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Red Mandarin Dress (Inspector Chen Cao #5)

3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 · rating details · 456 ratings · 66 reviews

A serial killer is stalking the young women of Shanghai. The killer’s calling card is to leave the victims’ bodies in well trafficked locations, each of them redressed in a red mandarin dress. With the newspapers screaming about Shanghai’s first serial killer, Party officials anxious for a quick resolution, and the police under pressure from all sides, something has to giv...more

Paperback, 320 pages

Published February 3rd 2009 by Minotaur Books (first published November 27th 2007)

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Jun 29, 2011 Kinga rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, china

I'm becoming softer with age. My initial reaction when I started reading this book was: What is this shit??
First of all it was a thriller and NOTHING happened. Xiaolong went on instead about the main character's Literature Paper. IN DETAIL. Eventually Chinese literature archetypes were linked to the murder case, and geez, wasn't that far-fetched. Trying to find the murderer by studying literature...you're not Umberto Eco, you know.
Now, you think if the author is so literature literate, the book...more

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Dec 24, 2012 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Written in the 1990s, this Chinese murder mystery is a fascinating read. Besides the plot (which is pretty good), it is a wealth (a WEALTH, I say) of enthralling tidbits about Chinese culture, dress, poetry, food, literature, psychology, and politics/economics. [It was a great counterpart to Wild Swans actually, because it chronologically picks up right where that book lets off.] The main character is both a brilliant detective and a soon-to-be student of Chinese literature, so he simultaneously...more

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Sep 12, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries, police-procedural, china

On a cold morning late in the year the body of a young woman has been found on the safety island in the middle of a busy Shanghai road. Worker Master Huang sees her first as he jogs in the early morning. His mind had been occupied by the changes around him, particularly the substitution of a Starbucks for a former Worker and Farmer eatery where the food was cheap and tasty intended for the working class. Now the vistas are filled with mansions owned by what are known as the Big Bucks, the new we...more

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Oct 26, 2010 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, bookcrossing

This was the first Inspector Chen series book I've ever read. As thrillers, detectives and mysteries are my favorite genres, I'm always in the lookout for the next Harry Bosch or Salvo Montalbano. I've tried authors that I didn't really like (Harlan Coben was just bad enough to finish one book, never to touch a second one), and while this isn't exactly a Chinese version of Montalbano, I did quite like it.

Chen investigates a serial murder in Shanghai. The victims are young service industry girls,...more

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Mar 14, 2010 Catherine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, 50books_poc2010, china

3.5 stars.

This is the most fascinating of the Inspector Chen novels yet - a serial killer's actions in Shanghai providing the backdrop for larger cultural conversations about misogyny, story telling, poetry, and Freud. I'm still thinking over the ramifications of everything in this story - my discomfort at the number of victimized women in the novel, for example, exists in tension with the novel's own interrogation of how Chinese cultural tropes hold women responsible for the problems and downfa...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Lee Barckmann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An old man, soon to be pushed out of his old familiar Shanghai dwelling by high rising, expensive apartments finds a young woman's body, her legs askew, barefoot, without underwear, clad only in a torn red Mandarin dress, (qipao). This opening scene of the Inspector Chen crime novel 'Red Mandarin Dress', illustrates the theme of the old and new China colliding with painful consequences. The Mandarin dress is a perfect vehicle of this clash, as it was once a symbol of elegance in the China before...more An old man, soon to be pushed out of his old familiar Shanghai dwelling by high rising, expensive apartments finds a young woman's body, her legs askew, barefoot, without underwear, clad only in a torn red Mandarin dress, (qipao). This opening scene of the Inspector Chen crime novel 'Red Mandarin Dress', illustrates the theme of the old and new China colliding with painful consequences. The Mandarin dress is a perfect vehicle of this clash, as it was once a symbol of elegance in the China before Mao, then a symbol of decadence, only to re-emerge in the post Deng Xiaoping era as a chic symbol of wealth and status. Qui makes the dress his serial killer's calling card and the search for the killer is a trek through 20th Century China itself.

