Dr Hermes Reviews - FU MANCHU

Reasons behind the "Yellow Peril" phenomenon "Yellow Peril" is usually dismissed in modern commentary as pointless Evil Prejudice, and certainly the mistreatment of harmless immigrants just hoping for a better life was indefensible. But on an international scale, the Yellow Peril must have seemed pretty plausible in 1913. This was the closing time of an age of imperialism when every European power (including the United States, with their dealings in the Philipines) basically carved up the globe as quickly as they could and established forced colonies. This was possible mostly because it was the Western nations who had battleships and machine guns, which are hard to resist with spears and arrows. After the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty and the establishment of a rather unstable republic in China (complete with savage warlords running amok), governments in the West must have thought, "Oh, hell.Now it`s our turn." If China with its huge population starts on it's campaign of empire-building, we;re in deep trouble. As it happened, twenty years later, quite a different Asian nation joined the imperialistic club and we all know how that turned out. Japan had its turn at trying what the Western nations had been doing for a century. This background is part of what gives Dr Fu Manchu much of his immense dramatic power. He was seen as a forerunner of a new Asian empire that would sweep the world and drive the Europeans back to their own homelands. Of course, it was the wonderfully overheated and melodramatic prose of Sax Rohmer that made Fu Manchu stand out above all his other literary competitors.

DAUGHTER OF FU MANCHU

(Nov 16, 2001)

SEVERE SPOILERS AHEAD Ready?

From 1930, this is not a completely successful entry in the series, losing momentum badly in the middle after a strong, atmospheric beginning. There's a long stretch where none of the characters seem to know what's going on (and nothing much is), but everything does tie together in the end for a great finish.

It had been more than a dozen years since the previous romp THE HAND OF FU MANCHU, and Sax Rohmer had been turning out a variety of books, which the public enjoyed but which received none of the notoriety (or sales) of the Fu Manchu series. Like Arthur Conan Doyle before him, Rohmer found he had created a character that seemed to live for its own purposes. At the end of HAND, Fu Manchu's ship had been sunk in a storm and the wreckage found, and apparently had gone to his ancestors. But there was still his daughter to take over...

 Some of the dramatic effect of DAUGHTER OF FU MANCHU is diminished because we know Fu Manchu survived, and even someone picking up the book for the first time will notice there are ten more in the series. But to a reader in 1930, the suspense as Fah Lo Suee's schemes meet interference by a mysterious Dr Amber must have intense, and the appearance of the Devil Doctor actually on stage must have had real impact.

The book is narrated by Shan Greville, the young archaeologist who is engaged to Rima, daughter of the insufferable Sir Lionel Barton-- the same three characters we will meet again in MASK OF FU MANCHU. To be honest, Shan is a pretty dim guy, nice enough but not very bright and his narration shows it. Reading the book, you sometimes want to yell, "No, you idiot, don't open that door!"

Fah Lo Suee herself has never particularly made an impression on me (in fact, I liked Cay Van Ash's interpretation of her in FIRES OF FU MANCHU much better than Rohmer's own). For the leader of the ancient, world-threatening Si-Fan, she never seems to have a clear agenda or show much leadership. She has no genius like her father, in medicine or science or anything else (although she is good with languages). And she has one overwhelming weakness in her carnal desires. Fah Lo Suee certainly seems to be using Shan as a living sex doll, when he's drugged or not; it's never explicitly stated but there are plenty of hints, as when he refers to himself as her concubine and she promises, "For you, Shan, I have pleasant duties in China.."

 Romance, infatuation, simple hot sweaty sex-- all of these are very important in the Fu Manchu stories. The heroes are often so drunk with passion that they can't think straight and Dr Petrie is such a smitten puppy that he's hilarious. Now this is just speculation (here we go again), but I think this is the key to the unspoken bond between Fu Manchu and Nayland Smith.

Think about this: For the embodiment of the Yellow Peril, Fu Manchu significantly never indulgences in lust, never threatens to mar the heroine's virtue, never even makes a suggestive remark (very unusual for an Asian villain of that time). He does have a daughter of course, and in BRIDE OF FU MANCHU he's planning to impregnate a woman he has raised himself (ewww...) but this is a dispassionate project to create an heir. Fu Manchu has basically sublimated his sexual drive.
  
And so has Nayland Smith. Right from the first book, he is bitter and distrustful of women, and there are hints of some tragedy in his past (betrayal? divorce?) that are never expanded upon. As things stand, it seems that a lot of Smith's feverish nervous energy stems from his repressed sexual nature.

