On May 19, a promotional activity for the book “Murder in the Bell Tower” was scheduled for Reading Mi Bookstore at Uniwalk Shopping Center in Bao’an District, Shenzhen. The author, Qing Ke (literal meaning: highland barley*), made a surprise appearance and received rounds of applause from the enthusiastic audience. The crowds were so large at Uniwalk that day that the interview had to take place elsewhere.
His first work entered the finals of the Fifth Soji Shimada** Mystery Award, his novel “The Counterattack of A Detective Fiction Author” has been entered into the Third Chinese Detective Novel Competition, and his most recent work has an 8.8/10 score on Douban, a major Chinese social media website similar to Rotten Tomatoes. In other words, Qing Ke is a rising star in mystery novels and detective fictions.
However, the real identity of Qing Ke is a just a regular-looking STEM guy at SUSTech – Hong Ying. As a master’s student, Hong Ying graduated from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at SUSTech in 2016. His research projects have received funding and aid from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Shenzhen Municipality Basic Research Projects.
How does one person possess such different traits and still manage to achieve the best in both worlds? The interview will find out STEM student Hong Ying’s journey with literature.
Keep Pursuing His Dream and Let the Imagination Fly
During the eighth grade, Hong Ying’s first encountered detective fiction. But he only regarded it as a hobby until university. One day, he somehow read the works of Soji Shimada and Keigo Higashino and fell head over heels with this literary genre. During his studies at SUSTech graduate school, reading and writing detective fictions is an important way for him to relax after dealing with the intense workload in the classroom and laboratory.
It is worth noting that his major, Materials Science and Engineering, was a major inspiration for his writing process, despite how irrelevant the two seem to be. “STEM majors and literature are not as unrelated as people think – there’re many connections between the two fields. Many sci-fi novelists have an academic background in physics, such as the author of the Three-Body Problem Liu Cixin. Many of my fellow authors are also STEM major students who use their knowledge in physics and chemistry to create plot twists. For example, the famous ‘invisible ink’ that has appeared in tons of novels is essentially a litmus reagent reaction. I have also described alloys in my work, which goes through various phase changes as the temperature changes.”
Hong Ying also draws inspirations from his extracurricular activities. During the summer vacation, he went to his uncle’s house in the United States. As a Christian, his uncle often took him to nearby churches. The unique style of Gothic churches inspired Ying’s creativity, which led him to become one of the finalists of the fifth Soji Shimada Mystery Award with his work “Babel’s Dream.”
Keep Continus Hard Work Leads to Success
Reading is the basis of writing, and Hong Ying couldn’t agree more on that: “As far as I am concerned, detective novelists do not start writing until they have read dozens, if not hundreds of detective fiction novels. It took me about two days to finish one novel, and I read more than 300 novels in the past two years.” As the pace of life is getting increasingly faster, many people may agree that it is not easy to read books every day. Therefore, what Hong Ying has done as a STEM student with the heavy workload is impressive.
Hong Ying said he started writing because he enjoyed it. He never thought about being an actual writer of detective fiction. “It’s one thing to read novels, but it’s totally another thing to create one by yourself. Not every reader wants to be a writer. But when your interpretation of certain storylines or words is different from the author’s, you may want to create your own version, which could lead to professional writing.”
Academic life at SUSTech is challenging, and Hong Ying would usually return to his dormitory after 10 p.m. Nevertheless, he kept writing for an hour before sleep every day and finished the critically acclaimed book “Murder in the Bell Tower.”
“Writing novels can be hard. But once you get into the mode, you don’t feel tired anymore. I guess my motto is sticking to what you love and just go with it .” What Hong Ying just said may strike many people who keep postponing their New Year resolutions by saying “I don’t have time.” His actions also prove that if you want to do something, you will always manage to find time for it.
Building Friendship through Writing
The main motivation behind Hong Ying’s writing journey is the encouragement of his friends. Through writing and communicating with his peers, he has become friends with people from all walks of life and even found a romantic partner. One way for him to exchange ideas and engage in discussions with them is through Baidu Tieba, a Chinese social media platform like Reddit. In the Tieba of “Detective Novels,” Hong Ying found many original works posted by detection fiction enthusiasts, who later befriended him and encouraged him to post his own work. Ying’s first post in the “Detective Novels” Tieba received mixed comments, but those who harshly criticized him in the first place are now some of his best friends – a perfect example of the ancient Chinese proverb: no discord, no concord. As Ying gained more recognition and popularity, his serialized work “Floating Island Fantasy” was recommended by Tieba friends and eventually published in a magazine.
Ying also cites campus life as his inspiration for writing: “Sometimes, I will brainstorm with classmates since my own thoughts are limited. I may ask him/her ‘How does this character die in your opinion?’ I would encourage them to be as creative as possible, as it would spark many new ideas.” Because Ying is sensitive and observant of the surrounding environment, he has managed to add a huge amount of creativity and imagination on top of the logical thinking within his works.
Pursuing Big Dreams at SUSTech
After the college entrance examination (Gaokao) results were released, Hong Ying visited several science and technology universities. Because of the outstanding faculty, campus environment, and research facilities at SUSTech, he chose to enroll here as an undergraduate student. During the application process for graduate schools, he contacted SUSTech Materials Science Professor Guo Chuanfei who is a member of China’s 1000 Talents Program. Ying showed great admiration for Professor Guo and eventually chose SUSTech again to continue his studies. Throughout the years, he has enjoyed the campus life and felt the uniqueness of SUSTech: a newly found science and technology university with a strong emphasis on students’ overall development and humanities skills.
At SUSTech, Hong Ying was in the laboratory every day. Sometimes, he would spend time in the library and listens to a few lectures related to his field of study. He likes to watch movies and listen to music in his free time and describes himself as a semi-otaku***. Apart from more people knowing him as a professional writer, Ying’s life hasn’t changed much since the release of his new book. He is still the same boy, still focused on scientific research and a healthy lifestyle.
When being asked to offer suggestions for other STEM-major students who love literature, Hong Ying simply answered, “follow your heart” and “stop creating unnecessary rules and boundaries for yourself.” He reaffirmed that majoring is STEM will not be an obstacle for one’s pursuit in professional fiction writing at all. We sincerely hope that Hong Ying (aka Qing Ke) produce more fruitful results in both scientific research and detective fiction and become the best of both worlds.
Editor’s note:
*Highland barley is a highly resilient and adaptive plant on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (with Mount Everest as its peak), and its pronunciation in Chinese is also the same as the abbreviation of “young scholars in technology.”
**Soji Shimada is a Japanese mystery writer. His most well-known works include the Detective Mitarai Series and the Detective Yoshiki Series. His works often involve themes such as the death penalty, Nihonjinron (his theory on the Japanese people), and Japanese and international culture. He is a strong supporter of amateur Honkaku (i.e., authentic, orthodox) mystery writers. Shimada is sometimes referred to as “the God of Mystery.” The Taiwanese Soji Shimada Mystery Award received his support.
Keigo Higashino is a Japanese author chiefly known for his mystery novels. He served as the 13th President of Mystery Writers of Japan from 2009 to 2013 and won the 31st Edogawa Rampo Prize in 1985 for his novel “After School.”
***Otaku (Japanese) refers to a young person who loves to stay at home and is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture to the detriment of their social skills.