Inspector Chen, a famous Shanghai detective, is getting pressure from his Communist party bosses to take on a political case to protect the Party from embarrassment in a real estate corruption scandal. Chen, who has translated several famous Western Detective novels into Chinese, is a lifelong amateur scholar and is finally getting serious about his hobby. He wants to avoid the dirty real estate case by trying to plead off by saying he is too busy with a literature class. A noted human rights lawyer has the party in his sights again, this time by suing a crooked real estate mogul who is pushing people out of their homes. The Party wants to bring him down. Chen's maneuvering to avoid the real estate case is a classic illustration of the social mores that dictate relationships in official China. Chen is not brought in to investigate the murder until a second one occurs with the same MO - the disheveled body, suffocated, in an identical, old style, hand-made Mandarin dress. Neither one of the bodies had evidence of sexual activity.

The politics of the Chinese police play a central role in the novel. Li, the party leader, sees everything through the lends of the pre-boom China. "Check with the neighborhood committee' he says, clearly oblivious to the fact that Shanghai life had changed - at least for the wealthy. People had their own apartments now, and were not under the thumb of the old Party ladies who controlled everyone's life with gossip and 'motherly' intrusion. The real cops barely give Li lip service while moving ahead with the case based on the reality of the evidence and their available resources. Li is of course concerned because of the public nature of the crimes. Because the bodies are being left in the most populated areas of the city - right on Nanjing Rd, in the center of town - the information starved daily news papers are speculating worse that anything readers of Fleet Street or the NY Daily News could even conceive. Sex and Murder in a town where politics can't be seriously discussed are big stories.

There are a host of secondary characters in the novel - Chen's colleagues Liao and Yu,Yu's wife, Little Zhou, the department driver and Hong a pretty young police woman ho is assigned to the case. All are devoted to Chen and help him by doing whatever research etc that he needs. Inspector Chen also has a host of other allies, business men and restaurant owners who vie for his favor. He even has a young woman, White Cloud, whose salary is paid by Gu, who wants Chen to quit and work with him in his business. White Cloud would be anything Chen wants, but her main tasks is checking up on Chen's mother, who of course wants him to marry.

There are others too - the literature professor he studies with and his daughter, and all of the people Chen meets as he investigates the crime. Beijing (the Central Government, hated by Shanghai) continues to pressure him on the first case too, so he investigates the human rights lawyer who is suing the real estate crook.

Chen only begins to devote himself to the case when one of his colleagues is killed by the serial killer and we start diving into the real story of the Red Mandarin Dress. Chen is a weak man in the Western sense of the word. He is constitutionally the opposite of American hard-boiled detectives. He can't handle coffee much less booze. He has a serious nervous condition and he has to steel himself constantly to push on to solve the case. Chen is constantly moving from the past to the present and seemingly gets side-track on the most obscure points of literature. Because Chinese people have a deep respect for teachers and scholars his foibles are tolerated. Even Li the Party leader leaves him alone. As much as money drives this new China, a man like Chen retains real power because deep down, the Chinese really don't respect 'Big Buck' even though the fear them. Confucius remains the model man.

The case has roots in the Cultural Revolution, which deeply scarred China and in large part, this novel is about that scarring. Chinese policy after Cultural Revolution finally ended in 1979 was about forgetting. Too many were guilty for a full accounting. If you think of how the Vietnam War still affects the US, with division, mistrust and anger, and multiply it by ten thousand - even that, I think, would not come close to affect that period of discord had on China. The novel intersects the Cultural Revolution with the modern changing Chinese society in a way that is startling and yet is restrained and understated in the 'Chinese manner'.

