The Supernatural and Chinese Crime Fiction

Crime fiction has existed in China since ancient times, long before Western detective fiction emerged. Obviously there are a lot of differences between Chinese crime fiction and American or European detective novel tradition; one of these is the presence of the Supernatural at the side of the main character, the judge. is essay will explain the cultural and historical roots of the relationship between the Supernatural and justice in traditional Chinese crime ction and then discuss the attitude of the reader regarding supernatural occurrences. Finally, I will refer to Todorov’s theory and discuss the Chinese crime novel – Di gong’an and discuss the presence of the fantastic in this kind of literature. rough this work the reader can discover a new perspective on Chinese crime literature and a different way to approach the Supernatural in Chinese literature.