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I enjoyed this look at life in urban China. I do not know how much of it is a real view of living in a city in China and how much of it is fiction, but I found the atmosphere to be so very different from my own experiences. The whodunit part of this story was interesting as well. But I really found the impressions and explanations about the lifestyle fascinating.
Chief Inspector (and poet) Chen takes on a difficult and sensitive murder investigation in Shanghai in 1990. The mystery is only part of the interest of the book. It is told against a rapidly changing background a year after Tiamen Square as the "educated youth" who have spent their young years in the rural areas settle into their careers after returning to the cities, as a market economy starts to unfold for everyday people. We see the difficulty of shortages of housing and phones and transport
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The book begins with the body of a woman being found in a remote canal near Shanghai. Chief Inspector Chen and Detective Yu from the Special Case Squad are assigned the case. They soon find out the woman was Guan Hongying, a national model worker. The book is set in China a year or so after Tianamen Square. It was interesting to read about China during this time period. I don't know if there is still a housing shortage in Shanghai but the housing situation described in the book was pretty horrib
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Apr 24, 2013
Anna Kļaviņa
marked it as to-read-ebook
Dec 28, 2014
Rachel W
marked it as to-read
Jul 06, 2015
Lindsay
marked it as to-read
Mar 14, 2019
Gaijinmama
marked it as to-read
May 22, 2022
Nancy
marked it as maybe