Westerners who come to this book thinking of the other detectives whose adventures have been like Chandler's Phillp Marlowe or Hammett's Sam Spade or any of the detectives of Elmore Leonard might be frustrated by this novel. While all of these authors have their digressions - think of the long section about the history of the Maltese Falcon that Dashiell Hammett invented - still their digressions are 'hard links' to the main story. Sometimes Qui's digressions are 'soft links' - they kind of fit into the big puzzle, but not directly. The novel is a bit of a scholarly romp though the history of Chinese poetry, a deconstruction of ancient stories that are told again and again, each time changing, the history of Chinese clothing - and the details of the organizational structure of the Cultural Revolution and its affect on real people. Another words, its not a detective potboiler. If you want to know who done it, you have to wait, and if the scholarly romp doesn't interest you, then it might not be your book.

The murderer, when he is finally found, will not be an unsympathetic character. You could say that Hannibal Lector had some good qualities, but this goes way beyond that. So, once again, it is not a book that fits between the lines normally found in the genre.

Novel's like this - hybrids - are difficult to judge and grade. In math -*+=-. So if it is a good scholarly romp but a bad pot boiler - well that is a minus. I liked it - But it has to find the right audience. I think anyone who knows China will appreciate it. If you are new to the Middle Kingdom - then be ready to adjust your expectations about what a detective novel is about.
Also see [...](less)

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Dec 08, 2010 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This may be the best so far in the Inspector Chen Cao series. Shanghai’s first acknowledged serial killer dresses his victims in red mandarin dresses before leaving them in public places. Chen, suffering from the effects of too much stress, has taken time off from his police job to pursue an advanced literature course instead of investigating a politically sensitive corruption case. When it is clear that the killer has a timetable, however, he joins the race to prevent the next murder, applying...more

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Jul 29, 2011 크리스티 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library-rental, favorites

This book was great - I ended up picking it up and reading it only to find out half way through that it was the fourth book in the series. I finished reading it and loved it! The mystery was set up so well and the little clues here and there was amazing. I was totally hooked on who the killer was and why. I finised it up in no time - it was an easy read and definatly awesome!

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Jul 23, 2011 Sara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first victim, Jasmine, is found wearing an old mandarin dress from the 1940s - long sleeves, low slits, double-fish-shaped cloth buttons, the kind of craftsmanship not used since the 1960s Cultural Revolution when the mandarin dress was forbidden. Another woman is found dead in the same attire, leading to speculation that a serial killer is responsible.

This search is interwoven with Chen's desire to escape his work by doing a university course; his project focuses on themes of ambivalence to...more

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Jan 17, 2011 Gloria rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hmm. Forgot to write a review. Overall liked it, was much more philosophical and literary (references) than his other ones, and greatly enjoyed it for that reason. But I suspect for people looking for something just like Death of a Red Heroine, they might be a little frustrated.

But here are two things that struck me, before I send this book:

This was an excellent example of nudge architecture; Xi Yun, when I cited it, was astounded—he hadn't been aware of the reason for this practice, and thought...more

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May 23, 2012 Sophie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, crime-fiction, owned

Basically I have the same problems with this volume in the series as I had with the last one. Not enough Yu and Pequin, and Chen is... well, most of the time he is getting on my nerves. And while this whole "quoting poetry" spiel was interesting at first, at this point it felt really contrived and over the top. The case itself was alright, though I knew who the killer was way ahead of the police, and the fact that that rarely happens should tell you something. Way too predictable.

It was still a...more

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Jan 05, 2011 Chip rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was difficult at first trying to keep up with the characters, as I have no experience with Chinese names. By mid-book however I had mapped out in my mind who was whom and was comfortably settled in to the story. I want to say more specifically about the plot but can't -- don't want to give away the ending. Let's just say while it was enjoyable, and better than some I've read, it doesn't share the same "oh wow" plateau with PD James and Agatha Christie. As a take on the murder/mystery genre as...more

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Dec 08, 2010 Annabelle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are murders of beautiful young women who are thrown in public places with a 1960’s style red mandarin dress up to their waists but they haven’t been raped. There is a cool ending about an impotent hermaphrodite. Chen, the detective, his trusty side kick Yu and his wife Peiqin and father Old Hunter help him wind down the info. There is the writer’s society, poetry, research of dress styles. Plus the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution are showcased. In this case the a formerly rich woman...more

