Tales of the Northeast: No Thieves

Set against the backdrop of China’s reform and opening up, this novel portrays social life in northern China from the 1980s through the years after 2000. It shows the rise and eventual fall of pickpocket gangs in Northeast China over those two decades, using the fates of several protagonists to reflect a changing society. Theft is an ancient trade, known in the old society as the “honorable way.” Governments throughout history have tried to stamp it out, but even the harshest punishments and laws failed. In China, however, the government’s crackdown has finally wiped out the trade. The characters in this book were born in the 1960s. The author believes that people born in that decade were a special generation: they experienced the Cultural Revolution in their youth, then came of age during reform and opening up. The rapid changes in society left these young people at a loss. The novel features a large cast and a winding, gripping plot. It looks back on history while painting a broad picture of life at the time. It also offers an in-depth analysis of criminals’ inner lives, motives, reasons for falling into crime, and relationships with one another, showing that good and evil are ultimately repaid. Readers will find themselves wanting to finish it in one sitting. As I wrote this book, the characters’ faces and voices were always with me. Whenever I recall those once-young, handsome faces and their brief, tragic lives, I can’t help feeling sorrow for them. I began writing this book simply to fulfill a wish of my own: to tell young people today that, back then, there was a group of people like this, and to share the stories of what happened to them. I want to tell you that the underworld is a road of no return. The story is tightly paced, realistic, and moving.