The Judge Dee Novels of R.H. van Gulik
Page 32
As a result, the Committee of One Million Against the Admission of Communist China to the United Nations (founded in 1953), could claim that 1,037,000 Americans had signed its charter (Herzstein 177). A September 1954 poll showed that only 13 percent of Americans expressed a favorable view of the People’s Republic of China; 74 percent viewed China unfavorably (Page and Tao 95–96). 13 percent was a high number. Both the First Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1954–55, in which the PRC seized the Yijiangshan Islands and shelled Quemoy and Matsu, and the Second Taiwan Straits Crisis 1958, in which Quemoy and Matsu were again shelled, led to indirect involvement of the United States military in supporting and supplying the troops of Chiang Kai-Shek’s Republic of China stationed on the islands, and thus kept the antagonism between China and the U.S. in the news.
In 1961, a Gallup poll found that 49 percent of Americans saw the Soviet Union as the “prime threat” to national security; 32 percent identified China as the prime threat. But after China successfully tested an atomic bomb in October 1964, China became the most feared enemy: only 27 percent saw Russia as the prime threat in 1964, while 56 percent named China. By 1967, when Mao’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was underway in China, only 20 percent of Americans feared Brezhnev’s Soviet Union; 71 percent feared Mao’s China (Isaacs xxvii). And it was a fear built on ignorance: in 1937, there had been 13,300 Americans resident in mainland China; in 1957 there were 23. The New York Times was reporting from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and relying upon dispatches from the British news organization Reuters. When China finally agreed to permit American reporters into their country in 1956, offering visas to 18 journalists, the U.S. State Department refused permission (Isaacs 212, 213, 214).
By 1967, only 5 percent of Americans would claim a favorable view of China; 91 percent viewed it unfavorably. And it was in this Age of Hostility that Robert van Gulik published his Judge Dee novels. Americans would not begin to express a positive view of China until, five years after van Gulik’s death, President Nixon made his ground-breaking visit to Beijing and toasted Mao at a banquet in 1972. That year the favorable rating rose to 23 percent favorable, and year later, in 1973, it had reached 53 percent (Page and Tao 95–96). China was no longer beyond the pale, and a new Age of Admiration could begin.
Appendix 2: Judge Dee Chronologies
Publication Order
Character Biography
Appendix 3:
China in American Fiction: A Chronology
The following chronology is selective. It provides some sense of the major attempts to present an image of China to American readers.
Only authors discussed in The Judge Dee Novels are included.
Most of the works are novels or collections of short stories; exceptions include translations by Ezra Pound and Arthur Waley, and relevant volumes of philosophy, history, or autobiography by Pearl Buck and Lin Yutang, Theodore White, and Owen Lattimore.
Most of the works are set in China. To cover the Yellow Peril, some novels featuring Chinese protagonists/antagonists who act outside of China are included.
A few titles relating to China from pulp publications are included; hundreds of such titles are not.
Bestsellers:
Books which Keith Justice records as having reached either the Publisher’s Weekly bestseller list (beginning 1919) or the New York Times bestseller list (beginning 1935) are indicated in bold type. The total number of weeks the title appeared on either list is also indicated.
Books achieving “Better Seller” status according to Frank Luther Mott (selling copies nearly equal to 1% of the American population) are marked with an asterisk (*).
Books selected by the Book of the Month Club are marked with a pound sign (#).