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Dec 08, 2011 Isabel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Newspapers went wild with theories. No murderer would have dumped a body in such a dress, at such a location, without some reason. One reporter saw it pointing at the Shanghai Music Institute, located across the street opposite the flower bed. One deemed it a political case, a protest against the reversal of values in socialist China, for the mandarin dress, once condemned as a sign of capitalist decadence, had become popular again. A tabloid magazine went further, speculating that the murder ha...more Newspapers went wild with theories. No murderer would have dumped a body in such a dress, at such a location, without some reason. One reporter saw it pointing at the Shanghai Music Institute, located across the street opposite the flower bed. One deemed it a political case, a protest against the reversal of values in socialist China, for the mandarin dress, once condemned as a sign of capitalist decadence, had become popular again. A tabloid magazine went further, speculating that the murder had been orchestrated by a fashion industry tycoon. Ironically, one result of the media coverage was that several stores immediately displayed new lines of mandarin dresses in their windows.

"Red Mandarin Dress" is set in the 1990s, at a time when China is in transition, undergoing rapid social and economic change. The Big Bucks are making obscene amounts of money while the poor are getting poorer, corruption is rife and the police can no longer rely on neighbourhood committee membersknowing every detail of the lives of people living in their areas.

When a young woman clad only in a red mandarin dress is found dead by a main road in Shanghai, followed a week later by the discovery of a second body in an equally prominent spot, there is no way for the authorities to hush it up even though their position has always been that there are no serial killers in China. As psychology was frowned on until recently, the police are forced to begin by discussing the serial killers they have read about in Western novels, before managing to get their hands on some psychology text books.

Chief Inspector Chen, who is a poet as well as a policeman, is off work for a few weeks doing a literature course, leaving Detective Yu in charge when their team is handed the case after the second murder, but he is soon drawn into the case. Both Chen's girlfriend White Flower and Yu's wife Peiqin help out unofficially, with White Flower researching Mandarin dresses while Peiqin finds out about the lives of the 'three-accompanying girls' (a euphemism for prostitutes) via her contacts in the restaurant trade.

It makes a nice change to read a murder-mystery set in such a different culture.(less)

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Nov 14, 2008 Writerlibrarian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: asian-lit, mystery, november_pile, read2008

A little above average for this series. Inspector Chen has a mid-life, mid-career, conscience crisis. Caught in between a financial scandal investigation that he doesn't want to investigate and a series of murder dubbed the "first" serial killer of Shanghai, Chen breaks down and hides behind the pretext of going back to academia. Yu is left holding the bag and to deal with the police politics. But Chen can't seem to hide from reality and is dragged back into investigating both cases. I liked the...more

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Apr 27, 2012 Huw Evans rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: chinese, detective

I fell in love with Shanghai in 2005, where western pyjamas are cool street fashion. I am not a detective story aficionado but familiarity with the environment makes the story more interesting. Also Inspector Chen is not only a maverick but a maverick versed in Chinese literature, allowing Qiu Xiaolong to refer to ancient texts and poems in a way that illuminates the case. Qiu highlights the conflicts between the old China of the emperors, the newer China of the Maoism and the newest China of st...more

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Nov 20, 2010 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime

A so-so thriller set in Shanghai that kept a shaky hold on my interest largely through the descriptions of exotic Chinese food consumed as the novel progressed - live monkey brains anyone? The plot was interesting enough, twisting strands of Mao's Cultural Revolution into a standard serial killer progression. The detective was supposed to be "a Chinese Morse", but he wasn't. Despite numerous attempts to paint him otherwise, he had all the warmth and personality of a Chinese waiter.

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May 19, 2009 Terry94705 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this book,despite giving it a three, but I began to feel that Qiu is like one of those 19th century authors who were paid by the word. Inspector Chen really does have to mull things over... It's not just that the pace is slow --I've enjoyed many a slow novel-- but sometimes you think Chen is a little dense. Even so, I've read all of these books.

