This Shanghai mystery tells the story of Comrade Chief Inspector Cao Chen who, assisted by his loyal sidekick Yu, embarks in a dogged investigation to discover the killer of a beautiful National Model Worker. As he closes on the son of a high level functionnaire, his superiors try to get him to abandon the chase, but he is incorruptible. His collegues at the bureau distance themselves from him, he is suspended, and about to be sacked. Incapable of stopping him, the Chinese Communist Party changes direction and a national campaign is announced against the Children of High Level Officials corrupted by Western ideas. Chen is kicked upstairs and the case is taken over by Internal Security. A show-trial is organized, the young playboys are executed and justice is served. The Party regains legitimacy in the eyes of the people but the rol played by Cao Chen is never mentioned. A Confusian puritan, while he had escaped the many girls offering themselves along the novel, in the end he too breaks down and gets laid. End.
2 comments:
You should have said "spoiler alert". Then again, I just read that you actually enjoy a book/movie MORE if you know how it turns out - you don't have to worry about the plot and instead you can appreciate the author's work better.
K
The book is very complicated and allows several interpretations. After you read the book, you will probably advance a different interpretation. For example, that the party is totally corrupt but very weak. That the party does not exist but a corrupt mandarin network rules China. That Chinese women are easy. That it is Chinese porn. etc.
Let me hear what you think after reading the book.
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