker in jail. "In prison, the criminals and thieves admired him a lot," says the filmmaker, Liu Bin. "Even the prison guards thought he was very brave. I think society needs the avant-garde." |
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