Customer Reviews

The Eye of Jade: A Mei Wang Mystery (Mei Wang Mysteries)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an interesting novel. The premise: a young Chinese woman decides to be a private detective in modern Beijing, is strange to say the least. Author Liang, however, is skilled at making modern China come to life, and with it she's created an interesting milieu for her protagonist to work and live in. The result is a fascinating book.

Mei Wang was a police officer for several years. After getting crosswise of the wrong people, she quit, and instead became an "information consultant" in Beijing. This is because private detectives are illegal in modern China (of course) and so she must act under subterfuge. In this, the first entry in the series, she is approached by an older relative who wants her to find out where a priceless relic has gone, now that it's entered the black market somewhere in the city. If she does find it, she'll have to be careful, because if the police discover her with it, they'll arrest her pretty much out of hand.

I enjoyed the atmosphere and setting of this book a great deal, and some of the characters were memorable too. The plot wasn't as good as I'd hoped, though. Presumably Ms. Liang can keep up the atmosphere, and devise a second book with a slightly better plot...

First Sentence: In the corner of an office in an old-fashioned building in Beijing's Chongyang District, the fan was humming loudly, like an elderly man angry at his own impotence.

Mei Wang had been dismissed from the Ministry for Public Security and has opened an office as a private investigator. "Uncle" Chen, a family friend, hires her to find an ancient, and extremely valuable, piece of jade looted from the Luoyang Museum during the Cultural Revolution. The case takes her into the back streets of Beijing, and into secrets of her family's past.

This was an unusual mystery and a fascinating book. It is a PI story, but very different from the typical American PI. The story focuses on people, interactions and relationships, yet still has some suspense.

I realized how little I know about China, past or present. There are vast differences between our cultures but enough similarities that the story really worked.

The sense of place is wonderful and the dialogue has just the right voice to it. I am interested to see where Mei Wang's story goes. You might want to give this a try.

1.
Diane Wei Liang's female detective protagonist, Mei Wang, is a character built up of conflicts between her mindset and reality. She is aloof, "an outsider who never wanted to be in" while in college, but her college friends turn out to be the only ones who truly care about her. Her longing for her mother's love manifests as resentment, and her mother suddenly has a stroke before there is a chance to reconcile. She desperately wants to cure her mother, but she has no money or connections, and those things can only come from the sister she looks down on. She detests "guanxi" (connecting with purpose) and people who are good at it, yet whatever clues she obtains for her investigation are through "guanxi." Wherever she exhausts her network of relations, her means of investigation also dry up. For the most part the novel leaves the reader wondering if the only way for Mei Wang to make progress in Chinese society is to embrace the opposite of what she values.

Yet this is a quite realistic depiction of the late 1990s' Chinese society, post Cultural Revolution, in the midst of the Reform-and-Open era. And Diane Wei Liang is at her best depicting it using multi-voice dialogue. A conversation at Mei's class reunion is so real, I can almost see those people's lips moving and hear their voices, as if they spoke in Chinese, as if I were among them.

The intimate reflection on everyday life of contemporary China is a great quality of this novel. For a reader who knows about China, this quality is engaging. Too often I can't finish a novel set in China written by non-Chinese, because it turns me off when the author gets obvious things wrong.

For readers who are less familiar with China, The Eye of Jade provides a real lens into Chinese society. The author picked a good starting time for the story. Between 1980 and 1997 there were amazing changes that took place, almost as amazing as the changes between 1997 and now. The central case that Mei is investigating takes us back in time: to the origin of the relics she is trying to locate, nearly 2,000 years ago; to the circumstances of its disappearance 30 years ago; and to Mei's youth 10 years ago. Thus, without a complete recount of history we are given insights into it. One can reasonably predict that, as future cases come for Mei Wang, we will get a chance to see China develops more, and hopefully also to explore more of its past.

That said, there are some holes in the work. For one thing, the Ministry of State Security (analog of the FBI) did not exist until 1983, so some of the retrospective actions during the Cultural Revolution in late 1960s are not completely plausible. Still, compared with some other English fiction on China, the lapses are small.

2.
Ultimately, Mei Wang does not give in to the Chinese societal trap. Toward the end of the novel, Mei's true self, aloof and courageous as she is, does triumph. When her "guanxi" ends, she singular-handedly confronts each hypothesized suspect one by one, alone and determined. And sure enough, each confrontation takes her closer to the entire truth, until the case is solved.

