#the mask of fu manchu 1932

[schlock-luster-video]

On July 28, 1993, The Mask of Fu Manchu debuted on Italian television.

[weirdlookindog]

Boris Karloff in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)

[zegalba]

The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)

[professorcalculusstanaccount]

hi! loving your art. I was watching your awesome stories/gifs and I was wondering: how did Chang develop his feelings for Tintin? Did he discover them before or after him? How did he react and why? (English is not my first language so if you see a grammatical mistake, I'm sorry. Also, sorry if so many questions made you feel like you were in a philosophy exam)

Thank you so much! As a contrast to the rest of the Marlinspike team I'm writing Chang as someone who makes friends and develops crushes pretty easily!

I imagine he's had a crush on Tintin for some time, possibly from when they first met. He's been at the mercy of his circumstances for most of his life until that point - Tintin basically makes him feel capable of doing stuff.

He's pretty heartbroken after the Blue Lotus. Tintin doesn't contact him for years. Chang is struggling to adjust to his new family and is failing at school, having missed out on a good education for a few years prior. Until Tibet he feels pretty hopeless, he will never live up to the time when he took down a drug ring.

His near death experience in Tibet shakes him out of this rut. He starts to travel and take up hobbies like dance and photography. Didi trains him in some basic martial arts. Tintin makes an effort to actually stay in touch this time. Chang has some abandonment issues as he's frequently lost people throughout his life, so he's someone who's willing to give people second chances, even if they've hurt him badly. Chang thinks he's well over his crush on Tintin when he comes around to Belgium for his studies, but falls for him again very quickly!

Unlike Tintin, Chang is a lot more comfortable with who he is. He's used to being the odd one out and has generally low expectations for himself, so just goes with the flow.

Below I talk a little with how I'm going about writing him and the historical context surrounding this, cw for mentions of racism (sinophobia) and queerphobia:

I'm writing Chang as bi, I thought it would be interesting to explore as Asian men were perceived differently in the 30s compared to today. While Asian men in the West are currently heavily desexualised in the early 20th century they were stereotyped as predatory and deviant. In London a lot of Chinese immigrants were male dockworkers, so when they married white women there was a lot of fearmongering about predatory and disloyal Chinese men.

A lot of depictions of Asian men in Western media reflected these stereotypes (and often used queercoding to push the idea of Asian men being animalistic seducers - General Henry Chang in Shanghai Express (1932) was written to be bisexual while posing as a threat to the white leads). Some examples off the top of my head include Hishuru Tori from The Cheat (1915) and The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932). Novels frequently depicted Chinese drug lords with borderline supernatural powers in manipulation.

On the other hand I've noticed how fans frequently depict Chang as someone who's submissive, demure and soft, which ignores how ridiculously brave and proactive he is in canon (stealing documents from police officers, charging into a man immediately after getting shot at by a machine gun, I could go on!). It's a common example of Fandom Racism (not accusing anyone specifically, it's just a trend I've noticed.)

When writing Chang I'm kinda reckoning with two different eras. From a contemporary angle I'm writing him as a love interest, which as an Asian guy I rarely see in media today. I also gotta consider his own time and context, how he would navigate being a queer Chinese guy, and how that would affect his relationship with others and himself.

[neil-gaiman]

In 'The High Cost of Living' Death says to Sexton "It's not that you're entirely uncute, but I hardly know you." In The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) Myrna Loy uses a similar line "He is not entirely unhandsome, is he not?" Coincidence? Or were you "inspired" by the line in the movie?

Don't think I've ever actually seen it. I read a few of the Sax Rohmer books, and saw the terrible Peter Sellers Fu Manchu film.

[brokehorrorfan]

The Mask of Fu Manchu will be released on Blu-ray on May 7 via Warner Archive. Based on Sax Rohmer's 1932 novel of the same name, the 1932 horror film stars genre legend Boris Karloff as Fu Manchu.

Charles Brabin directs from a script by Edgar Allan Woolf (The Wizard of Oz), Irene Kuhn, and John Willard (The Cat and the Canary). Lewis Stone, Karen Morley, Charles Starrett, Myrna Loy, and Jean Hersholt round out the cast.

The Mask of Fu Manchu has been newly restored uncut in 4K from the best preservation elements available. Special features are listed below.

Special features:

Audio commentary by film historian Greg Mank

Freddy the Freshman - 1932 cartoon short

The Queen Was in the Parlor - 1932 cartoon short

The diabolical Dr. Fu Manchu (Boris Karloff) patiently awaits the discovery of Genghis Khan's tomb. For he is certain that possession of Khan's mask and sword will enable him to rule the East and lead it to victory over the hated Western world. When British scientists in the Gobi Desert discover the tomb, Fu captures and tortures them in his elaborate Torture Garden, hoping they will take him to the treasure he craves. But an unexpected traitor has other plans for the doctor.

Pre-order The Mask of Fu Manchu.

[federer7]

Sax Rohmer The Mask of Fu Manchu First Edition (Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1932)

Illustrations by John Richard

[ropermike]

The fiancee of an archeologist's daughter is captured by Fu Manchu and is whipped, then injected with a serum to make him obedient.

[citizenscreen]

Myrna Loy for THE MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932)

[ronmerchant]

the MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932)

[the-myrna-loy-blog]

Often attributed to The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), this is Myrna Loy in the early sound film The Crimson City (1928)!

[schlock-luster-video]

On March 18, 1935 The Mask of Fu Manchu debuted in Portugal.

[weirdlookindog]

Myrna Loy in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)

[tomoleary]

John R. Flanagan "The Mask of Fu Manchu" by Sax Rohmer Collier's 7-16-32 Illustration Original Art (1932) Source

Not an expert, but I surmise that none of the folks here are the titular character.

[ronnymerchant]

the MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932)

[thejazzera]

The Mask of Fu Manchu, 1932

Found in Trouble in Paradise.