There is one moment where the Doctor hints at this similarity between them. In PRESIDENT FU MANCHU, the supercriminal says, "You are one of the few men whom I have encountered in a long life of sufficient strength of character to look me in the eyes... I know by what self-abnegation you have achieved this control." I think that's about as explicit as Rohmer could get in 1930, but it does explain some of the kinship these two lifelong enemies feel.

There are a few other points worth noting. 'Fah Lo Suee' means 'sweet perfume" (well, according to Rohmer) and it's not her actual name, any more than "Fu Manchu" is her father's true name. It was 'her pet name in nursery days"and her mother was a Russian woman.

Also, it's astonishing the number of murderous secret societies allied under the Si-Fan: the Dacoits of Burma, the Thugs and Phansigars of India, the Hashishin of Syria, the Republican National Committeee, the Sea-Dyaks of Borneo (had to look those guys up), Turks and Afghans...man! All that are missing are the ninja and yakuza. (I was going to mention the Illuminati, but have been warned not to.) Here's another idea for a Fu Manchu book if the series is ever revived: the Doctor versus the Godfather in 1930s Sicily as the Si-Fan attempts to take over the Mafia. I'd buy a copy.

THE MASK OF FU MANCHU (Oct 27, 2001)     From 1932, this is enjoyable and more epic than most of the books in the series, but it definitely has some pacing problems. The story sets out rather leisurely and seems to take forever to get going (Fu Manchu isn't MENTIONED until page 50 and doesn't actually appear until page 70), then it's compelling and exciting for a lengthy stretch (climaxing in the terrific scene at the Great Pyramid), but then it slackens again until the neat little twist at the end. Definitely, this book does not follow the formula of increasing crises until the big payoff, but that's a nice change in itself.            MASK tells of the Devil Doctor's attempts to claim the artifacts of a long dead Veied Prophet named Mokanna. Over a thousand years earlier, this heretic proclaimed a 'New Koran' and his followers are still waiting for his return, upon which they will set out to conquer the world. With the text of the radical religious work, the huge sword and gold mask (as in the title of this book), Fu Manchu has ideas about throwing the English out of Egypt and beginning his life's work of establishing a new world order.            The artifacts have been claimed by an insufferably egotistical and combative Sir Lionel Barton, whose gorgeous daughter Rima is engaged to his own assistant, Shan Greville (we met these folk in the previous volume DAUGHTER OF FU MANCHU). Shan, who narrates the story, is an okay guy, not much different from Sax Rohmer's other young surrogate heroes; Rima is pretty much a blank spot on the page. Sir Lionel himself is an irritating pain in the arse, who enjoys causing trouble for everyone and who makes Nayland Smith's job enormously more difficult. As much as I disliked the character, he is vivid and much like real people we all know; just because Shan and Rima think he's a fine old ruffian doesn't mean we have to share their views.      Fu Manchu is much less bloodthirsty and murderous in this adventure, being responsible for only one death and not indulging in any of the hair-raising tortures he used earlier. There is a lot of empasis on his honor and nobility, despite the fact that he kidnaps and brainwashes people left and right here. When we last saw him, Fu Manchu was decrepit and half alive, walking with a stick and just about ready for Si-Fan nirvana. Here he shows up vigorous and energetic, seemingly thirty years younger. This is where we learn that he has solved the mystery of the Elixir Vitae-- the secret of eternal life.           Considering that Nayland Smith, who must have been born sometime around the mid-1880s, is still outrunning a mob and punching out thugs as late as 1948 and running around China in disguise as late as 1959, I have a suspicion that (for his own inscutable reasons) the Doctor has given Smith a slug or two of the Elixir on the occassions when the Englishman has been a prisoner. There is a line here that could be interpreted as supporting this:  When they meet, Nayland Smith grudgingly congratulates the Chinese mastermind on looking so spry, and Fu Manchu says, "I am, I thank you, restored again to normal health. And I note with satisfaction that you, also, are your old vigorous self." Why 'satisfaction'? Was Fu Manchu experimenting on his favorite opponent?              Far from being a simple Chinese society, the Si-Fan has become a network of all the world's secret conspiracies. Smith states, "I believe that there is no secret society of this character, however small or remote, which is not affiliated to the organization known as the Si-Fan." To the dacoits of Burma and the Thugs of India, we add here the Ogboni, a secret Voodoo society from Dahomey, who have come under the Doctor's command. You have to wonder what other groups were in on it. The Knights Templar? The ninja? SPECTRE? HYDRA? Maybe it's better not to inquire too deeply...            Fah Lo Suee makes an enigmatic appearance, ostensibly under her father's authority but (of course) with her own agenda. She's by no means the cold, calculating strategist she sometimes seems to be in the movies. Fah Lo Suee has a steamy passion for the manly, buff young archaeologist, even though she tells Shan, "you are really not very clever." There is the implication that she is having sex with the English dude during the periods where he's brainwashed and which he doesn't remember later. But she's not just using him for her own carnal desires, as she definitely has feelings in the matter. "The false is valueless to me, and the true I can never have." In her own way, Fah Lo Suee is pretty mixed up, the sort of person with contradictory impulses that prevent real happiness.           And, just as Fu Manchu is so often compared to Seti I, so is Fah Lo Suee described as looking much like Nefertiri. Of course, she is only half Chinese and her father apparently came from the northern part of the country, where the folk are generally taller and lankier.         Dr Petrie, who in the earlier books seemed to be a bit dense and unprofessional, is here described as being wealthy enough from his published accounts of the Doctor that doesn't he need to work. He keeps an active practice because he's a born healer and it's what he loves. Fu Manchu thinks Petrie could have been a world-famous surgeon if he had just a bit more ambition. And having to deal with Sir Lionel makes Nayland Smith realize how solid and sensible Petrie is.           The ending is a really neat stinger that, to be honest, took me by surprise. Earlier, in an exchange of the Mokanna artifacts for the abducted Rima, Sir Lionel pulled a fast one while Fu Manchu (as always) kept his word. Everyone is waiting to see what horrifying vengeance the offended supercriminal will exact, but the actual deed is a twist that shows a sense of humour from our favorite villain.

