CURRENTS The Detective Novels of Qiu Xiaolong Alan R. Velie Qiu Xiaolong isawriter zvhofitsthenewglobalized literary paradigm.His novels featurea detective, Chen Cao of theShanghai Police Bureau,who has a degree inEnglish literature and afondnessfor T. S. Eliot aswell as classical Chinese literature. The booksaredensewith literary allusions and discussions ofcurrent Western critical theory and itsusefidness,surprishigly,for solvingcrimes.Chen also uses traditional Chinese techniqueslikeBuddhist meditationand brings tohiswork a combinationofConfucian and communistdevotion todutyand country. he novels ofQiu Xiaolong transcend the normal American whodunits in that they X are saturated with literatureand literary theory.As the products of a Chinese American writer who was born and raised in Shanghai, now lives in St. Louis, has published in both English and Chinese, and currently writes inEnglish about China, his novels are excellent examples of the new globalized literature. Qiu was born inShanghai in 1953.He became a writer, publishing poetry, translations, and liter ary criticism inChina before coming to theUnited States as a Ford Foundation Fellow to study modernist poetry. Qiu earned a PhD in compara tive literature from Washington University, and settled inSt. Louis. Since his arrival in theUnited States he has published five murder mysteries, all centered inShanghai: Death ofa RedHeroine (2000), A LoyalCharacterDancer (2002),When Red Is Black (2004),A Case ofTwo Cities (2006), and RedManda rinDress (2007). Qiu's novels feature a highly literatedetec tive,Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau. Chen, who majored in English at Beijing Foreign Language University, had hoped tobe a scholar likehis father, but thegovernment, which assigned jobs at the timeChen graduated, made him a policeman. Undaunted, Chen applies theanalytical skills thathe had honed by explicat ing thepoetry of T. S. Eliot to the task of solving murders. Itmay seem questionable that studying English literature would prepare someone to solve May-June 2009 155 Alan Velie, David Ross Boyd Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma, teaches the Bible, American Indian literature, and Shakespeare. He has written and edited ten books and lectured in Europe, South America, Asia, and the United States. He adapted this article on Qiu Xiaolong from a talk he gave at the conference co-sponsored by WLT at Beijing Normal University lastOctober. murders, but literarycriticism and detection are related,both logically and historically.Hermeneu tics, the art and science of interpretation,though as ancient as the Talmud in biblical criticism, is linked in literarycriticism?at least in theEnglish speaking world?to the use of circumstantial evi dence in legal proceedings, which began in the late eighteenth century.Using circumstantial evidence necessitated drawing conclusions from observable circumstances instead of relyingon the testimony of witnesses?in other words, it involves detec tion.The hermeneutic tradition inEnglish begins with Maurice Morgann, who wrote what amounts to a brief defending Falstaff against the charge of cowardice. Shortly afterward S. T. Coleridge and other English literary critics began using deductive practices to explore the psychology of characters in order to explicate literary works. Not long afterward theAmerican Edgar Allan Poe and Englishman Wilkie Collins introduced the detec tive into anglophone literature. It isworth noting at this point that although themystery novel seems today to be aWestern form, like somuch else in our world?gunpowder and printing, for instance?China had itbefore the West: Dee Goong An is an eighteenth-centurynovel based on the seventh-century detective Di Renjie. Westerners may know the work fromthe translationofRobert Van Gulik, CelebratedCases ofJudge Dee (1949). In theworks ofQiu Xiaolong, detective Chen Cao's reasoning skills, coupled with the knowl edge ofhuman behavior he derives fromhis study of classical Chinese and contemporary English lit erature,make him a highly effectivesleuth.Given the currentChinese policy favoring thosewith a formal education, Chen makes chief inspector in a very short time. He doesn't abandon his literary interests, however: he still writes poetry, and even finds time topursue amaster's inclassical Chinese literature in a special program at Shanghai Uni versity.His effortsresult inhis appointment as an executive member of theWriters Association. Qiu's books are worth reading formany rea sons?they are entertainingasmysteries; theygive a great deal of insight into the culture and cuisine of contemporary China, especially Shanghai, as China transforms (factories booming, high-rises sprouting, soy soup...