Jimmy Qi

Born in 1962 in Beijing, Jimmy 'Monkey' Qi is a novelist who firmly subscribes to the philosophy that writers should live in the world, rather than take writing as a 'professional occupation'. After graduating from Beijing University of International Business and Economics, Jimmy's successful business career led him to spend three years in Tokyo, and then from 1989 - 1998 he was a resident of Canada. Currently he is an Associate Professor at the College of Continuing Education at Beijing Language and Culture University. A talented linguist, in addition to Mandarin, Jimmy is fluent in eight languages, including Japanese, French, Esperanto, and Korean. His first published work, in 1999, was 'Mother Tongue', an essay on linguistics.

Writing

Jimmy's fictions are distinguished by a tolerant but satirical humour. This reflects his belief that the writer should 'write to let people laugh and be happy, but these joys must come from the bitterness of the writer, which makes true humor possible'; and that humor is 'candy for readers, but Chinese medicine for the writer'. Another of Jimmy's sayings is that 'A cat has 9 lives, but a writer must have more than 18 eyes'. Jimmy does not revise his work, submitting the first draft as final. Even in his business days he was a prolific writer, and remembers that when his boss caught him working on his novels in the office, he would usually claim to be writing a 'marketing plan'.

Jimmy's major work, a 'Trilogy of Toilets' was published in 2000. In 2004 he published an essay, 'A Dialogue With A Tiger', a work of philosophy and art criticism. His latest novel, 'Farewell To Waiqi' was published in March 2006. In total he has written 7 other novels. He is married with one daughter.