Mian Mian (1970) is an iconic figure in China’s alternative culture. She is one of the most important Chinese writers of the generation born in the 70s and attracted attention in the literary world from the moment she began writing at the age of seventeen.
Her first novel, Candy, takes the form of a ‘fictionalised autobiography’. Candy was an ‘underground’ bestseller. It has been translated and published in fifteen languages. The Dutch translation (by Martine Torfs) was published under the same titel by Arena in 2001. Her second novel Panda sex describes life in Shanghai - where Mian Mian lives and works - in a slightly more experimental form that can be considered a crossover between novel, documentary and travel guide. Panda sex has been published in translation in France, Germany and Poland.
