Noted Chinese writer Mian Mian speaks with Thanh Nien about her piercing, haunting books and the contentious issues they explore.

Critics have labeled her writing “rebellious” but Mian sees it differently. “My work gives readers more freedom to think, which, I believe, will guide us toward behaving more morally and cautiously.”

Mian is the first Chinese author to really explore China’s underground of drugs, promiscuity and rock music. Her novel ”Candy” is heralded as the most profound work about the underworld of social misfits.

The author used drugs herself for some time and began working on “Candy” after finishing her second stint in rehab.

Dubbed a “poster child for spiritual pollution” by Chinese censors, who banned the book in 2000, “Candy” is loosely based on Mian’s own life as a teenage drug addict on the streets of Shenzhen and Shanghai.

“I’m in constant pursuit of the truth and life’s significance. I keep asking myself questions, so my prose is rational.”

However, she writes little about her harrowing experiences while on drugs as they were “meaningless.”

Mian was born Wang Shen in Shanghai in 1970. Coming from a liberal family, the staunchly independent thinker has never been far from controversy since dropping out of Shanghai’s elite Yanji high school.

She spent time as a DJ at the Cotton Club, Shanghai’s top jazz and blues venue, and also modeled for artists before packing her bags and heading for Shenzhen, China’s first boomtown, after which she roamed around doing the same line of work until the age of 25.

“I got to know many kinds of people, mostly the dregs of society.”

For all their influence on her, Mian’s experiences are not mentioned specifically in her writing.

“Nowadays I keep that period to myself, rarely think of it and try not to be affected by it. The people I knew then have nothing to do with my life now.

“It’s like a dream or a nightmare. Only when I became a Buddhist could these memories fade from my mind.”

She returned to Shanghai in 1995, began writing in 1997 immediately rose to prominence, and is now one of China’s most successful young writers. To many, she represents the 1990s literary movement, but Mian disagrees.

“I think no writer can represent a whole generation. I’m different from my peers in that I didn’t graduate from high school nor read any major literary work, study in a western country, or work in an agency. So how can I represent others?

“My writing raises questions about the meaning of life and the essence of love and sex. Only in that way am I a representative.”

She considers it an affront to herself that the critics group her with the celebrated beauties who write what she calls “rubbish.”

“I’m a blade of grass growing next to that pile of rubbish,” she says.

Several of Mian’s books have been translated into other languages. When she published “Candy,” foreign reporters showed great interest in finding out about Chinese youth, Shanghai and China’s banning of the work.

When her second book, “Panda Sex,” came out, it was the literary content that most grabbed foreign attention. Both books became best-sellers in France.

“Though ‘Panda Sex‘ is more demanding from a literary standpoint, it has a wide appeal,” she says.

Mian puts little effort into promoting her work and makes a point of not being interviewed by unknown reporters.

In fact, she only resumed granting interviews last month after years of refusing requests.

Mian still lives in Shanghai, where she spends most of her time watching movies, writing letters, studying Buddhism, and of course writing, but what she loves to do most is help the disadvantaged, renovate pagodas and care for stray animals.

At the moment, she is taking part in a radio program called “No Dancing at Night,” hoping to keep people away from the vice-laden discotheques. Instead, she encourages them to dance at home or outdoors.

She’s also adapting her work for a film she plans to make herself.

Besides “Candy,” which has been published in Vietnam, and “Panda Sex,” her best known books are “La La La,” “We Are Panic,” “Lover Hydrochloride,” “Social Dance,” “White on White on Top” and “Every Good Child Deserves to Eat Candy.”

In 2001, “We Are Panic” was made into a movie, “Shanghai Panic,” with Mian playing one of the main characters.

And her final words? “If I can’t write books that are spiritually rewarding for the reader, I hope the world forgets me.”

Reported by Nguyen Le Chi