The Republishing of Dr Fu Manchu

choi

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, From China With Love. Wall Street Journal, Oct 6, 2012.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 50982579279246.html
(review on a novel Christopher Buckley, They Eat Puppies, Don't They?

Two consecutive paragraphs:

"One interesting 'Yellow Peril' work of fiction that predates the first Fu-Manchu stories, Jack London's 'The Unparalleled Invasion' (1910), was inspired by Japan's surprising military victory over Russia in 1905. It imagines a future in which a Japan that has learned from the West takes over China, and then a China that has learned from Japan almost takes over the world.

"London's tale reminds us that early 20th-century Sinophobia was fueled in large part by displaced anxiety about Japan. If a relatively small Asian country could defeat Russia, the logic went, what might its massive neighbor do—if it began making use of Western science and technology?


Note:
(a)
(i) Christopher Buckley (novelist)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Buckley_(novelist)
(1952-; American satirist)
(ii) Christopher Buckley, They Eat Puppies, Don't They?  Grand Central Publishing (a unit of Hachette Book Group), 2012 (a novel)
http://www.hachettebookgroup.com ... they/9780446540971/
(b) Fu Manchu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_Manchu
(sdection 4 Books: The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu (1913) (US Title: The Insidious Dr Fu-Manchu);
(c) Yellow Peril
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Peril
(section 1 Origin)
(d) The review mentions Sax Rohmer' work before creation of FU Manchu, such as "music hall sketches."
(i) Sax Rohmer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sax_Rohmer
(Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward (15 February 1883 – 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was a prolific English novelist)

Not to be confused with German field marshal Erwin Rommel.
(ii) sketch (n): "a slight theatrical piece having a single scene; especially : a comic variety act"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sketch
(e) Alluding to Fu Manchu, the article talks about "the dastardly mastermin."
(i) dastardly (adj):
1: COWARDLY
2: characterized by underhandedness or treachery <a dastardly attack> <a dastardly villain>"
(ii) dastard (n; Middle English):
"1: COWARD
2: a person who acts treacherously or underhandedly"

(f) The article observes, "Though we can easily recognize elements of racist caricature in the original books, the tropes they established continue to influence media caricatures of devious Chinese plotters."

trope(n; Latin tropus, from Greek tropos turn, way, manner, style, trope, from trepein to turn):
"1a : a word or expression used in a figurative sense : figure of speech
b : a common or overused theme or device : CLICHE  <the usual horror movie tropes>"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trope
(g) The article comments, "An entire genre of "invasion literature" thrived in early 20th-century Britain, frequently featuring aggressive imperial Germans like those in Saki's 'When William Came' (1913) or Erskine Childers's 'The Riddle in the Sand' (1903)."
(i) Saki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saki
(Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916), better known by the pen name Saki, and also frequently as HH Munro, was a British writer)
(ii) Robert Erskine Childers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Erskine_Childers
(1870-1922; universally known as Erskine Childers; the author of the influential novel The Riddle of the Sands; an Irish nationalist who smuggled guns to Ireland in his sailing yacht Asgard [in 1914]; executed by the authorities of the nascent Irish Free State during the Irish Civil War; He was the son of British Orientalist scholar Robert Caesar Childers)

(A) Erskine is a Scottish surname.
(B) The English surname Childers is "probably a habitational name from some lost place named Childerhouse, from Old English cildra, genitive plural of cild ‘child’ + hus ‘house.'"
Dictionary of American Family Names, by Oxford University Press.
(h) The article avers, "One comment that Mr Klinger makes in passing is worth lingering on. The villain's eyes, he writes, are described by Rohmer as possessing 'some sort of nictitating membrane,' which leaves the impression with readers that 'the Doctor is not human.'"

nictitating membrane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nictitating_membrane