At this point, however, this triumph should be read as the author's fictionalized ideal ending, rather than a depiction of the reality. After all, it is unlikely in reality that any private detective, not to mention a young woman apparently with no training in self-defense and no backup - would go to each (dangerous) suspect and point a finger at him, "You are the murderer, aren't you?" simply to see if he'll admit to it. A detective who relies on this approach wouldn't be the smartest one anyway.

So why does Diane Wei Liang make Mei Wang do this? One can find a partial answer from the author interview by her publisher, in which she views "guanxi" as "a cornerstone of Chinese culture, as the society is operated according to it".

Except guanxi is more like extra oil for an age-old societal machine than a cornerstone of Chinese culture. In any case "guanxi" is an external factor; the concept might assist a novelist to move forward a plot, but it can't enhance characterization, nor excite the reader. If Mei's entire investigation "operates according to it," the intricate behavior and actions would be absent. The final confrontations carried out by Mei Wang, therefore, are a last-ditch resolution for both the author and the central character.

3.
This raises a key question: is this novel really a detective story? The answer is both yes and no. It is what the author sets out to make; it is not quite accepted as such by readers.

For detective genre readers, the fun of reading is solving a puzzle with the author. It is the chase of logical inference that is thrilling. In The Eye of Jade, however, this element is largely missing. Sure, Mei Wang confronts the suspects with her hypotheses, but when we see this, the hypotheses are already made. We read the conclusions without being letting in the process of reasoning, and we don't know how she gets there. This thrill is not quite there.

Apparently, the author has a different idea about what this book should be. The Eye of Jade is the first in a series of "Mei Wang Mystery" novels, for which the author has a very interesting and intriguing concept. In the interview mentioned above, she says she found crime fiction "an ideal format to examine the social and economical changes that are at the center of modern life in China. I also wanted to paint an honest and authentic picture of life in Beijing."

That is exactly what she does in The Eye of Jade, and quite successfully. The social and economic aspects of life in Beijing are given equal, if not greater, emphasis than Mei Wang's case investigation. A reader who is not looking for a particular genre story could enjoy both threads. To a mystery/crime genre reader, however, the author's stated goals, however admirable and ambitious, do not provide the same thrill as logical inference.

On the other hand, would a romance novel bother its readers for its lack of logic? No. One would have to be bothered by something else. This is to say, the genre label pre-sets reader expectations. It is a double-edged sword. It helps us find the right category for reading pleasure; it can also stop us from being entertained.

Therefore, the author has options. The smart idea of conveying modern China's societal change to English readers through genre fiction (which has a much greater readership than literary fiction) might actually work, if she finds the right genre and executes in it well. If she (or her publisher) chooses to stick with the current label, then she will need to enhance the genre's "cornerstone": logical inference.

(Note: a more complete version of the review can be found on my blog.)

I gave this book three stars, because I found it has some wonderful elements and equal amount of flaws.

The Positives:
1. The author has a very natural way of weaving the daily scenes of Beijing into the story. It adds a layer of richness and gives the reader a true sense of the lives of the modern day China. There are other such novels on the market right now, but this particular one is written nicely about the details without being overly "educational" in tone. One such example will be in the book when Mei was meeting with her friend from the department of the motor vehicle. They chose to meet at a place where they could see all the people dancing on the street. (I am not being exact here. I don't want to ruin the appetite of those yet to read this book.) The author very skillfully devoted some time describing this street dancing/parading phenomenon without being overbearing.

2. The depiction of the characters are quite real. The author goes into great length describing the main characters in this novel. Some of the emotional scenes appear to be real to me and felt by me as I was reading. She does a particularly nice job on the conflicting dynamics between Mei and her mother. The love and hate mix is so authentic in my eyes.

The Negatives:
1. This is not a detective story in the strictest sense. The plot thins as it progresses. The detective uses rather evasive skills to find clues. Often times, she just jumps from point A to point B without strong evidence, just using a sense of hunch.

2. Some of the situations are not as convincing. If Mei has been working in the police department, how could she not stomach a dead body (not even brutally murdered, just dead). How Mei came to grasp the whole truth of the missing gem was very sudden, it's like, she got information A, B, C. And then suddenly, she can tell that this whole thing happened including A, B, C, D, E. There is a lot of assumption which almost made me feel that the author was rushing into a conclusion at the end to finish off the book.

