A Murder of Authors: BLF Crime Novelists Give Each Other A Good Going Over

Bankers and murderers. Few occupations make for better villains. Plop these bad guys down in wildly capitalistic Hong Kong, or China's seedy legal system of the 1980's, and you've got two crime thrillers that Beijing fans of the genre will burn through faster than a season of torrented Breaking Bad. Banker-turned-novelist Phillip Kim, author of Nothing Gained (to be released by Penguin China in March), and He Jiahong, the law-educated writer behind Hanging Devils, will be at this year's Bookworm Literary Festival. Read on for a conversation between the authors on writing crime.

Phillip Kim Grills He Jiahong

PK: Your novel was written and is set twenty years ago. Is China’s criminal justice system evolved to a point today where the story would be different if it was set in the present?

HJH: Hanging Devils is a novel about a wrongful conviction in China in the 1980-90’s. There have been some changes to the criminal justice system in China over last 20 years. For example, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Justice jointly issued “the two provisions on criminal evidence” in June of 2010, and the Amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law was passed by the National People’s Congress in March of 2012. Now, as a result, China has better exclusionary rules against illegally obtained evidence, and this plays a positive role in the prevention of wrongful convictions.

In addition, Chinese society has significantly changed with the rapid development of the economy in the last 30 years; therefore I do think the story in Hanging Devils would be quite different if it was set in present day China. However, some basic elements of the story would remain, there would still be law enforcement officers who ignore procedural justice and there would still be corruption amongst public officials.

PK: Is the violence that appears in your story unique in some Chinese way, or is all violence pretty much the same in human beings everywhere?

HJH: Violent crimes happen in all countries in the world, but different culture may influence the way the crimes are committed. In Hanging Devils, two instances of violence occur; one rape and murder, and one suicide or homicide. Since the story is set in 1980-90s, both the perpetrators and the victims have the characteristics of Chinese people during that period of time, and their characteristics shape the ways they commit their crimes. If it were set in the USA, for instance, it would have happened differently.

PK: Both you and your lead character Hong Jun received formative legal education in the US, then moved to China. How much of your views on criminal law are now “Chinese” vs “American”? How are they different?

HJH: Many readers of my novels think that Hong Jun is He Jiahong. Although Lawyer Hong does have some of my personal traits and reflects some of my life experience, he is definitely not an autobiographical character – he isn’t me! My legal education in the US did change my own views, as well as those of Hong Jun, on criminal justice. For instance, Hong Jun favors the attitude of Western criminal lawyers and he is proactively involved in the investigation of cases while most Chinese criminal lawyers would not investigate cases actively. One major difference in criminal procedure between China and the US is that the former has the inquisitorial tradition while the latter has the adversarial tradition which means that the roles of lawyers in criminal justice are quite different.

I hope that Hong Jun might be an inspiration to lawyers in China as I believe that Chinese lawyers will play a very important role in establishing the rule of law in this country. In my novels, I present Hong Jun as a "gentleman lawyer." I want to tell lawyers that practicing law is not only about making money. I want to remind them about their ethical responsibilities toward society.

PK: What is the most fascinating crime case that you have ever encountered? What made it so?

HJH: In October, 1994, some police officers came to Beijing from Heilongjiang. They came to our Forensic Science Center at Renmin University of China and they told us about a murder that happened in Heilongjiang in 1989. The defendant, Shi Dongyu, was convicted and served a life sentence in prison. However, new evidence showed that the murder might have been committed by another man. The officers wanted to know whether the aged blood stains they had discovered on some clothes were still good for DNA testing. We gave them a positive answer, but we did not do DNA testing for real cases so they went to the Forensic Medical Examination Center of Beijing Public Security Bureau, and got the proof that Dongyu was not the murderer. It was reported in the Legal Daily on July 21, 1995, and it became the first well-known case of wrongful conviction in modern China. I started to write my first crime novel in late 1994. That case provided me with basic ideas for Hanging Devils.

PK: What roles do women take on in your stories? Do they tend to be in supporting roles or play victims or femme fatales, or are they more than that?

