Well, this came as a surprise! I spotted an article about crime fiction in Le Monde diplomatique written by Michel Imbert, then wondered who Monsieur Imbert might be. It turns out he is Mi Jianxiu, the author of five crime fiction novels. His books are listed as written by Mi Jianxiu, translated by Michel Imbert.
Mi Jianxiu has written five novels:
Jaune camion, éd. de l'Aube, 2004
Rouge karma, éd. de l'Aube, 2005
Bleu Pékin, éd. de l’Aube, 2007
La mort en comprimés, éd. de l’Aube, 2008
Lotus et bouches cousues, éd. de l'Aube, 2009
Les disparus du Laogaï, éd. Rouergue, 2010
Michel Imbert teaches at the School of Architecture in Toulouse, where he works in the field of ATR (Arts et Techniques de la Représentation).
From Le Monde diplomatique (English edition), 18 March 2012:
China’s crime fiction, between Mao and Tao: Down these mean streets by Michel Imbert]
Though most things are now made in China, little of its crime fiction is translated. Which is a pity, because China has an ancient tradition of detective stories. Even now, surprisingly little Chinese literature is translated, especially genre fiction, and so the clichés of more than a century of popular European fiction persist in the collective imagination — the “yellow peril” and the “inscrutable Oriental”. The evil genius Fu Manchu, created in 1912 by ... (You'll need to subscribe to see the rest of this article)
Comments
Hi Helen Many thanks for the great job and your many interesting posts... Concerning Michel Imbert, I had the same reaction, but as French speaker, I read some of his books for a post on crime fiction on Rue89 and my blog www.mychinesebooks.com Problem is that although some of the plots are attractive, his books are written very quickly... If you are interested in crime stories, one chinese writer should be mentioned: He Jiahong, he is a university professor in People University in Beijing where I had the pleasure of an interview. His book "Blood Crime" is supposed to be published by Penguin but this has been dragging on for six years already; four of his novels have been translated into French and published by "Editions de l'Aube".
Bertrand Mialaret, March 24, 2012, 9:30a.m.
Thanks, Bertrand. At first I thought it was an April Fool's joke (Poisson d'avril), wild goose chase or a red herring, but then it all seemed to add up. I can't find your blog on Imbert/Mi - could you put up a link?
Helen Wang, March 24, 2012, 2:50p.m.
It is not a post on Michel Imbert but he is included in a post listing interesting detective novels with a chinese setting http://mychinesebooks.com/le-monde-chinois-nouvel-eldorado-du-roman-policier-2/?lang=en
Bertrand Mialaret, March 24, 2012, 6:05p.m.
Thank you.
Helen Wang, March 24, 2012, 7:18p.m.