# What (if anything) does the name "Fu Manchu" mean?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-does-the-name-fu-manchu-mean/87413>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 14, 2001, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-does-the-name-fu-manchu-mean/87413 "2001-10-14T23:50:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dr\_hermes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dfb087/32.png) [@dr\_hermes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dr_hermes)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-does-the-name-fu-manchu-mean/87413/1 "2001-10-14T23:50:34Z")

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I have tried using the online Chinese-English dictionaries with no real results.

```
 "Fu" is usually translated as "work, skill, effort". Manchu of course was the foreign Dynasty that ruled China until the beginning of the 20th Century.

  But why would Sax Rohmer's famous supercriminal have taken this nom de guerre? We're told that it is not his real name, but if he was a Chinese mandarin hoping to restore Chinese rule, what possible reason would there be to take the name Manchu?!

 My guess is that it could be translated as "Anti-Manchu" or "Manchu-Destroyer" and my hope is that some more enlightened multilingual Straight Doper can give me an answer.
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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-does-the-name-fu-manchu-mean/87413/2 "2001-10-15T00:16:49Z")

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Maybe Rohmer just thought it sounded cool. Accurately depicting foreign cultures wasn’t high on the priority list for most Westerners until recently.

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-does-the-name-fu-manchu-mean/87413/3 "2001-10-15T00:18:17Z")

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It doesn’t really stand for anything. Arthur Sarsfield Ward )Sax Rohmer) just made it up. See Cay van Ash’s book **Ten Years Beyond Baker Street** , or see the Fu Manchu page referenced n my Teemings article “Fu Manchu and the Giant Squid” in Teemings #7.