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More reviews by Peter Gordon
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When Red is Black by Qiu Xiaolong
Visitors to the 2004 Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival fortunate enough to sit in on one of Chinese-American novelist QIU XIAOLONG's session will be pleased to hear that his third "Inspector Chen" novel is (finally) available.
Crime novels can be something of a guilty pleasure, akin to sneaking a chocolate bar. Qiu's novels, featuring a Chinese detective struggling to reconcile professionalism with the demands of a Party-controlled occupation, seem tailor-made for East Asian readers. Almost as much commentaries on Chinese society, history, culture and food as crime novels, they are an intelligent antidote to stereotype, while remaining page-turners -- just the thing to make one feel one's time by the pool isn't complete self-indulgence.
Like many fictional detectives, Chief Inspector Chen Cao draws inspiration from unlikely sources: in his case, classical Chinese poetry. This is, of course, a fictional device and a rather unlikely one, but Qiu's novels illustrate aspects of modern Chinese life that might be missed in a more analytical and strictly factual (and undoubtedly less readable) treatment: they feature honest men struggling with the question of just how much personal advantage is corrupting, when to buck the system and when to give in -- and the questions that arise when the oppression and general equality of Communism start giving way to the opportunities and inequity of capitalism. The `red' of the title refers to the ubiquitous communist red, the `black' those denounced as enemies of the working class during the Cultural Revolution.
But all social and moral philosophy aside, this is at bottom a crime novel, and someone does indeed get done in. This time, it's Yin Lige, the author of a banned book, who is found murdered in her Shanghai apartment. Inspector Chen, however, is on holiday: he has been made an offer he can't refuse by a triad-connected businessman who needs his help translating a business proposal for the `New World', a complex of shops and restaurants to be built in Central Shanghai.
So the dogged Detective Yu Guangming is forced to take charge of the investigation, even as personal misfortunes threaten to ruin his life. There are leads and dead-ends; and Chen steps in to help from afar. Yu soon uncovers a long-ago romance between the victim and Yang Bing, a college professor victimized during the Cultural Revolution.
The crime is solved, as these things are, through a combination of unexpected developments and good police work.
WHEN RED IS BLACK is the most sophisticated of the series to date, and one feels Qiu pushing the envelope of the detective series genre. The leader-sidekick relationship of Chen and Yu has evolved into something more interesting. This is Yu's case, but it is Chen that ultimately solves it -- not so much because of superior ability, but because of superior connections: a half-century of Communism has not erased class in China, merely replaced it with a different sort.
While Yu's detective skills have edged up a notch, Chen himself seems to have taken more leaves from the pages of Hamlet than from his Chinese poets: he is forever agonizing about the rights and wrongs of taking petty advantage. As often as not, he takes it, rationalizes it and then feels guilty. One begins to have some sympathy with his long-suffering mother who wants him to marry and settle down.
Writing popular fiction about Asia for an English-speaking audience without slipping into stereotype and cliche is a difficult balancing act which Qiu has always managed well.
Peter Gordon
24/06/2004
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Peter Gordon is editor of The Asian Review of Books. |
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