On the Track of Robert van Gulik · Extrait « Boston, New York » · 4′52″

L'auteur laisse une piste, peut-être une indication, une intrigue dans laquelle le maître en personne tient le premier rôle.

Ma quête ressemble de plus en plus à une enquête issue d'un roman policier mis en scène par l'auteur.

Que reste-t-il finalement de Robert van Gulik et son alter ego, le juge Di, le légendaire Di Renjie ?

À Boston se trouve un homme qui porte le même nom, Mister Di.

I came to the United States in 1987. Back then, my mind was kind of set on: "Well, I am an immigrant. I am going to join the mainstream here." I would give up Chinese language for the moment and devoting myself in learning English. But then one day when I read a novel about Judge Di written by Van Gulik, I suddenly felt like: "Wow, this character or these characters depicted in his stories feel so close to me, so familiar, and make me laugh and want to cry and all that stuff." It is just so close, so Chinese.

The readers of Van Gulik's novel should have a pretty good understanding or new understanding about Chinese society and culture and history. And that is something that a normal detective story does not carry such kind of task. So the new readers of my book, even if they haven't read any Van Gulik stories, just from my single volume book called Tales of Judge Di, they can learn as much about Chinese culture and society and history.

I would like to use my pen only as a beginner, and Van Gulik is a great master. I am just a student following his footsteps.

The judge's office was adjacent to the court hall, separated from the lady's quarters. The two buildings were connected through a narrow corridor with a tiled roof. If the judge had wanted to join one of his wives, he had to walk through the corridor, likely to be noticed by the servants in the main kitchen. Not wanting to alarm anyone unnecessarily or to disturb the preparation of his dinner, Judge Di decided to stay in his office with his confidential advisor, Sergeant Hung Liang.

400 kilomètres plus loin, à Hoboken, juste en face de Manhattan, je rencontre John Thompson. Comme Robert van Gulik, John a été espion, mais pour la CIA, au Vietnam. 40 ans plus tard, il est un des rares joueurs restants de qin ou de luth, ainsi que Van Gulik nommait cet instrument.

John Thompson: I don't know that I would say that I strive to be like Van Gulik. I think it would be presumptuous of me to compare myself to Van Gulik.

When I went to Vietnam and I was not in combat, I was wearing civilian clothes, living in towns usually. And I had a chance to interact with normal Vietnamese people. And I was basically embarrassed that I didn't know anything about this area where I was living. So I started reading books, and at the military base, I found this book, Lore of the Chinese Lute by Van Gulik.