The Eye of Jade
by Diane Wei Liang
Picador Asia, HK$176
With her snappy intelligence and sharp intuition, Diane Wei Liang's private investigator Mei could give Alexander McCall Smith's No1 Ladies Detective Agency a run for its money. Set in Beijing, this lively mystery, the first in a series, provides a glimpse of modern China, both the bright sheen of economic growth and the corruption beneath.
As the novel opens, Uncle Chen, a close family friend, asks Mei to find a precious Han-dynasty artefact, the Eye of Jade, which was stolen from the Luoyang museum during the Cultural Revolution. Many such relics were destroyed by zealous Red Guards, but Uncle Chen is convinced that the Eye of Jade still exists. He hopes to recover it and sell it to a wealthy Chinese collector.
And so Mei delves into the world of antiquities, haunting the Liulichang market and meeting dubious dealers such as Big Papa Wu, a tough negotiator with a shifty, secretive streak. Eventually, her search takes her to the highest echelons of the Chinese secret service and the brutal past of the Cultural Revolution.
Although the plot is a bit thin, the author's descriptions of modern Beijing - the shiny Audis and swish embassy district penthouses, the shadowy depths of a gambling den, the steamy bustle of a noodle shop - are honest and accurate. She describes the small detours people take to avoid the rigid bureaucracy: for example, although private detectives are banned on the mainland, 'Mei, like others in the business, had resorted to the counter-strategy of registering her agency as an information consultancy'.
