In Bad Traffic I wrote about a Chinese cop searching or his daughter in the UK. I wanted to show familiar territory from a fresh new perspective; and there’s great drama in someone trying to investigate in an alien country where they can’t even speak the language. For the sequel it seemed natural to keep him here, so I made him a target of China’s notorious ‘tigers and flies’ anti-corruption campaign - knowing he’ll be arrested on trumped up charges if he goes home, he has no choice but to live on as an illegal immigrant, reluctant daughter in tow.
In No Exit they are living a precarious existence in a slum block of flats, beholden to a sleazy landlord. Their situation worsens when Jian is blackmailed by a gang into hunting down a thief who has robbed a Mah Jiang den. The trail leads them, unexpectedly, to elite society, and another kind of high rise, a penthouse in a new development on the Isle of Dogs.
The seed for the plot of No Exit was the observation that some of the richest and the poorest Londoners are mainland Chinese. The poorest, like Jian live in a twilight world, at the mercy of unscrupulous gangmasters and landlords. Though, unlike many Chinese at the bottom, at least Jian is not beholden to a snakehead people smuggling gang, working off a high interest debt.
As for the richest… they are often young, here to study, as a qualification from a British university carries prestige back home. Cash-strapped British universities love high-paying Chinese students, and some London colleges have up to a forty percent Chinese intake. Economics and the like used to be the most popular subjects, but now it seems to be the graphic arts. The kids are supposed to have a TOEFL English language score above a certain level - but it is not uncommon to find students who are clearly nowhere near that score. They are confident that their universities won’t fail them and are probably right: it would shut down a lucrative pipeline. (Knowing this, you have to wonder how long a British education will have any prestige in China. Or anywhere else).
Among these kids are ‘princelings’ (tai zidang) - the children of the mainland political elite. With Chinese politics growing uncertain it can be a good idea to stow your kids far away. As the benefactors of nepotism, they are often much resented by other Chinese.
Others will be ‘white gloves’ (bai shoutao) - used for money laundering. The emigre can control a foreign bank account that can be stuffed with illicit cash from home. Wealth equivalent to two percent of China’s GDP is estimated to be hidden abroad.
It's an urgent business because (as Jian well knows) the Chinese government does not mess around when it catches you: I know an ex-pat Chinese who was asked to become emergency adoptee for a mainland baby, as its parents, both customs officials, had been found guilty of corruption and were about to executed.
To try to understand how these groups might see the city I interviewed among both. The wealthy students described feeling more at home in Canary Wharf than in Chinatown. They liked English tea, the parks and green spaces and the heritage buildings, though wondered where the London that they knew from costume dramas had gone - no bowler hats or gentleman culture. The poor, on the other hand, were brutally matter of fact: to them the city was expensive and unforgiving, and they only cared about opportunities to make money.
Rich, rather naive kids abroad for the first time, and desperate illegals: there is much dramatic potential in a story that takes in these very different extremes. I think crime fiction is particularly suited for this kind of broad presentation of society’s highs and lows - I think it’s the modern form that a writer like Dickens would feel most comfortable with! I hope that readers appreciate the attempt to show groups too little written about in the west, and the familiar seen from a different angle - as well as a rollercoaster story full of twists and turns, taking in, as well as cultural dislocations, kidnap, blackmail, gambling and gangsters.
No Exit by Simon Lewis (Sort of
Books) £9.99 Out Now
Inspector Jian and his daughter
Weiwei just want to go back to their home in China: but Jian is facing a
corruption charge in his absence and risks arrest. Instead, he tries to scrape
a living on London's meanest streets as an illegal immigrant, reduced to
hustling Mah Jiang for cash. A bleak future looks to be growing bleaker still
when a triad gang blackmail him into tracking down an unlikely young robber. In
No Exit Jian and Weiwei scramble between London's grimiest bedsits and its
swankiest penthouses as they penetrate the glittering world of 'princelings' -
the rich children of the Chinese elite, who treat the city as their playground.
Locked in a desperate struggle, with no way out in sight, it will take all
their wiles, as well as some lucky gambles, to come out of this latest venture
alive.
More information
about Simon Lewis and his work can be found on his website and at Inspectorjian.com He can also be
found on Facebook @SimonLewisauthor and on Instagram @Simon7684
Author photo ©Mark Pengelly
