Sax Rohmer - The Fu Manchu Series

The Fu Manchu Series

After penning Little Tich in 1911 (as ghostwriter for the Music Hall entertainer) he issued the first Fu Manchu novel, The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu, also serialized from October 1912 - June 1913. It was an immediate success, with its fast-paced story of Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie facing the worldwide conspiracy of the 'Yellow Peril'. The Fu Manchu stories, together with his more conventional detective series characters—Paul Harley, Gaston Max, Red Kerry, Morris Klaw (an occult detective), and The Crime Magnet— made Rohmer one of the most successful and well-paid authors of the 1920s and 1930s. The first three Fu Manchu books were published in the four years 1913-17; but it was not until 1931 (some fourteen years after the third book in the series) that Rohmer returned to the series with The Daughter of Fu Manchu. The reason for the long interval was that Rohmer wanted to be well and truly done with the series after THE SI-FAN MYSTERIES, much as Arthur Conan Doyle did with Sherlock Holmes. The first three books had been successfully filmed by Stoll in the twenties as a pair of serials. In 1928, Rohmer bowed to pressure and agreed to write a fourth novel as a serial for Collier's. Paramount had the first Warner Oland picture gearing up for production and the daily newspaper strip based on the series was in the offing. There was public demand for the character's return.

Rohmer's first effort at reviving the Fu Manchu property was eventually reworked as THE EMPEROR OF AMERICA. The original intent had been for the head of the organization to be Fu Manchu's daughter. He kept Head Centre as a female criminal mastermind to combat Drake Roscoe, but was very unhappy with the book both as it started and in its finished form. He would later return to Drake Roscoe and his female supervillain for the SUMURU series. In the meantime, he tried again to focus his energies on what was first titled FU MANCHU'S DAUGHTER for Collier's in 1930, but with an older (now knighted) Nayland Smith as the protagonist once more. The results were infinitely better and jump-started the series in the process.

In the twenty-eight years from 1931 to 1959, Rohmer added no fewer than ten new books to the Fu Manchu series, meaning the series totals thirteen books in all (not counting the posthumous collection The Wrath of Fu Manchu).

The Fu Manchu series drew much criticism from the Chinese government and Chinese communities in the US for what was seeing as negative ethnic stereotyping.Sociologist Virginia Berridge notes Rohmer created a false image of London's Chinese community as crime-ridden, noting the Limehouse Chinese were one of the most law-abiding of London's ethnic minorities. Critic Jack Adrian notes that "Rohmer's own racism was careless and casual, a mere symptom of his times".