1892
Philip Reade: “Tom Edison Jr.’s Electric Sea Spider, or The Wizard of the Submarine World”
1894
Louise Jordan Miln: When We Were Strolling Players in the East
1898
M.P. Shiel: The Yellow Danger
1900
Ernest Bramah: The Wallet of Kai Lung
1907
Jack London: “The Unparalled Invasion”
1912
M.P. Shiel: The Dragon
1913
Sax Rohmer: The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu (The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu)
1915
Ezra Pound: Cathay
Arthur B. Reeve: The Exploits of Elaine
1916
Sax Rohmer: The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu
Arthur B. Reeve: The Romance of Elaine
1917
Alice Tisdale Hobart: Pioneering Where the World Is Old
Sax Rohmer: The Hand of Fu Manchu (= The Si-Fan Mysteries)
1918
Arthur Waley: trans. A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems
Louise Jordan Miln: Mr. Wu
1919
Arthur Waley: trans. More Translations from the Chinese
1920
Louise Jordan Miln: The Feast of Lanterns
1922
Ernest Bramah: Kai Ling’s Golden Hours
Louise Jordan Miln: Mr. & Mrs. Sên
1924
Louise Jordan Miln: In a Shantung Garden
1925
Louise Jordan Miln: Ruben and Ivy Sên
Louise Jordan Miln: The Soul of China, Glimpsed in Tales of Today and Yesterday
Earl Derr Biggers: The House Without a Key
1926
Alice Tisdale Hobart: By the City of the Long Sand
Louise Jordan Miln: It Happened in Peking
*Earl Derr Biggers: The Chinese Parrot
1927
Louise Jordan Miln: In a Yün-nan Courtyard
1928
Ezra Pound: trans., Ta Hio, The Great Learning of Confucius
*Earl Derr Biggers: Behind That Curtain — 4 weeks
Ernest Bramah: Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat
Louise Jordan Miln: Red Lily and Chinese Jade
Louise Jordan Miln: The Flutes of Shanghai
Alice Tisdale Hobart: Within the Walls of Nanking
1929
Alice Tisdale Hobart: Pidgin Cargo (= River Supreme) — 8 weeks
Earl Derr Biggers: The Black Camel — 8 weeks
Louise Jordan Miln: By Soochow Waters
1930
*Earl Derr Biggers: Charlie Chan Carries On
Louise Jordan Miln: Rice, A Novel
Pearl Buck: East Wind: West Wind
1931
*#Pearl Buck: The Good Earth (= The House of Earth I) — 84 weeks
Louise Jordan Miln: The Vintage of Yon Yee
Sax Rohmer: Daughter of Fu Manchu
1932
Pearl Buck: Sons (= The House of Earth II) — 16 Weeks
Earl Derr Biggers: Keeper of the Keys — 4 weeks
Sax Rohmer: The Mask of Fu Manchu
Ernest Bramah: The Moon of Much Gladness (= The Return of Kai Lung)
Louise Jordan Miln: Ann Zu-Zan: A Chinese Love Story
Louise Jordan Miln: A Chinese Triangle
1933
Louise Jordan Miln: Peng Wee’s Harvest
Alice Tisdale Hobart: Oil for the Lamps of China — 7 weeks
Pearl Buck: The Mother — 8 weeks
Pearl Buck: The First Wife — 4 weeks
Pearl Buck: All Men Art Brothers (translation of Shui Hu Zhuan)
Sax Rohmer: The Bride of Fu Manchu (= Fu Manchu’s Bride)
1934
James Hilton: Lost Horizon — 28 weeks
Arthur Waley: trans. The Way and Its Power: A Study of the Tao Te Ching
Sax Rohmer: The Trail of Fu Manchu
1935
Pearl Buck: A House Divided (= The House of Earth III) — 16 weeks
Lin Yutang: My Country and My People — 12 weeks
John P. Marquand: Ming Yellow
John P. Marquand: No Hero (= Mr. Moto Takes a Hand; Your Turn, Mr. Moto)
1936
Alice Tisdale Hobart: Yang and Ying: A Novel of an American Docto
r in China — 28 weeks
Pearl Buck: The Exile — 12 weeks
#Pearl Buck: The Exile and The Fighting Angel
Sax Rohmer: President Fu Manchu
Alex Raymond: Flash Gordon in the Caverns of Mongo
John P. Marquand: Thank You, Mr. Moto
1937
*#Lin Yutang: The Importance of Living Carl Crow: 400 Million Customers — 16 weeks
John P. Marquand: Think Fast, Mr. Moto
1938
Carl Crow: Master Kung — 8 weeks
John P. Marquand: Mr. Moto Is So Sorry
Arthur Waley: trans. The Analects of Confucius
1939
#Pearl Buck: The Patriot — 20 weeks
#Lin Yutang: Moment in Peking — 24 weeks
Arthur Waley: trans. Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China
Sax Rohmer: The Drums of Fu Manchu
1940
Lin Yutang: A Leaf in the Storm — 8 weeks
Ernest Bramah: Kai Lung Beneath the Mulberry Tree
1941
#Arthur Waley: trans. Translations from the Chinese
Lin Yutang: With Love and Irony — 8 weeks
Sax Rohmer: The Island of Fu Manchu
Pearl Buck: China Sky
1942
Arthur Waley: trans. Monkey (= Journey to the West)
