Chinese writer Guo Jingming released his debut film, Tiny Times, in June, 2013. The film broke boxoffice records by pulling in 360 million yuan in the week after its opening. The film follows four college girls who have been best friends since high school. One girl, the assistant of an illtempered editorinchief, is helped by her friends in facing challenges at work.
Tiny Times can be interpreted as a Chinese reworking of the American TV series Gossip Girl and the film The Devil Wears Prada for its narration of office politics, the lifestyle of the rich and its theme of the struggle for success and friendship. Guo's works, including The City of Fantasies (幻城) and the Tiny Times series, feature characters who are extremely goodlooking, talented and rich.
Guo himself is selfmade. He comes from a small town in southwest China, with parents in modestincome jobs, and has a rather plain appearance. But his talent is in no doubt. As a teenager, he won numerous national literature prizes and established his career in his 20s by publishing his first novel The City of Fantasies, which went on to sell 1.5 million copies. He climbed onto Forbes' Rich Chinese list with a record annual income over 27.6 million yuan. His success also goes beyond writing; he has established himself in the publishing business and has promoted dozens of young writers since 2006.
In Tiny Times, many people were touched by the main character's heartwrenching monologue at the end of the film:
"We live in the vast universe, where we are even more insignificant than in the present time. You do not know when life suddenly changes direction, falling into the