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Nov 14, 2010 Barbara ★ rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-fbi-pi-cop, read-2010, set-in-asia-china, challenge-books

Inspector Chen is supposed to be on vacation while he takes a literature course at the college. Unfortunately, with the red mandarin dress serial killer on the loose, he is interrupted with calls from the police telling him they know nothing. This gripping (haha) mystery is filled with literary references, poems and Confusius sayings. There is way too much emphasis on Inspector Chen's research for his paper and how the symbolism of it gives clues to the killer.

It found it boring as too much of C...more

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Sep 23, 2008 Spiros rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of complex police procedurals

Shelves: bins

When Chief Inspector Chen decides to go back to school to deconstruct Chinese romance narratives in order to avoid investigating a messy corruption scandal, Detective Yu is left holding the bag while Shanghai is suffering the predations of China's first serial killer. Such an investigation is problematic in a society which barely recognizes psychology, and in a political climate which postulates that all crime is counterrevolutionary, and that serial killers are only possible in the Decadent Wes...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Andi added it · review of another edition

I really tried to finish it, but the mystery never drew me in. Chen was so distracted from the case, I don't know how they expected me to care. There was plenty of interesting bits about Shanghai and Chinese culture, but it all felt disconnected. I was disappointed.

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Nov 01, 2012 Tuomo Polo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Suomeksi toki tämän luin. Juoni oli lopulta ihan mielenkiintoinen. Teoksessa käsiteltiin paljon Kiinan kulttuurihistoriallisia asioita, joten se jäi vähän kaukaiseksi, koska tunnen Kiinaa niin huonosti. Oli vaikeuksia kuvitella itseään Pekingin kaduille.

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Oct 13, 2010 Ian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another excellent novel from Xiaolong. The characters are, as usual, well drawn and develop through each novel. An excellent plot and set once more against the trials of the Shanghiaese struggling to come to terms with the change to capitalism.

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May 28, 2009 Miss rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: too-painful-to-finish

This book didn't really hold my interest and I tried. It's sort of a mix between the red mandarin dress murders of which I wanted to read more off and interspered with other Chinese stories which just dragged the whole story down.

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Jul 26, 2011 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not as good as previous books in this series, however still interesting. The main character is becoming incresingly complex and rounded as the series progresses, but his side-kick is still much as he was at the start.

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Jan 10, 2010 Renee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a well-written mystery that teaches a bit about Chinese life along the way. I plan to check out the rest of the series, even if I can't pronounce the author's name :-)

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Dec 04, 2009 Steff rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I enjoyed this Qiu Xiaolong book the most out of the entire series of Inspector Chen books. It had a wonderful balance of mystery, culture, and psychology for my tastes.

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May 18, 2009 Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

These Inspector Chen books aren't the most intriguing mysteries but I am so fascinated by the look at Chinese society as it moves from communism to capitalism.

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Mar 06, 2012 Maureen Farrimond rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: asia

A good murder mystery. I enjoyed the references to some of the exotic meals enjoyed by the characters - though I'm nit too sure that I would try them myself!

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Jan 01, 2012 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have enjoyed reading this series of detective stories, which take place in Shanghai in the early 1990s, as China is in its transition from a rigid state to opening itself up to capitalism. As before the story is more interesting for the details about China at the time, the look back at the Cultural Revolution, and the references to Chinese culture (in this case, "cruel food" as a delicacy, also poetical references as before). I expect to keep reading this series until I tire of it, which is no...more

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About Qiu Xiaolong

Qiu Xiaolong (裘小龙) was born in Shanghai, China. He is the author of the award-winning Inspector Chen series of mystery novels, Death of a Red Heroine (2000), A Loyal Character Dancer (2002), When Red Is Black (2004), A Case of Two Cities (2006), Red Mandarin Dress (2007), and The Mao Case (2009). He is also the author of two books of poetry translations, Treasury of Chinese Love Poems (2003) and E...more

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Red Mandarin Dress (Inspector Chen Cao #5)

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