The Eye of Jade
by Diane Wei Liang
Picador
PS3612 L693E 2008 Central Library
In her first novel, Diane Wei Liang has spun a tale revolving around a search for a Han Dynasty artifact of great value known as the Eye of Jade. Mei Wang, the owner of an information consultancy in Beijing but in actual fact a female private eye, had been implored by Uncle Chen, a close friend of her mother, to look for the Eye of Jade which was illegally taken from a museum during the Cultural Revolution. Mei’s investigations bring her into contact with her past, and leads her to reassess her relationship with her mother. In the process, Mei learns that nothing is ever quite what it seems even the Eye of Jade.
Diane Wei Liang, a native of Beijing but now teaching business management in London, has given us a fascinating peek into life in modern Beijing. She captures vividly the hustle and bustle of the city and paints a contrasting picture of life for the inhabitants – the headlong pursuit of material wealth, the excesses of the nouveau rich and the powerful and the struggles of he less fortunate. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and look forward to the next installment of the Mei Wang mystery series.