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Qiu Xiaolong

Qiu Xiaolong is an English language poet, crime novelist, critic, and academic, born in Shanghai, China, 1953 currently living in St. Louis, Missouri with his wife Wang Lijun and daughter Julia Qiu. He originally visited the United States in 1988 to write a book about T. S. Eliot, but following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 a newspaper reported on his previous fundraising efforts for Chinese students, and he was forced to remain in America to avoid persecution by the Communist Party of China.

He is best known for his award-winning mystery novel series, The Chinese Detective, which follows Detective Chief Inspector Chen Cao, a politburo poet-sleuth in contemporary Shanghai. The novels take readers on an odyssey of faith and deception through the underbelly of modern day China. The first novel in the series, Death of a Red Heroine (2000) was published by St. Martins/Minotaur, and has received many awards including the Anthony Award and the Macavity Award, in addition to being adapted into a Taiwanese movie. Qiu has continued to write in the series with seven additional books and two e-novellas.

In addition to the Detective Chief Inspector Chen Cao series, Qiu has penned two stand-alone novels: Beijing Fall (2005) and Embrace the Day (2012). Beijing Fall follows a Beijing police chief and a Wall Street lawyer in pursuit of a killer, while Embrace the Day follows a father's quest to rescue his two daughters from a Beijing prison. In addition, he has written four poetry collections, the latest of which, Chain of Chambers, was a finalist for the 2017 Edgar Award for best mystery poem.

Qiu Xiaolong's writing is largely infused with Chinese culture and politics, combining elements of traditional Chinese culture with contemporary political realities. He is a frequent speaker at book festivals, universities, and conferences worldwide, and constantly addresses issues of censorship, human rights, and the diaspora of Chinese culture. He has received multiple awards and honours for his writing, including the 2017 Attenborough Tower Award from Harper Adams University in the UK, and the 2010 Award for Academic Contribution from the American Association for Chinese Studies.

Qiu is an accomplished poet and translator, and is a very active scholar-teacher. He earned his PhD at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he currently serves as a professor of Chinese-American literature. He has also held various visiting professor positions at institutions worldwide, and recently taught a creative writing seminar at the University of Hong Kong. He is currently a vice-chair of the International Association of Writers in Chinese.

Qiu Xiaolong's writing is firmly rooted in his own experiences living in contemporary Shanghai as a child of the diaspora. His writing is a manifestation of his attempt to give voice to Chinese culture, politics, and people through detective fiction. His work has been praised as being "inventive, compelling, and immensely evocative", and his multilayered dialogue between tradition and modernity often challenge the barriers of time, language and identity. As such, Qiu Xiaolong is lauded as one of the greatest representatives of the Chinese-American literary diaspora.

Bibliography

• Death of a Red Heroine (2000)
• A Loyal Character Dancer (2002)
• Lines Around China (poetry collection) (2003)
• When Red Is Black (2004)
• A Case of Two Cities (2006)
• Red Mandarin Dress (2007)
• Cité de la Poussière rouge (2007) Liana Levi ISBN 978-86746-493 (the original title is Years of Red Dust - put actually the book was only published in France in French language)
• The Mao Case (Sceptre, 02 Feb 2009)

Poetry Translations

• Treasury of Chinese Love Poems (2003)
• Evoking T'ang (2007)