THE BRIDE OF FU MANCHU

(Oct 4, 2001)
              
From 1933, this is a completely satisfying story, lagging only a bit toward the very end before the final scene. Rohmer's style is very much in the English thriller tradition of John Buchan, a bit slower paced, with more introspection and fuller descriptions than the more headlong momentum of American pulps. One of the best things about Rohmer is that that he can pull complete surprises on even veteran readers of adventure fiction, and make it all credible.
           
It can be seen here how very much Ian Fleming learned from his youthful devotion to Sax Rohmer. Not just the larger than life villains or the grandiose schemes or exotic locales, although those are certainly present, but in the crucial part romance plays in both writers' stories. An aspect of both the Fu Manchu and James Bond books that goes too often unnoticed is that the elaborate plans of powerful supercriminals are repeatedly ruined because of simple, natural attraction between a woman in the villain's entourge and the hero. Reading these books again, it's remarkable how such a basic (and one might think, corny) principle recurs.
           
The repeated betrayal of Fu Manchu by his daughter, accomplices and (in this case) by Fleurette is not a simple plot contrivance. Cold and unloving, the great mastermind cannnot compete with the young, passionate heroes who usually are completely sincere in the way they fall headlong in love with the women.
         
In this book, Fu Manchu is planning to unleash a horrifying new plague on the world by releasing the hybrid insects he and his captive scientists have been breeding in a secret laboratory near Monte Carlo. Because he has been working for Dr Petrie (the Dr Watson figure of these stories), a young botanist with the very dashing name Alan Sterling is outraged as Petrie is seemingly murdered by dacoits* sent by Fu Manchu. Only Petrie had an antidote to the Purple Shadow plague which the Chinese mastermind is preparing to let loose. At the same time, Sterling is hopelessly smitten with a beautiful teen-aged girl named Fleurette, whom he meets by accident and daydreams about thereafter.
          
Fleurette has been raised from infancy by the staff of Fu Manchu, educated and kept healthy so that she can eventually produce a son for him. (His daughter Fah Lo Suee has been a real disappointment to him-- raising her own followers, spoiling his plans, letting his enemies go free. At one point, he is so offended that he formally flogs her.) Yet despite her upbringing, Fleurette remains warm and human, and she returns Sterling's infatuation almost on sight. Fu Manchu always underestimates free will, another reason he ultimately fails so many times.
           
As to Fleurette's true parents, from whom she was kidnpped as a baby, they're members of the cast of these books...but let's not spoil the surprises for fans of pulp adventure and mystery who haven't read this yet.
            
A big part of the Fu Manchu series' popularity is its strong elements of horror. The Doctor has a staff of brainwashed geniuses and scientists from many nations, and he has acquired these men by first faking their deaths (with his catalepsy serum) and then digging them up after the funerals and reviving them in his lairs. Worse yet, people under the coma-inducing drug are fully conscious of their own wakes and burials! Fu Manchu also is using his enhanced creepy crawling bug armies, carrying various noxious diseases. Worst among these is a spider with a body as big as a grapefruit. When Sterling approaches its cage, "it moved slightly forward as we approached. Unmistakably, it was watching us; it had intelligence." Yikes. Not to mention that in the litter in its nest were bones...
            
