# What's Wrong with the Name Fu Manchu? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 11, 2013, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-name-fu-manchu/676094 "2013-12-11T19:12:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-name-fu-manchu/676094/1 "2013-12-11T19:12:53Z")
In discussions of Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu series of adventure stories, one thing often is said: the very name, “Fu Manchu” is bad. Linguistically improper. An impossible name. Maybe someone could tell me why? Is there an English analogy I might understand? Is it something like “Pop Scottish” or “Oui French” or the like? I sort of get that “Manchu” is an adjective, “Of Manchuria.” Is that something no one would ever actually use as a name? What about “Fu?” Is that also impossible? Or just unheard of and never used? (This is more about language than the books, but the mods can move to Cafe Society if they differ or if the thread wanders in that way.) ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-name-fu-manchu/676094/2 "2013-12-11T19:24:39Z")
“Fu” is certainly used as a family name in China, eg the snooker player [Marco Fu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Fu) whose Chinese name is Fu Ka-chun (and, inevitably, referred to as Cue-Man Fu 🙂 ). But in Fu Manchu, is Fu meant to be the family name or given name? ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-name-fu-manchu/676094/3 "2013-12-11T20:44:33Z")
It’s clearly because most of the movies with “Fu Manchu” in their titles have been box office bombs. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-name-fu-manchu/676094/4 "2013-12-11T22:05:04Z")
I don’t think Fu Manchu was supposed to be the character’s name. It was a title that people used because calling him by his actual name would be too familiar and a sign of disrespect. Granted, Sax Rohmer (Arthur Ward) was the author who created the character and he seems to have regarded Fu Manchu as an actual name. The idea that it was a title came from later writers. (It’s officially canon in the Marvel comic universe where his real name is Zheng Zu.) ---
**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:** [December 11, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-the-name-fu-manchu/676094/5 "2013-12-11T22:14:46Z")
> [@](#): > > According to Cay Van Ash, Rohmer’s biographer and former assistant who became the first author to continue the series after Rohmer’s death, “Fu Manchu” was a title of honour, which meant “the Warlike Manchu.” Van Ash speculates that Fu Manchu had been a member of the Imperial family who backed the losing side in the Boxer Rebellion. > **[Fu Manchu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Manch%C3%BA)** > > Dr. Fu Manchu (Chinese: 傅滿洲/福滿洲; pinyin: Fú Mǎnzhōu) is a supervillain who was introduced in a series of novels by the English author Sax Rohmer beginning shortly before World War I and continuing for another forty years. The character featured in cinema, television, radio, comic strips and comic books for over 100 years, and he has also become an archetype of the evil criminal genius and mad scientist, while lending his name to the Fu Manchu moustache. > According to his own account, Sax Rohme... I first encountered this is van Ash’s book **Ten Years Beyond baker Street** , which both continued Sax Rohmer’s series, and combined it with Sherlock Holmes. (Not the only story to combine Sherlock Holmes with Fu Manchu. I know of at least two others that mix their universes.)