Rating: 
Summary: Don't read this writer for the mystery alone!
Review: Once again Qiu Xiaolong offers a fantastic mystery. What amazed me in his first novel was the cultural depth, so to speak, the feeling I had at the end of the novel that I had learned more about modern China than I would have, had I watched a documentary or assisted a one-semester course at the local university. I had the same sensation this time, even though some of the minor details were already known. Inspector Chen is a very believable character caught like so many of us between a profession [police officer] and an avocation [poet] which at first appear mutually exclusive. The true revelation comes when we discover how his knowledge of poetry helps him in his investigations. This characteristic of his, the love of poetry, also makes Chen - at least to my eyes -- more Chinese, for crafty, more sensitive than many men and certainly than most detectives, reminescent only of Inspector Morse, in his beloved Cambridge.
I agree with the previous reviewer than some of the more literary passages, tangential subjects, and cultural observations appear to have been shaved off in this second book, probably through the hands of some know-it-all editor who believes that a thick book with plenty of literary allusions might bore or be too much of a challenge to the ninth-grade level reading he imagines his readers to possess.
But in the end, the cuts, if there were some, did not take away from the overall charm of the book, of Inspector Chen and of China.
I intend to read his next book and I strongly recommend the reading of this one; both for the mystery as well as for the information on a changing China.
Rating: 
Summary: Shanghai: It's a changed world
Review: Ambitious Chief Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police is annoyed at being asked to baby-sit a visiting American detective. As much as he wants to help the US stop the smuggling of Chinese illegals into the US, the favors being done for one of the illegals in return for his testimony against a notorious snakehead leave a sour taste in Chen's mouth. It doesn't help that the wife of the illegal, whom the American inspector is supposed to escort back to the US, has inconveniently disappeared.All this sets the stage for why a Shanghai chief inspector (even one with a degree in English and American literature) is investigating the probably gang-related disappearance of a Chinese lower-middle class woman with a blonde American tagging along (even a member of the US Marshals Service with a degree in sinology.) The situation gives Chen the opportunity to show the American (and us) the best of Chinese cuisine, music, literature and traditions, while exposing her to the everyday lives of the kind of people who populate a criminal investigator's world. Chinese cities are crowded and life in rural China is still harsh for most people. Qiu doesn't evade that reality, while he acknowledges the growing existence of an affluent, sophisticated middle class in cosmopolitan areas like Shanghai. Be warned that the author uses his characters to discuss some hot political issues, such as the Chinese one-child per family policy and US immigration law. He takes care to allow both sides of every issue to be aired, but these are still topics that distress some readers. Qiu is not a 'safe' writer. He probes and provokes and touches some tender spots. The spotlight, however, remains on Chief Inspector Chen Cao, a most extraordinary man. He's intelligent, educated, thoughtful and realistic. Working within a bureaucratic organization, dealing on a daily basis with the criminal, vulnerable and damaged, he uses his love of poetry and respect for Chinese tradition to maintain his bonhomie and integrity in a conflicted society in confusing times. In many ways, he represents the best of modern China.
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable sequel
Review: As with Death of a Red Heroine, I enjoyed reading about Chinese culture at the same time that I was reading a good mystery novel. And, even though I'm not a romance fan, I think that Qiu did an excellent job of creating a believable, interesting releationship between the 2 main characters, which added a lot to the story. All of the food/eating references remind me of the exotic sandwiches that Francis X Delaney from The Deadly Sin books by Lawrence Sanders - these little dim sums are wonderful! This is a thoroughly enjoyable read, and I look forward to my 3rd trip to China with Inspector Chen.
