Interesting book, unfortunately i can't afford this until January next year =/

SHANGHAI BABY by Hui, Wei

Banned in China for its sensual nature and irreverent style, Shanghai Baby is a raw, honest novel with its brave exposure of taboo subjects. This is the seductive, semi-autobiographical story of a café waitress in exotic Shanghai, who spends her days dreaming of becoming a writer and finding a lover. When she meets and falls for a sensitive young artist, she decides against her parent’s wishes to move in with him, leaving her job and throwing herself into writing. Shortly afterwards, she meets a charming Western businessman and finds herself in a passionate affair. Torn between her passion and her deceit, she is increasingly tormented by this chasm between love and lust, between the old China and the new. Shanghai Baby is a beautifully written novel with a distinct voice that dares to challenge convention especially in its portrayal of women in modern China. “Banned by Beijing, Wei Hui’s tales of sin in Shanghai show the cracks appearing in communist China.” Sunday Times, June 3, 2001 “A semi-autobiographical novel, which explores the sexual awakening of a beautiful 26-year old writer in China’s liveliest port city… a runaway bestseller despite … its banning by the authorities.” The Economist, April 2001