INTERVIEW/Mystery novels: Writer Mou Yip on how genre binds Hong Kong and Taiwan

By Chao Yen-hsiang, CNA staff reporter

When mystery writer Mou Yip (冒業) takes the stage at the Taipei International Book Exhibition (TiBE) on Feb. 7, it will be more than just a book talk to the 34-year-old Hong Konger.

His debut as an invited speaker at the largest book event in Taiwan will be an opportunity to highlight how Taiwan has helped keep the literary genre alive in Hong Kong and how mysteries help preserve the memories of a city that are currently being erased.

In a recent interview with CNA, Mou Yip shared his views on the significance of mystery novels in a world where truth is hard to anchor, the relationship between Taiwan and Hong Kong in developing the subgenre, and his decision to stay and write in Hong Kong.

Taiwan: Hong Kong's 'accomplice'

When it comes to mysteries, Hong Kong and Taiwan are intertwined, said Mou Yip (a pen name), a software engineer by trade.

Taiwan has long been the primary engine for Hong Kong's crime fiction authors, providing the awards and exposure that the city's home market lacks.

"It is difficult to sell mystery novels published in Hong Kong in Taiwan's market, but most of the time, those published in Taiwan are readily available in Hong Kong's bookstores," he said.

This asymmetrical relationship was reinforced by the biennial Soji Shimada Mystery Award and the 2015 TiBE Book Prize won by Hong Kong's Chen Ho-Kei (陳浩基), which drew unprecedented attention to Chinese-language mystery novels.

"In this sense, mystery novels in Taiwan and Hong Kong essentially thrive hand in hand," Mou Yip said.

Yet, the two markets combined still cannot support full-time mystery writers, a phenomenon reflected in the two characters used in the pen name "Mou Yip," which mean "off chasing side hustles."

But Mou Yip sees at least one advantage to the genre's "part-time" nature.

Since writers come from diverse professional backgrounds, he said, they bring specialized expertise to their plots, creating a pluralistic landscape.

"For example, since I work in software development, my writing naturally incorporates elements such as data mining, software systems, and information security," he said, traits fully on display in his first and best-known book "Five Nights of the Millennium" (千禧黑夜).

Mysteries and the truth

Though markets for the works of Mou Yip and others are waning, the writer believes mystery novels are gaining newfound importance as vital tools in a media era when "truth" is under siege.

With information technology lowering the barrier to fabricating and disseminating falsehoods, he said constant media stimulation has numbed the public, making it increasingly difficult to muster the vigilance required to parse truth from fiction.

Taiwan is not immune from this trend, he said.

"Despite being the most successful democracy in the Chinese-speaking world, we are seeing a devaluation of 'truth' and 'critical thinking' here."

In such an environment, mystery novels, which by nature champion those exact values, come to the fore.

"The characters' pursuit of truth feels more vital than ever as the world drifts in the opposite direction," he said.

In his own works, Mou Yip explores the relationship between humanity and technology, saying that "mystery fiction does have a way of subverting our habitual perceptions of technology."

Mystery novels can cast new light on the tools that govern our daily lives through the "tricks" featured in the ingeniously planned murders they describe, he said.

The genre "forces us to look at the objects we take for granted and re-examine the hidden possibilities we usually ignore."

Hong Kong as a choice

The enactment of Hong Kong's National Security Law in 2020 triggered a wave of migration to Taiwan. For Mou Yip, who chose to stay, the choice between "actively leaving" and "passively staying" was a false one given the heavy burdens both paths carry.

Exiles face a stark cultural gap despite shared values of democracy, while those who stay are often forced into what he calls "necessary silence."

This constraint makes the city's internal nuances far harder to grasp from the outside, said Mou Yip, who does not want his real name made public to keep his two identities as software engineer and writer separate.

"Sometimes we cannot even say, 'I must remain silent on this,'" he said, and that climate of opacity has made Hong Kong expatriates anxious that their memories of their homeland are slowly drifting away from reality.

"As a result, we see many authors who have left continue to write fervently about Hong Kong, in an effort to preserve it before their imagined version loses currency," he said.

In 2019, Mou contributed to a mystery collection titled "Detective Cafe" (偵探冰室), published by Hong Kong-based Starry Night Publications and believed to be the first of its kind to feature Hong Kong elements.

Since then, "Detective Cafe" has grown into a lively series, with each of its seven volumes to date exploring different aspects of the city.

While mystery remains a niche genre, Mou Yip believes such writing helps cultivate a sense of "Hong Kongness" that is fluid and evolving over time.

"As a creator, I think 'Hong Kongness' does exist, but it is not something you arrive at through discovery or definition," he concluded. "Rather, it is something that is practiced and realized through the act of creation."

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