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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"To Get Rich Is Glorious" --Deng Xiaoping, 18 Jan 2005
This third book in the "Inspector Chen" series strays even further from mystery genre conventions with its portrayal of economic and social upheaval in modern China. Set in Shanghai in what appears to be the mid-1990s (it is definitely not set in the present day, as some people seem to think), capitalism is on the rise and everyone is trying to figure out what it all means. For Inspector Chen, it means taking a week of vacation from the Special Homicide Squad to work for a wealthy businessman with triad connections. He is hired to translate a business proposal for an "Old Shanghai" themed shopping and entertainment zone into fluid English that will impress American investment bankers. Meanwhile, his deputy, the capable Detective Yu is assigned to solve the murder of a minor dissident author. Yu is a hard-working policeman, a husband and father struggling to convince himself that being a policeman is a worthwhile job in the new economy. Although Chen is busy working on the translation, he calls in for updates and does some sleuthing on the side as well. The mystery itself isn't particularly fascinating, but it does provide an interesting perspective on modern Chinese history for those who aren't particularly familiar with it. The murdered woman had written an autobiographical novel ("The Death of a Chinese Professor") about her forbidden love affair with an intellectual poet when they were in a reeducation camp during the Cultural Revolution. She had been a Red Guard who was then denounced, and he was an intellectual, and thus politically"black" (ie. an enemy of the working class). The Cultural Revolution looms over the proceedings, and proves to have a powerful legacy even three decades later. Detective Yu is reduced to probing the political past of the people who lived in her building in order to try and learn of the motive for her killing. These political nuances will likely be rather complex to the general reader (despite the author's best efforts to explain all), which diminishes from the story somewhat. The investigation never really gathers any momentum, and there's never much of a sense of urgency about the matter. It's also weakened by a rather belated effort to follow what most readers will perceive to be a rather promising lead. As in the previous books in the series, classical Chinese poetry is cited ad nauseam, and any scene involving food is lovingly lingered over and described in great detail. But perhaps the most interesting element of the book is its portrayal of the rise of capitalism in China, complete with rural to urban migration, conspicuous consumption, and overpopulation. While I was reading this, the New York Times ran a lengthy series of articles about rising class inequities in China and social and political unrest this has led to as the establishment benefits from corruption and factory and farm workers are left behind. The book does a nice job of showing the seeds of this, and how Chen and Yu struggle with the implications of this new economy. Chen is very clearly aware that he is being vastly overpaid for his translation and waits quietly to see what the quid pro quo will be. When it comes at the end, it reveals just how murky the ethical waters can be as Chen walks a fine line between grabbing a piece of the pie and falling in bed with the leaders of the new economy. So don't read this if you're looking for a gripping mystery, but do read it if you're interested in a nuanced account of the beginnings of Chinese capitalism and what life is like in a huge Chinese city populated by cast of well-realized characters.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The weakest book in the series so far, 30 Jan 2008
`When Red is Black' is set in 1990's China and is the third book in the Inspector Chen series, although through large parts of this book Inspector Chen is not working in his role as police officer but instead is translating a business proposal for a Triad businessman. Although it could be read on its own it might be better to read `Death of a Red Heroine' and `Loyal Character Dancer' first.
I read this book because I had loved `Death of a Red Heroine', and if I were to compare the two books I would say that I'm disappointed. DoaRH had the perfect balance between police procedural novel and political and cultural sensibilities. WRIB is much more about the politics and country but without the same depth of detail and roundedness of the first book. It was a shame that Inspector Chen was not involved in the investigation which was simplistic and easily solved, unlike the cases in the previous novels. Even the touches of poetry, which were a highlight in previous novels, seemed forced here and not particularly relevant to the story.
It's such a shame that the promise shown in the first book seems to be dwindling.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Translators in Novels, 15 Mar 2009
What made this novel especially interesting for me, apart from discovering China during the interim period, is the moonlighting activity of Chief Inspector Chen. In When Red is Black, he takes on the translating of a commercial document. As a translator myself I was interested to see how he would depict our profession. Qin Xialong did an excellent job; it is obvious that he knows all about the translating world, not only the commercial aspect of it, he explains for example that we are paid by the number of words translated, but also the intricacies of translating. He goes into great detail about the work involved, the knowledge of the subject, having to deal with concepts which are quite new in China, like the simple enough word "marketing" which does not make sense in a communist economy. Another problem he encounters is that he has to translate into a foreign tongue and not his mother tongue. He is very much aware that it is a very difficult task and that some revision will be required by a native American. For non-translators, the novel, like all his others, is a way to get into modern China, to discover a way of life that is not portrayed in normal newspaper articles. My only reservation is that Qin Xialong has been out of China for a long time and that my tint his take on his country.
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