Mian Mian - Candy

Opiate of Love

Mian Mian's novel Candy, takes a deeper look into China's economic upbringing to the modern world. The book is entirely narrated by Hong - a fictitious character who levels with the exploding populous of drugs, prostitution, and new-age music through her early adult years. She meets a young musician named Saining who both fall hopelessly in love for each other. The binding relationship of Saining and Hong did not go un-aided, as the social repercussion of heroin and alcohol soon found its way into controlling their lives and eventually their future as a couple. When Saining found an entry to escape the world with heroin, he would inevitably leave Hong out. Consequently, if either of them was in absence of any substance, they fell out of each other's "wavelength". In turn, both would sequentially drop in and out of each other's wavelength that proved fatal to their relationship. To maintain order of this relationship, indulgence of alcohol and heroin was their only answer, and eventually a self-botched religion.

When beginning to understand this dilemma of love vs. drug addiction and withdrawal, the answer lies back to when Saining first introduced heroin to Hong. When she tries heroin for herself, she believed that the drug was horrible and decided she disliked it. The first instance of this unbalanced wavelength level is noted when Saining decides to kick his heroin habit. "He took to spending long hours outside the balcony, sitting motionless and looking out. This solitude was more than I could stand, and I joined him and we watched it all together, the chaotic street below. The sunlight was always so full of poison. A drug that was a stranger to me had put up a wall between me and my closest friend. I couldn't read his expressions, and I had lost the power to attract him ... I was determined to get my lover back." (Mian, 73)

With this, Hong slowly realizes they are losing trust in each other... and without trust, a key element; one cannot have a decent relationship. After Saining went into rehab, Hong soon found draining herself away with liquor rather heavily... and still drinking when Saining was released from rehab. There, the balance of the wavelength becomes uneven again between the two and Saining starts using heroin again. "Sometimes you really scare me, he said. How can I make love with someone I am afraid of? I share a bed with you, but sometimes I'll be watching your face while you sleep, and suddenly I'll get this feeling like I don't know you at all." (Mian, 78) Thus, the infamous cycle continues - and explicitly noted by Hong "But the most confusing and hurtful thing of all was that he no longer needed to connect with me. He used heroin. I didn't. We weren't on the same wavelength anymore; we couldn't connect." (Mian, 79) This simple notion when either Hong or Saining was done, the other one would have to be matched to their mentality and state of mind. This of course worked for both ways - up and down.

After splitting up and getting back together again, they made the decision to free themselves from drugs and alcohol. They both stopped their habitual indulgences and found themselves in "low spirits" - showing all the signs of withdrawal. Over the course of treatment, Saining finds himself addicted to medication and ultimately going back to heroin. This in turn leads Saining to leave Hong on her own.

It is important to understand this treacherous and repeating cycle. The term "Religion is the opiate of the people" is indirectly related to Saining and Hong's situation. Specifically, both of them constantly find the need for balance in their relationship by introducing alcohol and drugs. If Karl Marx was correct in saying that an opiate (in societal applications) is something that desensitizes, blinds, dulls and over all gives a sense of well being, then this is the drugs and alcohol they use to convey themselves to that state. In terms of religion, it's a matter of formulating what they understand of God, man and the universe... but in Saining and Hong's situation,