1. Youth Sex Culture Gender politics in Chinese Culture Professor Luo
University of Kentucky
April 13, 2016

2. Wei Hui (1973-) Born into a military family with strict parents
Studied Chinese literature in Fudan University, Shanghai
Published her first short story collection at 21
Shanghai Baby was her first novel, banned in China and upheld as international bestseller outside

3. Shanghai Baby (2000) “female beauty writer” autobiographical elements
literature
sex
things foreign
decadence
rebellion
market
film adaptation

4. Shanghai Baby, the novel
Characters
Nikki (Coco), Tian Tian, Madonna, Mark
Old Yang, Spider, paternal great grand-mother, Daddy, Mother, Enchantress, Ah Dick, Number 5, Cissy, ex-boyfriend, David Wu

5. Spaces
Green Stalk Café, The Cotton Club, Huaihai Road
(Avenue Joffre), The Bund, Peace Hotel,
Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Three-bedroom apartment, Fudan University, Youth Centre

6. Inspirations
Henry Miller, Eileen Chang, Milan Kundera, Madonna, Sean Penn

7. Sample close-reading
For Tian Tian, anyone who falls outside the bounds of normality, especially anyone in a mental hospital, is to be admired. In his opinion, crazy people are only considered mad by the rest of the society because their intelligence isn’t understood. He thinks that beauty is only reliable when it’s linked to death or hopelessness, even evil. Like the epileptic Dostoevsky, ear-slicing Van Gogh, impotent Dali, homosexual Allen Ginsberg or the movie starlet Frances Farmer, who was thrown into an asylum and lobotomised in the McCarthy witch hunt. p12-13

8. Possible close reading paragraphs
P12 last paragraph (sample)
P13 last paragraph
P22 last but one paragraph
P25 second paragraph

9. Marrying Buddha (2005)
Wei Hui on Meet the Author

10. Youth sex culture: transgressions
Westernization
Migration
Prostitution

11. Shanghai sexual characters: big and small
American wives and Shanghai husbands
Big moneys and Shanghai girls
Playboys and Bold Girls
Shanghai Babies and Extraterrestrials (Mian Mian and Wei Hui)

12. More questions and phenomena to ponder:
Is sexuality political in the context of the coming of age of modern China?
How do the environment of the city and the larger context of globalization condition a new generation of Chinese women in their pursuit of pleasure, fame, and material and spiritual fulfillment?
Marriage Market Takeover (SK-II commercial on “Leftover Women”)

13. Final project update due Thursday by 10 pm
Topic
Interviews (from midterm or new ones, if based on midterm)
In-class readings (at least 3)
External academic sources (at least 3)
Annotated bibliography