Rating:
Summary: For Both Mystery Fans and Those Wanting a Peek Inside China
Review: Book two in the (People's Republic) Inspector Chen saga meets the high expectations aroused by Qui Xiaolong's first, Death of a Red Heroine. A Loyal Character Dancer is just a damn good mystery--a police procedural of the first water, dangling clues like fish-meal dumplings in front of our noses and leading us on a hunt for the wife of a man slated to testify in a crucial people-smuggling case in the U.S. Reading A Loyal Character Dancer offers the exotic land of China in all its complexity, with neither the Revolution nor the Cultural Revolution ever forgotten. We discover a still-thoroughly traditional China entrenched in. but not extinguished by, the peculiarities wrought by Communism--a China where an herbalist works on a Karioke-bar Mr. Big Bucks and from which the influence of the criminal triads has never disappeared.
SoHo Press has made a big success--at least a literary one--by bucking the mainstream insistence that Americans won't read mysteries set in overseas locales unless the protagonist is thoroughly a U.S. type. That theory is just another irksome example of the dumbing down of literature to appeal to the `masses,' but thank goodness for SoHo and books like Death of a Red Heroine and A Loyal Character Dancer. Any mystery lover will understand what author Qui Xiaolong is striving for and achieves in A Loyal Character Dancer. As the now St. Louis-based professor did in his Anthony-winning Death of a Red Heroine, Qui Xiaolong has concocted a superb and classic tale of crime investigation, one with memorable secondary characters and fascinating cultural intrigue. We must thank the author for taking us into a very up-to-date Communist China and presenting us with the full scope of so much that goes on there. The book is a stunning success, intricate and entertaining in the extreme. G. Miki Hayden, author of Pacific Empire--"'people whose vibrant existence on the page is never in doubt'" NYTimes.
Rating:
Summary: The East is Read
Review: Frankly, I don't understand the Publisher's Weekly criticism or the unfavorable comparisons to Qiu's first book "Red Heroin", which I also loved. This is clearly a better book. Can anyone really tell me that the story of Chen as head of the traffic bureau in the first book was convincing? If you are interested in another society, in this case contemporary China, you should read both books. Writers of foreign origin like Qiu really put some popular American writers to shame. The sense of detail and nuance really make Qiu's novels. I tried to read them fast and I couldn't, I always thought I would miss something. How many writers can you say that about. I also noted the Amazon mention of other writers purchased and I see that those reading Qiu have good taste. I would suggest that those interested in China also read He Jiahong, another writer in the detective genre. Unfortunately, I don't know if he has been translated into English yet.
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly drawn characters; no discernible plot
Review: I found Qiu's first book, Death of a Red Heroine, fascinating and complex. This book meandered through what was basically a non-plot. The American police woman was so poorly drawn she could have said anything at anytime and it wouldn't have made a difference. Often she served simply as a question-asking device so that the reader could be given information about Chinese culture. And the clothes she wore... Yikes! No female American police officer would wear a white dress and high heels to interview suspects. Duh!
Also, I didn't see how the poetry Chen writes and recites was relevant to the plot in anyway, nor could I get a true reading on his personality.
Finally, the writing was amateurish in terms of plot and character development. I don't plan to read Qiu again, unless a new book receives really fabulous reviews.
Rating:
Summary: Shanghaied
Review: I found this book quite disappointing (have not yet read the previous one in the series). Main reasons are that (i) the dialogue is stilted (no one ever seems to use contractions like "I've" or "it's" when they speak), (ii) the characters other than Inspector Chen have no personality of their own, and (iii) as someone else noted, there's zero suspense. From a history/travelogue point of view, it's also quite confusing. There isn't any clear clue for the reader as to the year it takes place. Cell phones, which figure prominently in the novel, seem to have become more visible in China around 1997, and the international airport mentioned in the book became a domestic one around 1999-2000, so this might be the historical window. But the word "Comrade", which is used quite often in the book, has been out of favor in China for more than a decade, even according to the official Chinese news agency. And there are at least a dozen hotels you can stay in that are more luxurious (or just more comfortable) than the Peace Hotel. Qiu left China in 1988, so this may explain some of the confusing refernces. I took this book with me as reading on a business trip to Shanghai. Believe me, aside from the perennial corruption and sex trade, this book reflects *very little* of what's going on in Shanghai today or even what was going on in 2002 (when book was published).
