The People’s Republic of Desire

5 Royal Desire

Since settling in Beijing, I've found that making friends is effortless here. With a cell phone in my pocket, I receive phone calls and invitations to parties and dinners almost every day. But the friends I've made are mainly single girls like me. Meeting men of quality is so much more difficult than meeting women of quality in Beijing. But after getting out of a messy relationship back in the States, I am in no hurry to enter another one.

My new best friend besides Lulu and Beibei is CC. Like me, CC is also a returnee who has lived quite a long time overseas. Many Chinese think of her as a Chinese royal-to-be.

It's true that communism is supposed to advocate egalitarianism. It's true that the last emperor of the Manchu dynasty was driven out of the Forbidden City at the beginning of the twentieth century and ever since China has been a republic. It's also true that the Chinese desire for royalty has never died out. A privileged minority can always enjoy royal treatment. Some political scholars describe Mao as a royal peasant. If you turn on Chinese TV, any channel, you will be bombarded by endless soap operas that depict life inside the imperial palace, mainly stories about the Manchu royal families. Princess Pearl (Huanzhu Gege), Emperor Kangxi, Emperor Qianlong Going South Uncovered, the Empire of Kangxi, and so on. Books about ancient emperors sell millions of copies. An author named The River of February who specializes in royal families is now the richest author in China. It seems that people just can't get enough emperor stories.

As Deng Xiaoping said, "It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white; as long as it catches rats." Some Chinese have recently got the first taste of being rich. They are China's xingui, the new aristocrats, who not only want to live like royalty, but also want to be royalty – or at least as close to royalty as possible. They wear Rolex watches and Jimmy Choo shoes. They send their kids to private schools and hire private tutors for them, hoping the children will become little emperors and princesses.

CC is such a Chinese princess.

CC's parents are originally from a Guangdong village. During the Cultural Revolution, when class struggle was so much more important than growing crops, many of the villagers died in a famine. CC's parents, young and full of dreams and the yearning to make something of their lives, planned to sneak into Hong Kong, which was not far from their village, though the island city was a wholly different world back then. Although they knew how to swim, it was dangerous to swim across the Hong Kong border. The young peasant couple bought an enamel basin and immersed their faces in the water every day for a year to practice holding their breath. Eventually, they were ready. In those days, the government religiously patrolled the waters along Hong Kong to prevent this sort of treachery. CC's parents were dressed all in black, and even painted their faces with makeup to prevent themselves from being seen. Because they chose a night without a moon, and they were completely camouflaged, it was impossible for them to even see each other from a few feet away as they swam across. To make sure they didn't get separated in the choppy waters, they tied themselves together with a length of rope around their waists. They crossed the South China Sea successfully. The two began as a waiter and a waitress at one of Hong Kong 's fast-food restaurants. Not long after, they started their own fast-food restaurant. With hard work and ambition, the pair became rich in ten years.

By the time CC was born, her parents were full-time golfers and drove around in chauffeured Mercedes. However, Hong Kong followed the English closely. Because of their humble background, her parents were still looked down upon by Hong Kong society. Their biggest dream was to upgrade their own status by making their daughter the equivalent of royalty – if not by blood, at least by marriage.

At the age of two, CC was sent to study at a private school in London. Now this Oxford-educated Hong Kong girl could speak English with a perfect Oxford accent. She also spoke fluent French, some Spanish, and some Chinese and played both the piano and chess with skill. She was also at times a ballet dancer, a violin player, and an opera singer.

Because of CC's Western upbringing, and because she is more internationally educated than my other friends, she has her own style, which is distinctively un-Chinese. In this day and age, the "fashionable" Chinese women try to be as Western as they can. Stiletto heels, low-rise jeans, dyed hair, and name-brand jackets are all a must. While this look may be considered high status and tasteful by many of China 's elite, to CC it is boring and uncreative. CC has a petite body and delicate bones. Although the Chinese think whiter skin is the more beautiful, she tries to get a suntan. Her style is something of a mixture of East and West, just like she is. Her clothes are much less flashy and in-your-face than what is normally seen on the streets of Beijing or Shanghai. It is not uncommon for CC to be seen in tight American jeans, with a Shanghai Tang silk Chinese jacket. CC's mixture of fashion is an unconscious metaphor for her confusion over her own place in Chinese society.

