Black Holes and sunshine laws
- By Eric Daly
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E-mail Beijing review, April 22, 2015
Art imitating life
For He, art and activism are not mutually exclusive activities. The final two books in his Hong Jun quintology examine the fictional implementation of a "sunshine law" for corrupt officials that He himself has campaigned for in real life. His fourth novel, Not Guilty Corrupt Official, is set in a fictional city in Guangdong Province where an amnesty of this kind has been declared. Such a law would allow officials to privately and without fear of prosecution hand over ill-gotten liquid and non-liquid assets. The idea came from visiting Hong Kong, which passed a similar law in 1977 amid widespread police corruption. The reasoning was that processing each outstanding case of corruption would take between 40-50 years.
The professor figured that amnesty could similarly benefit law and order in China. Over 2008, He published seven articles in Legal Daily espousing the merits of such an initiative and reckons they might have somewhat influenced public opinion. The innovation has provoked government interest and trials have been conducted at provincial level. The difficulty is that a sunshine law may prove unpopular among the public. Owing to the Chinese people's strong sense of justice, it may be seen as "going soft" on corruption. The law may also encounter opposition from officials as, according to He, some may possess property unfit for declaration.
With the rising popularity of He's translated novels, one supposes that it is only a matter of time before Hollywood comes a-knocking. As to the question if he would have any problem with his works being relocated to present-day China or even the United States, He replies that his attitude would be "do whatever you want." He also reveals that one of his novels was recently scheduled for adaptation but that the project fell through owing to the passing last year of the famous Chinese director Wu Tianming, who had been slated to helm the production.
His reticence to write a screenplay is understandable. On the way out of his office, He mentions that he is busy working on a second revamp of Crime of Blood, the book's third Chinese edition, in addition to his ever-burgeoning teaching and research duties. Keeping this in mind, I leave Professor He to his books, his musings and dreams of a better China.
Profile
Born in Beijing in 1953, He Jiahong is professor of law of evidence at the Law School of Renmin University of China, with research interests including criminal investigation, forensic linguistics and the criminal justice system. In addition, he has held part-time positions including deputy director of Renmin University's Research Center for Criminal Justice and director of the university's Institute of Evidence Law.
He has acted as a visiting scholar at third-level institutions in Australia, the United States and Japan, and is frequently the "go-to" expert for overseas media covering legal matters in China, having been interviewed by, among others, the Financial Times.
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