*#Pearl Buck: Dragon Seed — 23 weeks
Pearl Buck: China Gold
Pearl Buck: China Sky
Lin Yutang: The Wisdom of China and India — 12 weeks
Han Suyin: Destination Chungking
John P. Marquand: Last Laugh, Mr. Moto
1943
Pearl Buck: China Flight
Pearl Buck: The Promise — 6 weeks
Lin Yutang: Between Tears and Laughter — 31 weeks
1944
#Edgar Snow: The People on Our Side
1945
Lin Yutang: The Vigil of a Nation — 10 weeks
#Lau Shaw (=Lao She): Rickshaw Boy — 15 weeks
Owen Lattimore: Solution in Asia — 13 weeks
1946
Arthur Waley: trans. Chinese Poems
Pearl Buck: Pavilion of Women — 29 weeks
Theodore White and Annalee Jacoby: Thunder Out of China — 15 weeks
1947
Ezra Pound: trans. The Unwobbling Pivot & The Great Digest
Lin Yutang: The Gay Genius
1948
Pearl Buck: Peony — 23 weeks
Lin Yutang: Chinatown Family
Sax Rohmer: The Shadow of Fu Manchu
1949
*Pearl Buck: Kinfolk — 15 weeks
Pearl Buck: The Bondmaid
Arthur Waley: The Life and Times of Po Chü-I
——Robert Hans van Gulik: Dee Goong An / Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee
1950
Ezra Pound: trans. Confucius, The Analects,
Arthur Waley: The Poetry and Career of Li Po
Owen Lattimore: Ordeal by Slander — 6 weeks
1951
Pearl Buck: God’s Men — 17 weeks
Hugh Wiley: Murder by the Dozen (12 Mr. Wong stories)
1952
Han Suyin: A Many-Splendored Thing — 12 weeks
1953
Lin Yutang: The Vermilion Gate — 5 weeks
1954
Ezra Pound: trans. The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius
Pearl Buck: My Several Worlds — 46 weeks
1955
Arthur Waley: trans. The Nine Songs: A Study of Shamanism in Ancient China
Alice Tisdale Hobart: Venture into Darkness — 9 weeks
1956
Arthur Waley: trans. Yuan Mei: Eighteenth Century Chinese Poet
*Pearl Buck: Imperial Woman — 41 weeks
1957
Pearl Buck: Letter from Peking — 31 weeks
John P. Marquand: Stopover: Tokyo (= The Last of Mr. Moto, Right You Are, Mr. Moto) — 15 weeks
Lin Yutang: Lady Wu, A True Story
Sax Rohmer: Re-Enter Fu Manchu
—Robert Hans van Gulik: The Chinese Maze Murders (1951 in Japanese)
1958
Arthur Waley: The Opium War through Chinese Eyes
—Robert Hans van Gulik: The Chinese Bell Murders
1959
Alice Tisdale Hobart: Gusty’s Child
Sax Rohmer: Emperor Fu Manchu
—Robert Hans van Gulik: The Chinese Gold Murders
1960
Arthur Waley: trans. Ballads and Stories from Tun-Huang
Lin Yutang:The Importance of Understanding
—Robert Hans van Gulik: The Chinese Lake Murders
1961
—Robert Hans van Gulik: The Chinese Nail Murders
—Robert Hans van Gulik: The Haunted Monastery
1962
Richard McKenna: The Sand Pebbles — 48 weeks
—Robert Hans van Gulik: The Lacquer Screen
1963
—Robert Hans van Gulik: The Emperor’s Pearl
1964
—Robert Hans van Gulik: The Red Pavilion
1965
—Robert Hans van Gulik: The Monkey and the Tiger
—Robert Hans van Gulik: The Willow Pattern
1966
James Clavell: Tai-Pan — 96 weeks
—Robert Hans van Gulik: Murder in Canton
—Robert Hans van Gulik: The Phantom of the Temple
1967
Lin Yutang: The Chinese Theory of Art
Han Suyin: China in the Year 2001
—Robert Hans van Gulik: Judge Dee at Work
—Robert Hans van Gulik: Necklace and Calabash
1968
—Robert Hans van Gulik: Poets and Murder
1969
Pearl Buck: The Three Daughters of Madame Liang — 2 weeks
Chapter Notes
Introduction
1. Taizong (599–649) was “one of the most admired and accomplished Chinese emperors. He has been revered by pre-modern and modern Chinese as an ideal emperor exemplifying the Confucian rule of benevolence” (Hwa 3). It is probably Taizong, who ruled 626–49, that should be thought of as the “August” Emperor of China during Judge Dee’s career as a detective (663–681).
Chapter One
1. Van Gulik corresponded with Starrett, and cites Starrett’s article favorably in the survey of literature on Chinese detection that he added at the end of Dee Goong An (230). Jeffrey Kinkley finds Starrett’s understanding of the Chinese tradition “surprisingly accurate,” but assumes it must be “secondhand,” identifying Lin Yutang as a possible source (Chinese Justice 375). Starrett was indeed not a sinologist, but he “had become intrigued by Oriental detective stories” and when he spent thirteen months in Peking in 1936–37, he devoted himself to the topic, hiring translators to assist him (Ruber 64–65).