Q&A With Qiu Xiaolong 

I’m honored to be doing this Q&A with novelist, poet, critic & academic Qiu Xialong who is the author of Lines Around China, Poems of Inspector Chen, Years of Red Dust: Stories of Shanghai, Judy Dee Investigates series, & The Inspector Chen Series with book 14 being the recent book titled The Secret Sharers. 

Q: Welcome to Book Notions Qiu! I’m honored and grateful to be interviewing you! Would you please give a brief description of your work beginning with your current The Inspector Chen series?  

A: Thank you for the invitation. My inspector Chen series has been translated into twenty languages and sold worldwide close to three million copies. My next installation is titled The Secret Sharers, number fourteen in the series, which is coming out in a couple of months, in English, Italian, and French first. It’s about how Chinese people must be secret sharers to survive in today’s China. The book title is inspired by Conrad’s celebrated novella The Secrete Sharer.

Q: I enjoy reading mysteries and I’m sure you enjoy writing them! What drew you into writing mysteries and what makes yours unique and different from other mystery books?

A: Yes, I do enjoy writing mysteries. But I don’t enjoy writing a simple whodunit. If anything, unique about my writing in the mystery genre, I have a superstructure for each of my mysteries. For instance, the environmental crisis in Don’t Cry, Tai Lake. For another, Red Mandarin Dress, the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution.  Or for the manuscript just finished, History’s Cunning Passages. (The Untold Origin of the Cultural Revolution) An Inspector Chen Investigation, the evil, cruel nature of the CCP dirty politics.

Q: As a writer, how does a typical day begin for you and how many hours a day do you spend researching and writing? Do you use bits and pieces of real people to create the stories within your books? How long does it take you to write each book?

A: Usually, I spend four or five hours researching or writing. Almost as a rule, some pieces or characters or contents or twists may pop up while writing, sometimes to my own surprise, as if pouring out of the subconscious. It normally takes about a year and a half to write a book, but occasionally, it can also take much longer. 

Q: What do you enjoy most about writing novels and poetry? You also translate works from Chinese to English. How do you balance all of that?

A: I started as a translator. First, I translated Eliot, Yeats and other modernist poets into Chinese. Years later, I even wrote a preface for an American publisher for a collection of Eliot poetry. After my arrival in the States, I started translating classic Chinese poetry into English. As you probably know, I make a point of blending the poetry or poetry translation into every book of my Inspector Chen series. It becomes a regular feature of the series. My mentor Mona Van Duyn once told me that I have been the one only mystery writer penning poems in the middle of the investigation. 

Q: In the comments section on how we were discussing doing this Q&A on your post about finishing the fifteenth novel in The Inspector Chen series titled History’s Cunning Passages. (The Untold Origin of the Cultural Revolution) An Inspector Chen Investigation. What can fans expect from the fifteenth book in the series? For new readers, do you recommend beginning with book one in the series or can each book be read as a standalone novel despite it being in a series? 

A: Of course, each book must be an organic whole as a standalone novel. There are some flashbacks in the series, but they are kept at a minimum. For History’s Cunning Passages. (The Untold Origin of the Cultural Revolution) An Inspector Chen Investigation , it frames the complicated history of the Cultural Revolution in an Inspector Chen investigation. It may prove to be interesting to the readers of mystery, but intriguing to the readers of history as well. The Cultural Revolution broke out in my childhood. As a survivor of ten years of the national disaster, I take it as my responsibility, as well as my redemption, to pen the present book.

Q: If any of your books were to become a show or a movie, who would you have in mind to play Inspector Chen & Judy Dee?

A: I have signed options with a couple of producers.  According to them, they recommended the Hong Kong movie star Chow Yun-Fat for the role of Inspector Chen. So far, no one has recommended anyone for the role of Judge Dee. 

Q: Will History’s Cunning Passages (The Untold Origin of the Cultural Revolution) An Inspector Chen Investigation be the final book in the Inspector Chen series or do you plan on continuing the series past book 15? 

A: I don’t want History’s Cunning Passages (The Untold Origin of the Cultural Revolution) An Inspector Chen Investigation  to be the last book of the Inspector Chen series. But what will be the next book, I need to take a short break before figuring it out. One thing is certain; however, I will not repeat myself.

Q: How does it feel knowing that your books have sold over 2 million copies online? That’s very impressive and you should be proud of yourself!

A: Nothing really to be proud of. I am only worried about what has not been written yet. How can I possibly do better than before? Or at least to keep at the same level? I must acknowledge to myself that I may not always be able to deliver.

Q: For readers who want to follow you and your work, would you please provide links to your blog and any of your social media accounts? 

A: I have a website, www.qiuxiaolong@com. But I’m sorry to say that I’m too busy with my own writing to update the website in a timely way.  In my way of thinking, I believe that it may be more important to write more for my readers. I will certainly pay more attention to the website in the future. Nowadays I sort of write more on my blog on Facebook.