By 1997, China was midway between the era of Mao Zedong and that of Xi Jin[ping. Deng Xiaopeng had begun turning the country away in 1978 from the planned, centralized economy dictated by Mao’s Leninist principles to “capitalism with socialist principles.” And Xi’s ascendancy to the supreme leadership was 15 years away in 2012. Those years between the two strongmen were a time of transition. And the Chinese-American novelist Qiu Xiaolong skillfully illustrates the stresses and dislocations of the period in his clever police mysteries featuring Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau. Red Mandarin Dress, the fifth book in the series, which now totals 13 titles, is especially revealing of the changes in Chinese society. It’s a serial killer tale against the backdrop of predatory capitalists supported by official corruption.
A challenging but rewarding reading experience
To read these books is to immerse yourself in Chinese culture. Each story is loaded with passages from poetry, both classical and contemporary. But there’s much more. Quotations from Confucius. References to yin and yang and to the widespread belief in ghosts. And language that’s often elliptical, with observations couched in classical references. The result is that reading Qiu Xiaolong, though always rewarding, demands close attention to the text. Don’t expect an easy ride through the pages of Red Mandarin Dress or any of the other novels in this extraordinary series. But when you’re done, you’ll be better equipped to understand the mindset of China’s leaders, which can seem mysterious at times.
Red Mandarin Dress (Inspector Chen Cao #5) by Qiu Xiaolong (2009) 324 pages ★★★★☆
Two politically sensitive cases that cause shudders in the Party
Two politically sensitive cases confront Chief Inspector Chen in Red Mandarin Dress. One involves the murder of an attractive young woman in a torn red mandarin dress. A passerby finds her posed in a flower bed in a way suggestive of rape. And no sooner has a second young woman been discovered in another highly public place than mutterings of “serial killer” begin making the rounds at the Shanghai Police Bureau as well as in the city’s many newspapers.
The other case involves “the West-Nine-Block housing development.” A notoriously aggressive property developer, one of Shanghai’s richest men, has begun building high-rise housing for the rich to replace old buildings that had housed poor people. To force them out, he had employed underworld thugs, who had threatened and in some cases badly injured the inhabitants.
Both cases occasion alarmist headlines in the less restrained of the newpapers. And Chen’s boss, Party Secretary Li, is eager to sweep both cases under the carpet at the earliest opportunity. Unfortunately, as investigations into both matters begin to switch into high gear, Chen elects to go on vacation.
Chief Inspector Chen is absent
Bowing to his profound interest in poetry—he is a highly respected poet in his own right—Chen elects to enroll in a master’s program at Shanghai University. And this requires him to write an original paper under his tutor’s direction. He switches off his cellphone, having left no word either with the party secretary or with his own partner, Detective Yu. This leaves Yu in charge of the Red Mandarin Dress case, feeling profoundly insecure in his first outing on his own. And the increasingly desperate and angry voicemail messages from both Party Secretary Li and Detective Yu pile up in his inbox, with Chen oblivious to it all for more than a week.
Of course, Chen will eventually relent and dive into both cases, although on his own and without informing either man. And as he pursues an original angle into one case that impinges on the other, he will play a pivotal role in solving both. But it’s a long, rocky road to that end. And reading how Chen gets there is as rewarding as in any police procedural.
About the author
Qiu Xiaolong moved to the United States from China in 1988, little suspecting that the following year the Party’s crackdown following the Tiananmen Square Massacre would prevent his return. He has remained in the US ever since. A scholar of traditional Chinese literature (like the protagonist of his detective novels), he earned both an MA and a PhD in Comparative Literature from Washington University in St. Louis, where he had settled to write a book about T. S. Elliot. He was a faculty member there from 1996 to 2005 but remained in the city, where he and his family live to this day. He wrote the first three of the Inspector Chen Cao novels before he left his position on the faculty and another ten to date since then. Qiu has also translated several volumes of Chinese poetry and published three other books.
For related reading
Previously I reviewed the first four novels in this series:
- Death of a Red Heroine (A gripping Chinese police procedural)
- A Loyal Character Dancer (In a Chinese murder mystery, the legacy of the Cultural Revolution looms large)
- When Red Is Black (This gripping crime novel shows China in transition)
- A Case of Two Cities (A detective investigates corruption in the Chinese Communist Party)
You’ll find other great reading at:
- The best mystery series set in Asia
- 30 insightful books about China
- The best police procedurals
- 30 outstanding detective series from around the world
And you can always find my most popular reviews, and the most recent ones, on the Home Page.
