Death of a Red Heroine

Death of a Red Heroine is a mystery novel by Qiu Xiaolong, published in 2000. Set in Shanghai in the early 1990s, Xiaolong explores the politics and rapidly-shifting culture of modern-day China through the lens of a murder investigation.

The story begins with the discovery of a body in the remote Baili Canal, twenty miles west of Shanghai. The investigation is assigned to Chief Inspector Chen, a member of the Shanghai Special Case Squad. Chen is not a typical police officer; he is an enthusiastic poet and not particularly interested in police work. He owes his rise in the department to the politics of the Communist Party. He was an English major in college and intended to be a diplomat, but when it’s discovered that his uncle was a counter-revolutionary, the Party assigned him a career in law enforcement. He has however kept up with his poetry, and has published to some success. His partner is Yu Guanming, who is his subordinate, but who has no respect for Chen initially.

Initially there are no obvious leads, and when Chen learns that another department is willing to take the murder off his workload, he strongly considers it. However, the body is identified as Guan Hongying, a celebrity and former model, which puts a political spin on the case, so Chen decides to keep it. Chen has many cases and his workload is crushing, and the case quickly falls off his radar, and he leaves the dull work to Guanming. He receives a phone call informing him that one of his poems has been accepted for publication by a national newspaper, and this reminds him of the dead woman. He calls Guanming to ask for an update and is frustrated to find no progress has been made. He then calls the doctor who performed the autopsy, Dr. Xia, who tells him that Guan Hongying had never had children and her body had no scars. The only detail of interest is that she had consumed expensive Russian caviar shortly before her death.



Chen begins investigating, and the case soon consumes every aspect of his life. A married woman that Chen had been seeing, Wang, becomes quickly frustrated with his new dedication to his work, and she stops seeing him, returning to her husband. Yu Guanming is also frustrated, as Chen is ignoring their other cases in preference to this one, leading to more work. He wants to put this case on the back-burner, but the Party adviser, Zheng, pushes back on this and Chen refuses, and chases down the lead of the caviar; there are only a few places in Shanghai where such expensive food is served. Chen begins to believe that Guan was not single, as was assumed, but rather had a relationship with someone powerful and wealthy—someone with an interest in keeping the relationship secret. After a conversation with his wife, Yu begins to believe the same.

Chen’s investigation leads him to discover that Guan Hongying had been having an affair with Wu Xiaoming, a married man and a ‛high cadres child’ or HCC, the son of an important revolutionary leader. Although China is officially classless, there is definitely a hierarchy and Wu sits on top of it. It is suddenly very dangerous for Chen and Yu to pursue the investigation. Chen, already feuding with Zheng, realizes he is very vulnerable—and he is troubled by the fact that he can find no motive for Wu to have murdered Guan. Chen also sees parallels with the ‛secret life’ Guan had been living and his own life, which he increasingly sees as depressingly small. He questions whether his refusal to commit to police work has been a foolish waste of time.

The Party acts to protect Wu by removing Chen from the case and placing him under investigation. Chen reaches out to an old college girlfriend, Ling, who uses her political connections to help him continue his investigation. He learns that Wu routinely took obscene photos of the women he slept with and used them as blackmail fodder. Chen finally discovers that Guan had been blackmailing Wu, trying to force him to leave his wife for her, which would have ruined his political career.



Chen brings the evidence forward, and Wu is arrested. The trial is swift and decisive: Wu is convicted of the murder of Guan Hongying, the ‛Red Heroine.’ Wu is executed for the crime, and Wu is used by the Party as an object lesson for everyone concerning the results of immoral behavior.

Chen is disillusioned and disappointed by this use of a terrible murder, but he decides that he has at least discovered new purpose, and dedicates himself to being an upright, effective police officer, seeing this as the best way he can serve both his own interests and his country.