3. How to use Chinese proper names in English is often an author's personal choice. This results in some hilarious ones such as stir fry stocks (that's indeed clever), but to translate Xiao Long Bao as "Little Dragon Buns" was a misunderstanding of the Chinese character "long". The correct character "Long" is referring to the steamer. It is meaning buns coming from a little steamer. The dragon "long" is a character without the bamboo radical, therefore, it is altogether a different character. Not sure why the author needed to translate something that's already very well known in the west into something that's wrong. But on the other hand XLB was never a Beijing thing.

In conclusion, if you just want to read an entertaining novel which can show you the ins of Beijing in modern day times, this is a very good book for you to get a sense of it. It is a disappointing detective novel to me, because of the lacking of the reasoning and development in plot. 1/3 of the book is about the actual jade. Another 1/3 is the description about Beijing. Sometimes, it is quite overwhelming. Initially, I thought it was very interesting, but after a while, I suddenly realized that these descriptions of the surrounding, the people, are not going to add anything to the plot. The last 1/3 is about the family dynamics and the family history.

I am a big fan of Qiu Xiaolong's Inspector Chen books, which are set in Shanghai, but I really like Beijing, so when I saw that this was set there, I ordered it. I just finished it. It wasn't outstanding, but it was satisfying. Maybe I am giving it bonus points because I really appreciated some of the passages where she was out and about in Beijing.

I did have some trepidation because the main character's name was Mei, and most of the fiction set in China I have read that features women named Mei is pretty hackneyed. Sooner or later there always seems to be a wizened old man quoting the I Ching, a dragon lady in a black silk qipao smoking a cigarette with a holder, sinister government officials, triads, a good looking foreigner who saves the woman named Mei, and so forth. Fortunately this novel was above that. I do wish that novels set in China would start using names other than Mei for their women, especially when the women are supposed to have been raised in an educated family.

As I alluded to earlier, my favorite parts of the book are when the protagonist, Mei, is out and about in Beijing, actually doing detective work, exploring Beijing's gritty underbelly and dealing with the down-and-outs. The dialogue was done especially well, the author does a nice job of capturing the flavor of conversation in Beijing, which tends toward the very earthy. The highlight was the time she was at the train station and then at Liulichang, a dumpling restaurant, a mahjong parlor, and a poor and run-down hutong neighborhood. Those pages really do a nice job of portraying the gritty underbelly of Beijing, and offer some nicely realized sketches of the lives of some of the people who are being left behind, or are struggling. The visit to a state-run teahouse is a wonderful record of what service used to be like in Beijing. Mei's reunions with her Peking University classmates are nicely done. Mei's visits to a hospital provide a nice snapshot of the health care system there. Although I wonder how many readers will appreciate the difference between the 309 and 301 hospitals. Anyone who has spent time in Beijing will understand the significance of the 301 hospital, but I suspect it will be cryptic to anyone else.

Unfortunately, though, a disproportionate amount of the book is taken up by melodrama centered on Mei's family and her own personal life. Some of it turns out to be relevant to the plot, but overall there is too much of it, enough to be tiresome. Much of it seems authentic, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was an element of autobiography in some of Mei's interactions with her relatives, but somewhere along the way some of the histrionics become a distraction.

One distraction for me were the oddities with the pinyinization of names. At various points, Mao Zedong is written Mao Zhedong, Houhai is written Hohai, Anhui is written Ann Hui, rock musician Cui Jian's name is written Cu Jian, and Chaoyang is written Chongyang.

Even if this book does have some flaws, it does have its rewards. There is a lot of potential, and I do look forward to reading additional novels in this series.

What I liked most about this book was the setting in modern-day Beijing, with Chinese characters (not American characters visiting China). This part was refreshing and interesting and kept me reading, for a while. However, the plotting was weak for a detective novel -- the detective never really pursued the solution of the case. The solution just sort of happened. I see this a lot in detective fiction, where the author is able to create an interesting setting and/or character, but doesn't think of how a real detective would behave under the circumstances. This lack of attention to the art of detection disappoints many readers: I'm one of them.

