Wei Hui

In 1999, author Zhou Wei Hui (pen name Wei Hui) sent ripples through the Chinese literary world with her novel Shanghai Baby. With drugs, nightclubs, and sex, the novel is a semi-autobiographical book about Coco, a 25-year-old cafe waitress (named after French fashion designer Coco Chanel) who falls in love with an impotent young man with a drug problem.

'Shanghai Baby' struck a cord with young Chinese urban readers who were looking for a voice for their generation.

In 2000, another female writer, Mianmian, claimed that Wei Hui's Shanghai Baby was plagiarized from her novel Sugar. Simultaneously many famous critics and writers became involved in this debate. In the midst of the argument, Wei Hui and Mianmian were given the moniker

Mianmian

-- beauty writer.

This title spread fast and became the hottest commercial brand in the book circle's eyes. Since then, nearly every young female writer has been called a beauty writer. It seems that writers' contribution are not merely their works, but also their body and face, as book people sell the writers' sex appeal along with their books. Hence, "gender consumption" has spread to literature.

The name of beauty writers and beauty literature were criticized by conservative and mainstream figures from theon the very first day. Soon the title of beauty writer became disreputable and turned into a derogatory term with a satire meaning.

However, for people to say that word -- beauty writer -- with some kind of superiority and feeling of self-esteem in itself has transformative significance.

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