'SHANGHAI IS decadent,' says the author of Panda Sex, without a hint of disapproval. 'Once again, it's one of the most important cities in the world.' Mian Mian should know. When she was born in the city in 1970, 'there was just one market in our neighbourhood'. Now, Shanghai is the mainland's most glamorous destination.
It's that air of possibility and glitz that Mian Mian captures in her new book (known simply as Panda in Chinese). The story tracks a couple 'having an open relationship', she says. 'They love each other and have been together for 10 years. But they don't have sex any more.'
Instead the couple agree to separate their sexual lives from their life together, a relationship model Mian Mian calls 'futuristic'.
The book tracks them as they move between real-life Shanghai destinations interacting with characters 'based on my experiences with friends but are fictional'.
It isn't the first time the author, whose real name is Sheng Wan, has pushed the boundaries of Chinese culture. A short story she wrote about teenage suicide, Like a Prayer, was dropped by a Chinese publishing house in the late 1980s because it was deemed too controversial. She dropped out of high school and moved to Shenzhen.
Distraught and without a degree, she hoped to make money in the city. Instead, she got caught up in the nightlife and ended up addicted to heroin. Her first book, a collection of short stories called La La La was published in Hong Kong in 1997. It wove together four tales about love, music, drugs and despair. 'La La La is about that kind of life,' she says, 'the drugs, the nightlife, the city feeling.'