From IHT via some blog I forgot, here is a little review of a book on “Chick Lit” Chick Lit is a marketing category full of books about young women trying to have a career and find love. Did you see the Bridget Jones movie? Me neither, but that’s the basic idea. The interesting thing about the book is that the trend has spread all over the world, with some rather weird permutations in different places. This type of things is not very popular in Japan, since Japanese women seem to prefer fiction that deals with adolecent romance or the hell of being a Japanese wife, and skip over the independent phase. Not sure why.
Does Chick Lit exist in China? I ask because it sounds a lot like the butterfly fiction of the 20’s and 30’s, novels and such intended to be read by a new group of women and used in part as a guidebook to a strange new world. I would be very interesting in knowing if the genre has made a comeback. Are any of our countless readers up on current Chinese women’s fiction?
I think Zhou Weihui’s (penname Weihui) “Shanghai Baby” might qualify. The book is essentially about her desire to be a successful writer and her choice between two very different men.
After Shanghai Baby, there came Beijing Doll by Chen Sue.