Review of "Death of a Red Heroine" by Qui Xiaolong

 

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8145750166

“Death of a Red Heroine" is the first of the Chen Cao detective mysteries by

Qui Xiaolong. I have read two others and have two more on my near bookshelf. 

In some ways it is the one that I enjoyed the most so far, probably because I am

already familiar with Cao's circle of colleagues, friends and family as well as

who Chen is destined to become. Many of the series’ minor characters will be

fleshed out more fully in the later books, so their brief appearances here have

more impact than they would if I had read this one first. But all of his characters

sparkle and stand on their own with insights and clever humor that is uniquely

Chinese. The way his minor characters play off of Chen as he goes through his

investigation carry the story.

 

Perhaps the underlying theme of the Chen Cao detective novels is how a decent

honest detective survives in China where the principle edict is  “The Party’s interest

must always be considered.”  Inspector Chen is a poet and literary critic as well as a

detective. The Party, in the aftermath of the Tiananmen demonstrations/massacre,

needs to find ways to show a human face, and by allowing Chen to succeed and

become a minor celebrity is one of the ways they do it. 

Qui Xiaolong has a very unique style of writing. He mixes his police procedural narrative with many asides to Chinese literary history and poetry, because after all Chen would rather be editing a high brow literary magazine than solving murders in Shanghai. This poet/cop persona divides his attention and to some extent his dedication to his job as a cop. However, unlike his colleague and older deputy Yu Guangming, Chen is not cynical.  Yu is loyal to Chen, but has not had good luck in advancing in his career at the police bureau. His hard bitten realistic attitude often  brings Chen down from his literary cloud. Along with his hard working and practical wife, Yu lives in a tiny room and has to share a kitchen and bathroom with another family.  It is one of the many ironies that fill the book, because the crime that lands on their desk is about the murder of an attractive young woman, who is famous as a self-sacrificing “model worker” and a “loyal Party Dancer”, a reference from the Cultural Revolution when dancing was outlawed except for ‘stamping their feet to  show their loyalty to Mao Zedong’.  But this young woman had a secret life that entwined her with the corrupt social set of the children of high officials. 

It is 1990, the Year after Tiananmen, and a full decade since the official end to the
Cultural Revolution madness that Mao created to crush his enemies.  However, the
scars of that madness still weigh on every one to some degree. Chen is swimming in
a system polluted by the politics of the Chinese Communist Party, (CCP). His direct
boss, Party Secretary Li, a smart, unscrupulous Party functionary, warns Chen “not
to go too far” in his investigation of the murder.  The victim, Guan Hongyin, works
in cosmetics, is recent attendant to National Party Conferences and has been
featured in Party media as a virtuous upright pillar of all that is positive about the
Party.  Her national profile is one of self sacrifice, and moral rectitude.  

Chen himself is being groomed for a high position.  He meets a young vivacious well connected journalist from Beijing who becomes his conduit to the unofficial Party rumor mill and who has a bright future to manage herself. There is a sexual attraction between her and Chen that can not be denied. It is one of the ironies of the novel.  Chen is slowly succumbing to the same forbidden “immorality” as Guan Hongyin, the murder victim.

“Death of a Red Heroine" has a tight criminal investigatory procedural plot with lots of diversions and plenty of local Shanghai color.  The undercurrent of distaste for the Party is apparent in all the dealings with witnesses and ordinary people who touch the investigation. This national distrust of the Party so soon after Tiananmen is one of the hidden forces which affects the investigation, and weighs heavily on Chen. 

For me the scenes of “old Shanghai” are particularly fun to read. Qiu Xiaolong through his descriptions of the Bund’s architecture and the side streets and the markets and alleys and the people who struggled to live in Shanghai before its recent physical  renaissance are delicious reading.  Today of course, Shanghai is perhaps the most modern city in the world, but Chen’s Shanghai is still grimy and teeming with streetwise authenticity. I brought my parents to the City in 1985 and my Dad looking around in amazement said, “It hasn’t changed a bit” since he sailed into the port as a 17 year old merchant seaman in 1937.  We went into the Peace Hotel and the Jazz band in the lounge was still the same men who had been there in the 1930s, when Noel Coward wrote “Private Lives” while living there. A couple of the band members joined us and reminisced with Dad about how alive and wild the bar had been back then.   

To sum up, let me say that the conclusion of the story feels true and is very entertaining as it ratchets up the tension.  But beyond its entertainment value, the novel  should be read by anyone trying to understand how the CCP rules and stays in power. The novel is a combination of a brilliant police story, with a tight story-driven analysis of Party politics along with a tender tale of love found and then lost. It's  a great read.