Then there's the rampaging homunculus, a mindless misshapen brute whose skin "glistened moistly like the skin of an earth-worm". This hairless man escapes from his incubator and throws the facility into a panic. And this is just one of Fu Manchu's smaller outposts. What else is he up to?
            
The Doctor's opium habit has always seemed out of character to me, a bit of the traditional sytereotyping of that era, but Sterling here reflects that the opium stupors are the only times Fu manchu's hyperactive, over-developed brain gets some needed sleep. And once again, Nayland Smith passes up a chance to end his long duel with his enemy. Standing with a loaded pistol, alone and unsuspected in the facility, Smith considers executing the mass-murderer but can't bring himself to do it. What exactly is the deal with these two? They so often pass up chances to finish each other off that something strange must be boiling just under the surface.
             
The Doctor's later crusade against Communism, seemingly abritrary, is revealed as early as this book. Discussing his global domination plans, Fu Manchu mentions with mild disdain world leaders opposing him...until he gets to Russia. Here he become agitated. Later he makes a furious reference to "those half-starved slaves of Stalin's." And of course, relations between China ("my China", as the Doctor fondly says) and Moscow have always been a bit acrimonious.
            
My favorite line in the book is actually a rather revealing throwaway. Climbing a rocky cliff high over the Mediterranean, barely keeping his footing on a narrow path, Nayland Smith mutters, "Heavens! This is getting rather TOO exciting." I just love the understatement in that remark.
  _____________
*Dacoits, usually in these books meaning a group of Burmese assassins working for Fu Manchu, were and are actually brigands operating in Burma and India. A quick search through recent news stories shows they are still numerous, active and dangerous.

THE TRAIL OF FU MANCHU (Nov 24, 20001) From 1934, following closely on BRIDE OF FU MANCHU, this is almost Part Two of that book, with some interesting results. We find Fu Manchu on the run, cut off by the authorities from his Si-Fan connections and resources. He is at a low point in his career. At one point here, deprived of his longevity serum and in a feeble mummylike state, the Devil Doctor is close to dying. Nayland Smith does not usually get enough credit for his labors; although no genius himself, his bulldog tenacity and gut instincts make him a good opponent for Fu Manchu. This book has a wonderful, atmospheric beginning, complete with dense London fog and worried Bobbies harking to strange noises, a lifelike nude statue that may be a hypnotized living girl, a cry for help from an empty house – great stuff. The middle section has Fu Manchu at his most diabolical and Smith at his most heroic-- in the blazing furnaces deep beneath the Thames, the alchemical process that creates the elixir of life can only be stoked with human bodies, and one of these is Fah Lo Suee herself. (She apparently goes to her death here.) Nayland Smith shows real resourcefulness and this sequence builds to a surprisingly catastrophic event. But the finale is the most fascinating, although involving no gunplay or racing down dark corridors. With his daughter Fleurette hopelessly under Fu Manchu's hypnotic spell, Dr Petrie has to agree to prepare the Elixir that will save the Doctor's life at the last second and restore the super-criminal to health so he can menace Western civilization again. For once, Smith shows compassion and supports Petrie in this agonizing decision. In between the high points, though, the story does seem to drag a bit. At 220 pages, it seems as if some of the padding could have been cut to produce what would be one of the best books in the series... but that's my opinion as a fan in 2001, not what editors and readers in 1934 may have enjoyed. Six months of re-reading slambang Doc Savage and the Avenger books may have led me to forget the more leisurely pace of most novels. Sax Rohmer drops a dozen intriguing hints throughout the book of deeper undertones to the simplistic good vs evil story. For one thing, as Petrie struggles to save Fu Manchu, he starts to wonder if "perhaps the Si-Fan was right, and the Western world wrong..." and if "the redemption of mankind.. could only be brought about by a remorseless, steely intellect such as that of Dr Fu Manchu." Now Rohmer all his life absolutely adored Egyptian culture and history, and even his 'racist' remarks show a fascination with the Middle and Far East. In 1913 or in 1934, he would not be allowed in Collier's magazine with a story explaining how Britain should abandon its colonies but that feeling is just under the surface in his writing. The power of Fu Manchu as a literary creation is that he is a heroic genius gone wrong, using assassination and torture as (he thinks) necessary tools to overthrow the Western empires. If China had been its own master in his lifetime, if there had been no British or French empires, then Fu Manchu may well have emerged as an Asian version of Doc Savage – a medical and inventive genius, living for centuries, doing enormous good for the world. The way Smith and Rohmer himself always temper their descriptions of the Devil Doctor with subdued admiration is very suggestive. There are many throwaway lines here worth noting. An English policeman thinks Fu Manchu is not an individual but a trade-mark, like the Black Hand. Nayland Smith reflects that "we have to live many lives" before we reach understanding. And we learn that Fu Manchu is a master of unarmed combat, taught at the Tibetan lamasery of Rache Churan, "trained in more subtle arts than the crudities of boxing". It's too bad we don't get to see Fu Manchu use his martial arts in the books. (I always thought Han in the Bruce Lee film ENTER THE DRAGON should have been played more like Fu Manchu and been shown as much more dangerous in the final fight) Most startling is that Rohmer compares the Si-Fan with the Jesuits (?!) "No society, with the possible exception of the Jesuits, had ever welded such influence nor had its roots so deeply set in unexpected quarters." I need to do some historical research to understand that remark.

