Spring 2018 Events

A Chinese Cop in the Global Age: Qiu Xiaolong on the Past, Present and Future of Chinese Crime Fiction

On March 26 and 27, 2018 St. Louis-based author Qiu Xiaolong gave two talks at UBC about his career as a bestselling crime novelist. In Christopher Rea’s undergraduate course on the theme of “China Vice,” Mr. Qiu spoke with students about his breakthrough novel Death of a Red Heroine. The next day, at the Department of Asian Studies, he spoke about the popularity of his novels featuring Shanghai-based Inspector Chen Cao, which have been translated into numerous languages and sold over two million copies worldwide. He also spoke about how he tried to make changes to genre formulas, such as by “smuggling” Chinese poems—both his own creations and translations of the classics—into novels that explore the mechanics of the criminal justice system in contemporary China.