HJH: There is a Chinese saying that “women are half of the sky” and they play important roles in my novels as well. Although my novels are labeled as crime fiction, love is one theme within the stories. I include love at three levels: physical love, sentimental love, and spiritual love - readers can find all the three represented by different characters in Hanging Devils, and may find all three in a single character, Li Hongmei, who is the unfortunate victim of the rape-murder case.

PK: How do your creative and academic sides reinforce each other? Which do you find influences the other more these days?

HJH: I am a jurist, and a novelist. Therefore I write novels of law, and often have novel ideas about law! I have published dozens of law books and five crime novels. I have to admit that I find writing novels far more enjoyable. I think, in my case, that legal study influences my writing more than the other way round evidenced by five of my books: Hanging Devils is about wrongful convictions, Crime of Sex is focused on criminal procedures, Crime of X is heavily influenced by my work from 2006 to 2008 as part-time Deputy Director of the Department of Anti-dereliction of Duty and Infringement on Human Rights at the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, Non-guilty Corrupt Officials is about fighting corruption, and Non-guilty Murder is a textbook for the law of criminal evidence. It is fair to say that in my novels, half is literature and half is law.

He Jiahong Interrogates Phillip Kim

HJH: You have worked in the finance industry for many years and are a successful banker, why did you want to write a novel, and what did you want to gain from the novel Nothing Gained?

PK: I have always had creative urges, but I had to set them aside over the course of my banking career because I was too busy to pursue any of them in earnest. However, my twenty years of investment banking in Asia have given me a wealth of amazing, thought provoking experiences. Finally, almost three years ago, a plot idea for a novel came to me, which has turned into Nothing Gained. I happen to be at the stage in my career where I can exercise some flexibility in my schedule to indulge such notions.

What have I gained from it? Certainly increased self-awareness of my abilities and limitations, as well as insights into the publishing industry. Beyond that, we’ll see. The jury is still out!

HJH: When writing this novel, did you prefer to have more imagination as a literary writer or more logical or rational thinking as a banker? Or, maybe, does a banker need more imagination than logical thinking?

PK: Imagination in all things is more important than logical thinking – it is a vital driver of any progress. Of course, too much imagination in banking can be a dangerous thing! By definition, writing a novel would be impossible without imagination. However, I also found that the years in banking helped me in the editing process. Bankers have to be analytical, exacting, and organized. Those mental disciplines gave me the ability to self-critique Nothing Gained and try to improve it as best as I could.

HJH: Do you believe in "the perfect crime," and did you let your character in this novel commit a perfect crime?

PK: History has shown that perpetrators of business crimes and fraud often end up much better off financially because of their misdeeds, even when caught out. Convicted financial criminals may serve jail time, get hit with significant financial penalties, and suffer public humiliation. However, if the aim was solely financial gain and the schemes were sophisticated enough to avoid getting fully unraveled by the authorities, then millions or even billions of dollars in illicit profits may be the ultimate reward.

Does something like that happen in Nothing Gained? Well, that would be telling…

HJH: Both you and Cheryl, the main character in this novel, are Korean Americans living in Hong Kong, how did you mix Korean culture, Chinese culture, American culture and English culture in your novel?

PK: My story is very much about the collision of cultures and nationalities that defines life in Hong Kong and the Asian banking scene. My characters range from Chinese to Korean American, American, Indonesian, Singaporean, Indian, Russian, Italian, French, Mongolian and Israeli. Nothing Gained is very much about how international interpersonal relationships can either integrate seamlessly or lead to cataclysmic misunderstandings. That is one of the most profound lessons that I have learned during my years in Asia.

I made my lead character, Cheryl, Korean American so that I could feel closer to her emotionally – how she was raised and how she feels being a third culture person living in a Chinese city.

HJH: When writing a crime novel or a thriller, which do you think is more important, character or story?

PK: I think they are equally important. A thriller would not be thriller unless it has a compelling, well-paced plot that has its share of intrigue, suspense and surprises. However, no one would be keen to sit through a 300 page novel unless they become emotionally involved with the characters. I found that creating the bad guys was more fun than the good guys. However, readers need to feel sympathy for the plight that the lead characters are in and want to root for them.

Tickets for Phillip Kim's and He Jiahong's literary festival events are on sale now at the Bookworm.