Learning By Doing: China Convicts Crime Novelist Who Murdered People As Part Of His ‘Research’

It is not unheard of actors attempting to live the role of the characters they’re supposed to play in order to get things right. Similarly, it isn’t unheard of for authors to spend a vast amount of time doing meticulous research before they write a book.

Acclaimed Chinese crime novelist Liu Yongbiao and his associate Wang Mouming were last week convicted by Huzhou Intermediate People’s Court in Zhejiang of robbing and murdering the people that Liu wrote about in his novel The Guilty Secret. Liu had murdered a family of three and a lodger at a guesthouse in 1995, which then formed the plot of his 2010 novel.

Liu was arrested in 2017 for his crime. The New York Times reports that two duo had originally planned to only rob other guests in the guesthouse but were caught by a guest who they ended up killing. They then beat the couple who ran the establishment to death along with their 13-year old grandson.

Over time, Liu became successful as a writer, and in 2013 was accepted into the China Writer’s Association. He was also awarded a local literary prize, according to China Daily.

The police reopened the cold case in June last year and thanks to advancements in forensic techniques were able to nab Liu.

Liu was awarded the Anhui Literature Prize for his collection of stories titled A Film and was working on his second novel The Beautiful Writer Who Killed when he was arrested.

In the preface to The Guilty Secret, he mentioned that he was keen on writing a novel about a murderer who got away with his crime and that he was inspired by crime novels, movies and television shows.