We met at Starbucks. Immersed in European culture, CC is into bars and cafes, not necessarily Starbucks. And as for me, from my days in the States, Starbucks was another word for "breakfast." The two of us often ran into each other in the Starbucks near Beijing 's Friendship Store. We would often sit facing each other, one with a cappuccino and the Financial Times,the other behind a mocha and the Wall Street Journal.

CC is a business manager at an international public relations company called Ed Consulting. She is the organizer of many events and parties Lulu and I have attended. CC is a loyal fan of the singer CoCo Lee, who sang the theme song of the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She also worships that Singapore-born, scantily clad violinist Vanessa Mae. CC wants to emulate any Chinese woman who becomes successful overseas.

Unlike Beibei and Lulu, who have never studied abroad, CC is more Western than Chinese. For me, it's a good balance. I can cling to my roots by befriending Beibei and Lulu and keep my Western connection by being with CC. Another reason I like CC is that she is funny. She thinks of herself as a serious intellectual. Talking to her makes me feel like I'm in a salon of eighteenth-century Paris. She likes to discuss issues such as colonialism and drop high-brow names such as Tolstoy, Plato, Leonardo da Vinci, and Mozart during everyday conversations.

This little princess has an acute identity crisis: she doesn't know whether she is Chinese or English. When CC is with Chinese people, she feels she is English and could never identify with the Chinese. When she is with English people, she criticizes them for their racism in not accepting her as one of them.

Finally, CC decided that she would alternate months, being completely Chinese one month and completely English the next. When she is being English, she pretends not to understand if you speak to her in Chinese. On the other hand, when she is being Chinese and speaking her crummy Mandarin, no one dares to practice English with her.

CC's parents racked their brains to raise CC as a quasi-royal, to fulfill their dream of her someday becoming China 's own Jackie Kennedy. They never expected CC to have a problem with her identity. They always hoped she would marry "a Chinese aristocrat," in keeping with her social standing. But CC is not attracted to Asian men. Sometimes, she says that she simply prefers the vanilla flavor. Sometimes, she says dating an Asian man is like dating a brother, which is quite boring.

CC's current boyfriend is a poor Welshman named Nick. After CC graduated from Oxford, she took Nick back to Asia with her. He doesn't have a full -time job. He helps a couple of Chinese Internet sites as a part-time English editor, but his salary remains a fraction of CC's. Nick works for only two or three hours each day, so he has a lot of free time, which he spends learning Chinese from Chinese people in bars, Starbucks, parties, and sometimes at his home.

Now CC's biggest headache is that Nick, her ever-faithful boyfriend from England, has discovered that in China his average Welshman looks are surprisingly well received by Asian girls. Nick often spends time with Chinese girls, in the name of studying Chinese culture. Once he even went swimming with three Chinese girls, and CC was furious at the photo of Nick hugging three hot young chicks in bikinis. Knowing that I had a failed relationship that prompted me to return to China, CC comforts me, "It's wonderful that you don't have a boyfriend right now. You don't have to worry that local girls will steal him from you. You have a fresh start." CC worries that Nick will turn into another Frank.

Who is Frank? A real character. We will get to him later.

XINGUI: The new aristocrats, or nouveaux riches. During the Cultural Revolution, educated people were purged by the government and everyone was equal (equally poor that is). The new market economy has made it possible for people to have money and a strong education. This group of people constitute the "new aristocrats."

NIUJIN: An Ox and a ford – Oxford.

CHA CANTING: Popular Cantonese fast-food restaurant that offers quick meals and milk tea