Qiu Xiaolong

[decarnin.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning and meaning to review Qiu Xiaolong's (pronounced Chew Shaolong) "A Case of Two Cities", "Death of a Red Heroine", and "Red Mandarin Dress" here, but I've finally realized I'm never going to be able to get to it, the way things are going, and I've already forgotten too many salient details to do it well, so I just wanted to mention these as very interesting mysteries about Shanghai, where the author was born. As I previously noted about his "When Red Is Black", it is startling to keep running into the differences between life here and in Shanghai, both in terms of politics -- which are not exactly what you expect from most people's limited view of China -- and poverty.

One warning, I think it's in "Red Mandarin Dress" that he gets into some rather kinky food choices, so be prepared -- my advice is to read the other three first. I haven't seen "A Loyal Character Dancer", and I understand he's coming out with a new book soon, I'm sure any of them will enlighten and broaden whoever reads them.