First off, I was very impressed that Diane Wei Liang's excellent use of language. She is originally from China and now residing in Great Britain. I do not know if she was raised bilingual but her nuances were a pleasure to read. On a few occasions, she offers us an entertaining look at how language translations often fail.
Ironically, however, there were times in the book where I had to repeatedly reread a sentence and I still did not understand the context; these were not typos. Shame on the editors for not being more thorough in catching these. None of these illogical sentences obscured the story's plot.
Sold as a mystery novel, it really is not. No popular mystery writer in the current market need fear of Ms. Wei Liang's usurping their territory. The plot was very light and actually a story about family's secrets. At first, the mystery seems intriguing but by mid-story one starts to wonder if where the plot is heading. Many of the characters are extraneous and the novel becomes neither compelling nor thrilling. While, I did enjoy the reading about a successful female investigator; there are no references to her previous solved (or unsolved crimes/mysteries) nor does she appear to have any other cases while this mystery of the jade unravels. This becomes a bit irritating in fact, since emphasis and comparison is made regarding her standard of living. She lives quite successfully and even has a male assistant. Yet, we are left to wonder how she buys her rice let alone pay for an upscale car, while other characters express jealousy of her success.
Even more disturbing was when the "mystery" is solved. One already sees the "big surprise". The reader thinks that's it? This was what sent her to places of danger? What happens to all the loose ends (of which there are several quite substantial issues)? In essence, it was an average story that abruptly ends leaving the reader in a lurch. I would have been disinclined to complete it had the story not been set in an area unfamiliar setting to me (Bejing).
I think Ms. Wei Liang has to write but she must develop a more cohesive story line before the most readers would recognize her as a serious novelist.

Present day, Beijing. A detective story that goes to the heart of modern China. Mei Wang, our first Chinese female detective, is more than just a pretty face. Hired by her uncle to find a rare piece of jade, she slips into the dark side of Beijing as well as the extremely affluent world of her younger sister, Lu.

As the plot unwinds, Mei also reveals her own inner core of isolation from her family, from her lost love, and from her former job in the Ministry of Public Security. In her quest for justice, she uncovers dark secrets and darker choices.

After reading so many novels that lack that special touch of author style, this book is as refreshing as a real spring day.

Diane Wei Liang has launched a private investigator series set in modern day China that has resulted in two novels so far. The author was a protestor in Tiananmen Square and writes of the clash between old and new China with considerable skill.

I loved Liang's vision of China, and was really surprised at how familiar some of the surroundings felt. Of course, there were a lot of jarring dissimilarities as well, but everyday life in the country wasn't as different as I'd thought. After only a few chapters, I felt at home there.

The heroine, Mei Wang, has a family that most mystery readers and fans will identify with. The family is filled with pressure, secrets, and constant pushing and pulling of loyalties and guilt. I especially loved the rivalry between Mei and her younger sister, who married "correctly."

One of the main differences I discovered between China and the United States is the idea of money. In China, money isn't the main force an individual can bring to bear to make things happen - it's influence, something you have to earn.

The author's writing is lean and taut, and the pacing shows a lot of skill for a first novel. I enjoyed the dialogue a lot, and was again surprised at how familiar it felt, while at the same time embracing ideas that were strange to me.

I further enjoyed the fact that being a private investigator in China is illegal, and that Mei Wang has to operate outside the system by serving as an "information consultant." The character is an ex-cop, one that had served within law enforcement offices, then fallen into disfavor and basically forced out. That made her immediately sympathetic for me.

Mei Wang's questioning of herself about the choices she's made in her life, when making the correct choice in China seems to be everything, is wonderful. I'm sure most readers have gone through similar circumstances, but the character's whole life is put on display for her readers.

I'm looking forward to the second book in the series, Paper Butterfly, because the plot to that one sounds like it ranges even wider throughout China and contains an even more interesting mystery. Mystery readers looking for something different, with some exposure to an unfamiliar culture (assuming they weren't raised in China) will find a lot to like in this novel.

I love this story! It's a fast, compelling read. If you're a fan of Sujata Massey you'll love this book! Not too short and not too long. Print size is very readable. This is a first novel in a new detective series; it's a thrilling and fascinating journey through modern China. Mei Wang is a successful female private investigator in Beijing. A family friend comes to her with a case ----- a search for a valuable jade piece of the Han dynasty. Tha Eye of Jade was looted from a museum during the Cultural Revolution. The hunt for the precious aetifact draws Mei Wang into a troubled period of long-buried dark family secrets. Excellent read! Filled with fascinating detail! A thoughtful look at a contemporary, independent woman . An examination of China old and new. Enjoyable prose.