January 18th 2016:
Some thing happened and my article, Crime fiction from China got erased just when I was editing to add another book I read. Damn!
This is the list of books which are from China and which I remember reading.
The only crime fiction from China I have read is The eye of the Jade by Diane Wei Liang. The main protagonist is a female PI !
The only other book by this author, with the same female PI is Paper butterfly. I read this book and liked it. It gives an angle of the Tiananmen square I did not know and gives readers a glimpse of life in China just like the first book. I am curious about China and this book gives a picture of life in China both in cities and villages, life of middle and lower classes.
The other books set in China BUT NOT CRIME FICTION which I have read and loved are:
The good earth by Pearl.S.Buck. I think this is one of my few all time favorites! I have read this book at least three times fully and the pages I like...hundreds of times! I adore this book...the story, the characters especially Olan, and the simplicity of the people. It reminded me a lot of Indian villagers of south India, from where I am.
Another non-crime fiction book I have read set in China is "Rickshaw boy" by Lao She. It is like the good earth, a classic and wonderfully written story about life in China especially the life of the poor. The characters are so realistic and it broke my heart to read about a girl who was abused by her father (forgot her name) mentioned in the book.
A wonderful NON-FICTION book from China I read and enjoyed was Factory Girls: From village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T Chang.
What I found intriguing and depressing was the life of these people especially their relationships. I was so depressed to read how the loss of a phone meant, loss of all friends! The people working in factories had such impersonal relationships with people around them and the so-called friendships could disappear by the loss of a cellphone(as they din't store the numbers anywhere else). There were so many aspects of the life of factory girls which the author has just mentioned without going in depth. But thinking about what was written, I felt she had just given the tip of the iceberg and so much was left unsaid. Tons could be researched and written for each page of the book. The life of the people, who had left their families and migrated to towns for jobs was so tough, at least to me...I cannot imagine living the life these girls lead...away from families, not close to either parents or fellow-workers, not able to be on the same page with family and not close to fellow-workers with whom one may be on the same page...
I hope I have not missed out on any books from China I have read...when this article got erased by a glitch.
I still remember, that in India, I would hit 'save' after typing a few words as the electricity would shut down without warning and this power failure erased everything in the computer which has not been saved! Several times, I had lost many pages which left me fuming!
I will add more books from China which I have read, as and when I recall them.
.............
I discovered the author Qiu Xiaolong who writes crime fiction based in China. The books are:
Death of a red heroine 2000
A loyal character dancer 2002
When red is black 2004
A case of two cities 2006
Red Mandarin Dress 2007
The Mao case 2009
Don't cry, Tai lake 2012
Enigma of china 2013
Shanghai Redemption 2015
I have read none of Qiu's books yet.
In August 2017 I discovered another female crime fighter...from my very own Toronto! She's a Canadian citizen of Chinese origin and a forensic accountant who fights crime or follows the money....all over Asia. She is Ava Lee created by Ian Hamilton. The style of writing is not great but I enjoy the plots and I believe I am learning the underbelly of many Asian place/countries such as Macau, China, etc.
The books include
Some thing happened and my article, Crime fiction from China got erased just when I was editing to add another book I read. Damn!
This is the list of books which are from China and which I remember reading.
The only crime fiction from China I have read is The eye of the Jade by Diane Wei Liang. The main protagonist is a female PI !
The only other book by this author, with the same female PI is Paper butterfly. I read this book and liked it. It gives an angle of the Tiananmen square I did not know and gives readers a glimpse of life in China just like the first book. I am curious about China and this book gives a picture of life in China both in cities and villages, life of middle and lower classes.
The other books set in China BUT NOT CRIME FICTION which I have read and loved are:
The good earth by Pearl.S.Buck. I think this is one of my few all time favorites! I have read this book at least three times fully and the pages I like...hundreds of times! I adore this book...the story, the characters especially Olan, and the simplicity of the people. It reminded me a lot of Indian villagers of south India, from where I am.
Another non-crime fiction book I have read set in China is "Rickshaw boy" by Lao She. It is like the good earth, a classic and wonderfully written story about life in China especially the life of the poor. The characters are so realistic and it broke my heart to read about a girl who was abused by her father (forgot her name) mentioned in the book.
A wonderful NON-FICTION book from China I read and enjoyed was Factory Girls: From village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T Chang.
What I found intriguing and depressing was the life of these people especially their relationships. I was so depressed to read how the loss of a phone meant, loss of all friends! The people working in factories had such impersonal relationships with people around them and the so-called friendships could disappear by the loss of a cellphone(as they din't store the numbers anywhere else). There were so many aspects of the life of factory girls which the author has just mentioned without going in depth. But thinking about what was written, I felt she had just given the tip of the iceberg and so much was left unsaid. Tons could be researched and written for each page of the book. The life of the people, who had left their families and migrated to towns for jobs was so tough, at least to me...I cannot imagine living the life these girls lead...away from families, not close to either parents or fellow-workers, not able to be on the same page with family and not close to fellow-workers with whom one may be on the same page...
I hope I have not missed out on any books from China I have read...when this article got erased by a glitch.
I still remember, that in India, I would hit 'save' after typing a few words as the electricity would shut down without warning and this power failure erased everything in the computer which has not been saved! Several times, I had lost many pages which left me fuming!
I will add more books from China which I have read, as and when I recall them.
.............
I discovered the author Qiu Xiaolong who writes crime fiction based in China. The books are:
Death of a red heroine 2000
A loyal character dancer 2002
When red is black 2004
A case of two cities 2006
Red Mandarin Dress 2007
The Mao case 2009
Don't cry, Tai lake 2012
Enigma of china 2013
Shanghai Redemption 2015
I have read none of Qiu's books yet.
In August 2017 I discovered another female crime fighter...from my very own Toronto! She's a Canadian citizen of Chinese origin and a forensic accountant who fights crime or follows the money....all over Asia. She is Ava Lee created by Ian Hamilton. The style of writing is not great but I enjoy the plots and I believe I am learning the underbelly of many Asian place/countries such as Macau, China, etc.
The books include
- The Water Rat of Wanchai 2011
- The Disciple of Las Vegas 2011
- The Wild Beasts of Wuhan 2012
- The Red Pole of Macau 2012
- The Scottish Banker of Surabaya 2013
- The Two Sisters of Borneo 2013
- The Dragon Head of Hong Kong (novella) 2014
- The King of Shanghai2014
- The Princeling of Nanjing 2016
- The Couturier of Milan2017
- The Imam of Tawi-Tawi 2018 ( I don't know how it can be 2018...I got this book on Jan 2nd of 2018 from the library which means it must have been published in 2017! 2018 is printed in the papeback of spiderline publications)
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