QIU XIAOLONG’S NOVELS: AMERICAN DETECTIVE STORIES WITH CHINESE ROOTS

Abstract

Qiu Xiaolong is an American writer born in China, but he has been living in the United States since 1988. He wrote eleven novels about Inspector Chen, who lives in Shanghai and investigates crimes committed in that city. One of the features of Qiu Xiaolong’s work is insertions of poetry. Its main character is an educated person, he writes poetry himself, translates and actively uses the Chinese poetic heritage to express feelings. The author uses the form of a detective novel to show the various problems of modern China (the period covered is from the 1990s to the present day).