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The ‘mysteries’ of new China: Qiu Xiaolong and his Inspector Chen series

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New Delhi: Surreptitiously reading translations of Sherlock Holmes and other detective fiction as a student amid the Cultural Revolution’s turbulence, Chinese poet and academician Qiu Xiaolong had no idea that one day he would also be writing a series of ‘whodunit’ mysteries giving a view of his home city Shanghai as memorable yet gritty as of Victorian London in Conan Doyle’s works.

Qiu, 62, has to his credit the nine-installment (so far) Inspector Chen series (from “Death of a Red Heroine”, 2000, to “Shanghai Redemption”, 2013), which are not only police procedurals but offer a nuanced, incisive view of a rapidly-changing China where economic liberalisation has led to prosperity, and even affluence, but also strains between old socialists and new capitalists, and of course, crime and corruption.

But writing a detective series was farthest from his mind, Qiu told IANS in a e-mail interview.

In the US in 1988 to write a book on T.S.Eliot, he had to stay there as media reports about his fund-raising efforts for Chinese students could have caused problems back home in the post-Tiananmen Square crackdown. When he could make a trip back to China, he was impressed by changes he saw, and first tried to portray them in the form of a novel.

“In 1996, after an eight-year absence from China as a visiting scholar and then as a Ph D candidate in the US, I went back to China for the first time. I was so impressed by all the changes that had been taking place there, I tried to write a novel about the society in transition,” said Qiu, who is based in St.Louis (Missouri).

“But with fiction being a new genre to me, I had a difficult time putting my material together. So I thought of using a detective story as a ready-made framework, in which I might say what I want to say.”

And detective stories were familiar to Qiu, who had begun to read them “as early as my middle school days in China, in Chinese translations of course, and by stealth as the company of Sherlock Holmes could get a young Chinese reader into trouble during the days of the Cultural Revolution”.

He kept up with them, both in Chinese and English, “no longer that stealthily, but mainly in my spare time, but I never thought I would be going to write in the genre myself”. He however found the form could serve his purpose well.

“For a sociological attempt, a cop can be a very convenient agent, who can walk around the city, knock on people’s doors, and raise all sorts of questions, though not necessarily all have the answers,” he said.

And thus was born Inspector Chen Cao, a poet and translator (of British and American mystery novels), who has, however, under Deng Xiaoping’s Cadres policy, been made a policeman and that too in Shanghai’s Special Cases Bureau.

Qiu was himself unsure if “Death of a Red Heroine”, which won the prestigious Anthony Award for best first novel in 2001, was a detective story.

“But my publisher liked it, and signed me a contract for three books. And then it turned into a series in spite of myself,” he told IANS.

Inspector Chen resembles his author, who says this was both conscious and subconscious.

“For instance, I write poems, but it can be extremely difficult for poems to reach readers, so came the idea of smuggling poems into the popular genre of detective stories. But it’s also more than that, in classical Chinese novels, there are more poems than in the Inspector Chen novels, sometimes with a poem at the beginning of a chapter, and then at the end too,” he said.

Qiu said that for him, it was not enough to write just a whodunit story and “I’ve tried to put each of the stories in special economic, social, political circumstances, in a sort of exploration of both the crime and the background, or in other words, a sociological approach”.

He intends to go on with the series but with some big changes.

“Also, it’s not enough to just write a new story for the series, and I’m trying something totally new in terms of the structure for the one after ‘Shanghai Redemption’.”

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Foodman Vishal Singh Honored for Hunger Free World Mission in Bangkok

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Lucknow: Vishal Singh, a renowned social worker from Lucknow, also known as Foodman, has once again made India proud. He was honored by the Happy Hands Gloves Cooperative Limited Company in Korathai, Thailand, for his work with the Hunger Free World Mission.

The Hunger Free World Mission’s meeting was held in Korathai, Thailand, under Vishal Singh’s leadership. Representatives from several countries, including Mr. Raja Dwivedi (Managing Director of Happy Hands Gloves Limited), Thailand Coordinator Mr. Raja Mishra, and member Mr. Varun Singh, attended the event.

Under Vishal Singh’s leadership, the attendees took a pledge to work together toward creating a hunger-free world.

Speaking on the occasion, Vishal Singh explained that the main goal of the Hunger Free World Mission is social participation. He said the mission is not just about feeding people but also about meeting other basic needs of those who are struggling. The mission focuses on helping families of terminally ill patients in hospitals by providing food and shelter. It also works to fulfill essential needs like education, jobs, and care for the elderly.

For the last 16 years, the Vijay Sri Foundation has been providing free services, benefiting thousands of people. Vishal Singh highlighted that the mission aims to gain global recognition like other organizations such as WHO, WWF, and Red Cross, which work for social causes.

During this meeting, Vishal Singh was appointed as the Chairman of the Hunger Free World Mission by representatives from various countries. They also discussed holding regular meetings in different countries to push the mission forward.

Business tycoon Dr. Abhishek Verma has also supported this humanitarian mission, vowing to promote the idea of “Seva Parmo Dharma” (Service is the highest duty) worldwide. Vishal Singh praised him, stating that people like Dr .Abhishek Verma inspire others to work for the betterment of society.

Recently, Romania’s Ambassador, Mr . Daniela Sezonov Ţane, invited Vishal Singh to the Romanian Embassy in Delhi, where they discussed the mission in detail. Impressed by his humanitarian work, she honored Vishal Singh and invited him to Romania to take the mission forward .

Food man Vishal Singh has been serving the people of India for the past 16 years. Through the Vijay Sri Foundation, he provides free meals to cancer patients & their families ,shelter, and education for women & children along with running free old-age homes in Lucknow.

In addition to his humanitarian work, Vishal Singh also addresses issues like crime and corruption through his role as Chairman of Seva Path Media and Managing Director of Vijay Sri Foundation.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Vishal Singh and his team worked tirelessly to provide food and help to the needy, including starving children, elderly citizens, and pregnant women. Despite contracting the virus himself, he continued to assist others after his recovery. He even created a life-saving oxygen regulator using household items, which was praised by doctors both in India and abroad.

In his address at the meeting, Vishal Singh spoke about his mission to create a hunger-free world. He pointed out that India’s large population, along with issues like unemployment and poverty, has caused the country to fall on the Hunger Index. He urged people to contribute just one handful of grains daily to help create a hunger-free world.

He concluded by saying that through social participation, we can empower the people around us, meet their basic needs, and work together to build a stronger, more prosperous, and developed society.

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