Rating: 
Summary: A Disappointing Sequel
Review: I loved Qui Xiaolong's first mystery, Death of a Red Heroine, so much that I picked up A Loyal Character Dancer as soon as I could. Death of a Red Heroine really excited me and I couldn't put it down: I love Inspector Chen and his struggles with being a policeman when his true love is literature and especially poetry; I love the quotations from the Chinese poets and from T. S. Eliot and others; I love the descriptions of Shanghai and life in China; I love the parallels between the dead Model Worker and Chen's own life; and I love the twist at the end that makes Chen wonder again about his life as a policeman. Chen is back in A Loyal Character Dancer, but this time the meanderings are fewer (and it's the meanderings rather than the mystery itself that make Qui a good writer). Chen's romance with the American policewoman never quite comes alive for me the way his two romances in the first book did. The new focus of the mystery, Wen, also never captures my attention the way the dead Model Worker does. Qui's writing even seems less rich. I get the impression that some editor or another warned Qui off a lengthy book that strays far from the main story line, but I fear A Loyal Character Dancer is therefore a weaker book. I still enjoyed it, but this time I could put it down.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointing Sequel
Review: I loved Qui Xiaolong's first mystery, Death of a Red Heroine, so much that I picked up A Loyal Character Dancer as soon as I could. Death of a Red Heroine really excited me and I couldn't put it down: I love Inspector Chen and his struggles with being a policeman when his true love is literature and especially poetry; I love the quotations from the Chinese poets and from T. S. Eliot and others; I love the descriptions of Shanghai and life in China; I love the parallels between the dead Model Worker and Chen's own life; and I love the twist at the end that makes Chen wonder again about his life as a policeman. Chen is back in A Loyal Character Dancer, but this time the meanderings are fewer (and it's the meanderings rather than the mystery itself that make Qui a good writer). Chen's romance with the American policewoman never quite comes alive for me the way his two romances in the first book did. The new focus of the mystery, Wen, also never captures my attention the way the dead Model Worker does. Qui's writing even seems less rich. I get the impression that some editor or another warned Qui off a lengthy book that strays far from the main story line, but I fear A Loyal Character Dancer is therefore a weaker book. I still enjoyed it, but this time I could put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating cultural detail
Review: Shanghai Police Inspector Chen Cao is a man on the rise. Which doesn't always mean he gets to work the cases he wants. Intrigued by the possible Triad murder of a silk-pajama-clad man in a popular park, Chen is told to sideline the case in order to shepherd US Marshall Catherine Rohn around Shanghai. Rohn is there to pick up Wen Liping, wife of a reluctant witness in an important immigrant smuggling case, who is to join her husband in the witness protection program. But Wen has disappeared - kidnapped by the Triad smugglers, or in flight from them. Wen, a worn-out peasant with an abusive husband, was once a Shanghai native, a promising and beautiful "educated youth" sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Chen's assistant, Yu, (whose life also was altered irreparably by the Cultural Revolution) has gone to her village to investigate, and Chen allows the insistent American marshal to assist on his interviews with Shanghai contacts. Punctuated with Chen's poetry quotations and Confucian proverbs, and lots of Chinese meals, Qui's (winner of the Anthony Award for his first Chen mystery, "Death of a Red Heroine") writing is evocative, though his dialogue can be clunky and too expository and the pace of the mystery is uneven, its path overlong. But his picture of China in transition, a generation burdened by the Cultural Revolution (and what a difference in lives a year or two in age has meant), the opportunists homing in on changing economic policies, the power of the Triads, the meaning of communism to the people who live it - all of this is succinctly, adroitly drawn. The title, for instance, refers to Wen and her exuberant performance of the only dance allowed during the Cultural Revolution - a dance holding the Chinese character for Loyalty to Chairman Mao. In the course of their hunt for Wen, and Chen's continuing interest in the park-murder case, the mismatched pair travels around China, allowing Qiu to showcase the cultural gulf and human commonality between them. An intriguing, absorbing series.
| 