PRESIDENT FU MANCHU (Nov 4, 2001) From 1936, this is one of the less well-done books in the series. Literally the entire first half wanders pointlessly, and both Fu Manchu and Nayland Smith seem uncharacteristically discouraged, unsure of themselves, and tired of the whole game. In the second half, events pick up quite a bit and some of the old excitement sparks again, ending in a very well-handled final meeting between the two lifelong sweethearts enemies. Is it possible that a ghost writer did most of this book, revised and polished by Sax Rohmer? Certainly, much of the phrasing and viewpoint is unfamiliar. Rohmer suffered the same affliction that so many other writers from Arthur Conan Doyle to Ian Fleming (who initially intended Bond to die at the end of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE), being stuck with a character the public loves but the creator has tired of. Still, when your other books don't sell briskly and you know a new Fu Manchu means healthy royalties....     One dubious note about this story is the Devil Doctor's fiendish plan. He is sinking millions of dollars of the Si-Fan's money into something called 'the League of Good Americans' which provides jobs and homes for the thousands of desperate out-of-work men (this is 1936, remember). He's not doing this out of altruism either – his idea is to place a puppet politician under his control in the White House. (This is so unlike Fu Manchu, who basically wanted to get the British out of China). Now, unless they've re-written the Constitution since I last checked, a candidate for President has to be a native-born American; there's no ambiguity there. Right off the bat, we're told that Paul Salvaletti was born in Italy and became naturalized citizen. Even if he's thinking of overthrowing the government at the head of a mob of angry citizens, there might be some resistance from the US Army, Navy, Marines, Secret Service, FBI, National Guard and the police. Good luck. It's not like the days when Napoleon seized the throne. Sax Rohmer's prose is usually very enjoyable. At his best, he has vivid imagery, real emotional involvement, creative plot twists, and a understanding of what unsettles readers (all those bizarre assassination methods). But in all fairness,his idea of how American gangsters talked is a bit off. 'You've spilled a mouthful...I'm standing all ready on my two big feet. I'm his sole agent and my rake-off is my own pidgin (?!)" Of course, British readers also shake their heads at the way American writers handle their own speech, so it's only fair. And Kansas is in the Midwest, not Middle West.... We also learn that the German Professor Morgenstahl has "proved that lunar eclipses were not caused by the shadow of the Earth." I'd like to read more about that theory, maybe Morgenstahl's books are still in print? There is also quite a bit of the word "Chink' in this book, used with hostility. Now I can accept 'Chinaman' and even the word "Yellow" as relatively inoffensive back then (of course Irish were "Micks" and "Paddies", Italians were "wops" and "dagoes" –everyone came in for some abuse) but for some reason that word irritates me. I don't want to start a heated debate on racial epithets that are forbidden today but were acceptable seventy years ago. That's a subject that merits its own discussion. Also forgotten today is the way the English-speaking people lumped together Asia and the Mid-east as "the Orient". All those areas had in common is that they were under European domination, but maybe that was the point. You have to give Fu Manchu credit for being racially enlightened. He appreciates skill and character no matter where he finds it, and his servants come from every culture you can think of. A couple of interesting notes here. Fu Manchu respects Nayland Smith for his instincts and intuition, not intelligence. He admits that Smith is one of the few men strong-willed enough to look him square in the eye. And when the Doctor earns his title by an improptu operation on a small boy dying of diptheria (he uses hypnosis instead of anesthetic), Fu Manchu shows again what a great hero he could have become if not for his political agenda (and he does have a point about the British and French colonialism). The mixed array of noble traits in the character (word of honor, sparing innocents, often helping bystanders) are balanced by his ruthlessness (all those assassinations, tortures and brainwashings). He's not the simplistic, completely depraved villain he's usually seen as by those who haven't read the books.