Fu Manchu

Dr. **Fu Manchu** is a fictional character in novels by British author Sax Rohmer in the first half of the 20th century.

The character was also featured in cinema, television, radio, comic strips and comic books for over 90 years He is an archetype of the evil genius.

## Details

The author's description of him was:
- "Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, ... one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present ... Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man".
–_The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu_

A master criminal, Fu Manchu's murderous plots are marked by a use of biological warfare. He usually avoids guns or explosives, preferring dacoits, thuggee, and members of other secret societies as his agents. They use knives, or "pythons and cobras ... fungi and my tiny allies, the bacilli ... my black spiders" and other peculiar animals or natural chemical weapons.

In the earliest books, Fu Manchu is an agent of the secret society, the _Si-Fan_. and is the mastermind behind a wave of assassinations of Western imperialists. In later books, he seeks control of the Si-Fan. The Si-Fan is largely funded through criminal activities, particularly the drug trade and white slavery. Dr. Fu Manchu has extended his already considerable lifespan by use of the _elixir vitae_ (elixir of life), a formula he spent decades trying to perfect.

Fu Manchu is opposed by a typical English detective of the Sherlock Holmes type: Denis Nayland Smith. Fu Manchu's daughter, Fah Lo Suee, is a devious mastermind in her own right, plotting to usurp her father's position in the Si-Fan, and aiding his enemies within and outside of the organisation. Her real name is unknown; Fah lo Suee was a childhood term of endearment. She has been played by Anna May Wong, Myrna Loy, and several other actresses.

## Criticism

Dr. Fu Manchu has been criticized as an overtly racist creation. A review in _The Independent_, says "These magnificently absurd books, glowing with a crazed exoticism, are really far less polar, less black-and-white, less white-and-yellow, than they first seem".

## Actors

Actors who have played Fu Manchu in movies include Boris Karloff (once), Warner Oland (four times), and Christopher Lee (five times).

Actresses who played his daughter Fa Lo Suee include Myrna Loy and Anna May Wong, but most of all by Tsai Chin, who played the role five times in the 1960s. The character of Fa Lo Suee was usually renamed to a form which could be pronounced more easily.

The other female character who appears in several of the stories, and hence in some of the films, is Karamaneh, styled "Kâramanèh".
The story-line is that she was sold to the Si-Fan by Egyptian slave traders while she was still a child. She appears in five novels of the series as a love interest.

## Books

1. _The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu_ (1913) (US title: _The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu_).
1. _The Devil Doctor_ (1916) (US title: _The Return of Dr Fu-Manchu_)
1. _The Si-Fan Mysteries_) (1917) (US Title: _The Hand of Fu Manchu_}
1. _Daughter of Fu Manchu_ (1931)
1. _The Mask of Fu Manchu_ (1932)
1. _The Bride of Fu Manchu_ (1933) (US Title: _Fu Manchu's Bride_)
1. _The Trail of Fu Manchu_ (1934)
1. _President Fu Manchu_ (1936)
1. _The Drums of Fu Manchu_ (1939)
1. _The Island of Fu Manchu_ (1941)
1. _The Shadow of Fu Manchu_ (1958)
1. _Re-Enter: Dr. Fu Manchu_ (1957) (US title: _Re-Enter Fu Manchu_)
1. _Emperor Fu Manchu_ (1959) was Rohmer's last novel.
- _The Wrath of Fu Manchu_ (1973) was a posthumous anthology. It had the title novella, first published in 1952, and three later short stories: _The Eyes of Fu Manchu_ (1957), _The Word of Fu Manchu_ (1958), and _The Mind of Fu Manchu_ (1959).
- Allison & Busby reprinted all the novels plus _The Wrath of Fu Manchu_ in five volumes of an omnibus edition, 1995 to 2000.