Henry Chang: My close friends are really down with it, really supportive. They truly empathize because Chinatown Beat is their story also, and they feel that it's about time some real stories came out of Chinatown.

Gumshoe: Chinatown Beat is a solid piece of noir crime fiction, and the setting and characters make it a compelling story. How did the book come about, and how did the story evolve as you wrote it?

Henry Chang: There were a lot of streetwise stories knocking around in my head, banging to get out. For a period I was writing short vignettes, little stories about everyday life in Chinatown, during a time when violence ruled the streets. I started stringing some of those stories together, and the book, "Year of the Dog," as it was previously known, started to evolve.

A lot of the crime I've drawn from happened at night, so naturally that's where the noir shaped itself, where the poolrooms, bars, dance parties, and gambling joints started jamming after dark.

Of course there's always the plot to consider, but essentially, I told the story the way I saw it in my head, beginning to end.

Gumshoe: How long have you been writing fiction? What got you started? Whose writing do you admire?

Henry Chang: I've been writing fiction for fifteen, twenty years, and tried writing screenplays before that.

What inspired me was hearing Asian-American voices from books like John Okada's No-No Boy, Louis Chu's Eat a Bowl of Tea, and writers like Frank Chin, Jeff Chan, David Louie.

It's an eclectic, morphing collection but the writers I admire most now, in no particular order, are Chang Rae-Lee, Richard Price, Iris Chang, Amy Tan, Carlos Castenada, and Tom Wolfe.

Gumshoe: Are you a mystery reader? If so, what got you started and what have you read recently? How about films and TV?

Henry Chang: I'm not really a die-hard mystery reader, but in college I came across the Agatha Christie series, and Lawrence Sanders' books as well. But I enjoy different genres and topics, like history, crime, and Asian literature.

Recently, I've touched on, again, an eclectic list; my friend Sam Fromartz's Organic, Inc., and also A Pickpocket's Tale, The Opium Wars, Samaritan, and The Body Artist.

As for films and TV, I thought Crash was neatly done, and revisiting Memento was fun. On TV, the Human Trafficking production was notable. Other than that, it's usually CNN, CI, CSI, or sports.

Gumshoe: Your 1994 Manhattan is dark, seamy, and according to Jack, dying. Is it still like that under the skin, or is this just Jack's worldview?

Henry Chang: In some ways, in parts of low-rent Manhattan post-911, the city is still dying, but in subtle and different ways. There are still certain neighborhoods you shouldn't go near too late at night, even if they look gentrified. On party weekends, people are still killing each other somewhere in the inner-city slices of Manhattan. Women are still assaulted everywhere, anywhere. Pedophiles are snatching kids off the street. Teenagers are still getting stoned on Chelsea streets waiting to get assaulted, and kids are killing each other over iPods, and Air Jordans.

In the tonier parts of Manhattan you don't see it, feel it, as much. The homeless are moved along, or tucked away in shelters, out of sight. The worldview had evolved, but that same negative tension throbs just beneath the surface.

Gumshoe: I'm sure I'm blinded by my suburban New Jersey roots and the high tech world I've worked in most of my life, but I don't think I've ever encountered the kind of prejudice that Jack meets daily in the NYPD. Was it really like that in the mid-90s, and how much has it changed?

Henry Chang: The late 60s and the 70s were real bad, a lot of violent street gangs, a lot of bad cowboy cops bending the law, and other cops who couldn't care less.

The 90s weren't as bad. A lot of things got cleaned up by then, on both sides of the law, but underneath, not all that much has changed. There are more yellow cops now, but in general, they don't get the respect they deserve, and if you ask any black cop, you will hear that prejudice still exists in the NYPD.

Gumshoe: Though most people immediately think of Charlie Chan, when you ask them to name a Chinese detective character, there was actually a British television series called The Chinese Detective during the early 80s. It starred British born David Yip as Detective Sergeant John Ho and, though I haven't seen it, it appears to have dealt with some of the issues that Jack Yu faces. Have you seen it? Are there any other portrayals of Chinese detectives that hit close to the mark?

Henry Chang: I've not seen the British series, and I'm not aware of any other portrayals of Chinese detectives that even comes close to the mark.

Gumshoe: Do you currently live in Chinatown? If not, how does it feel when you go back?

Henry Chang: I currently reside in the Chinatown expanse.

Gumshoe: Besides writing Jack Yu's adventures, what are you into?

Henry Chang: When I'm not writing, I'm usually reading, for research or pleasure. Music is a necessary joy and digital photography, DVDs, and the occasional racks of nine ball in a mellow poolroom are comfort food. Otherwise, in Manhattan, everything else is sex, drugs, alcohol and rock 'n roll

Gumshoe: Where is Jack Yu off to next? Will we be seeing more of Alex, the "pushy" lawyer he's gotten to be friends with? Will he be crossing paths with Lucky again? What's the next book's title, and when can we look for it?

Henry Chang: Tune into book two, tentatively titled Year of the Dog, hopefully in 2007, to see whether Jack Yu's further investigations involves Alex, or Lucky, or any other of the characters in Chinatown Beat.