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.

According to his own account, Sax Rohmer decided to start the Dr. Fu Manchu series after his Ouija board spelled out C-H-I-N-A-M-A-N when he asked what would make his fortune.

[3] As for Rohmer's theories concerning "Eastern devilry" and "the unemotional cruelty of the Chinese",[4] he seeks to give them intellectual credentials by referring to the travel writing of Bayard Taylor.

[7] The image of "Orientals" invading Western nations became the foundation of Rohmer's commercial success, being able to sell 20 million copies in his lifetime.

Supervillain Dr. Fu Manchu's murderous plots are marked by the extensive use of arcane methods; he disdains guns or explosives, preferring dacoits (armed robbers in India), Thugs (professional robbers and murderers in India) and members of other secret societies as his agents (usually armed with knives) or using "pythons and cobras ... fungi and my tiny allies, the bacilli ... my black spiders" and other peculiar animals or natural chemical weapons.

[citation needed] Van Ash speculates that Dr. Fu Manchu was a member of the imperial family of China who backed the losing side in the Boxer Rebellion.

[citation needed] In the early books (1913–1917), Dr. Fu Manchu is an agent of a Chinese tong, known as the Si-Fan, and acts as the mastermind behind a wave of assassinations targeting Westerners living in China.

In addition to attempting to take over the world and restore China to its former glory (Dr. Fu Manchu's main goals right from the beginning), the Si-Fan now also tries to eliminate fascist dictators and halt the spread of communism around the globe, for its leader's own selfish reasons.

Smith carries on the fight, combating Dr Fu Manchu more by sheer luck and dogged determination than intellectual brilliance except in extremis.

When Rohmer revived the series in 1931, Smith, who has been knighted for his efforts to defeat Fu Manchu, is an ex-Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard.

Dr Fu Manchu's daughter, Fah Lo Suee, is a devious mastermind in her own right, frequently plotting to usurp her father's position in the Si-Fan and aiding his enemies both within and outside the organization.

Laurette Luez played Karamaneh in The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu (1956), but the character owed more to Fah Lo Suee than to Rohmer's depiction of Kâramanèh.

Fred Fu Manchu, a "famous Chinese bamboo saxophonist", was a recurring character on The Goon Show, a 1950s British radio comedy programme.

[16] The character was also parodied in a later radio comedy, Round the Horne, as Dr Chu En Ginsberg MA (failed), portrayed by Kenneth Williams.

[17][better source needed] Science historian Fred Cooper and colleagues draws a parallel between narratives that COVID-19 was created by China, and the machinations of Fu Manchu, who is "expert in the deadly application of animal and biological agents" and who has been depicted on US television shows as threatening the West with lethal diseases.

[22] Other than an obscure, unauthorized Spanish spoof El Otro Fu Manchu (1946), the Devil Doctor was absent from the big screen for 25 years, until producer Harry Alan Towers began a series starring Christopher Lee in 1965.

A composite character of Fu Manchu and the Mandarin, named Xu Wenwu, appears in Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Four film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, portrayed by Tony Leung Chiu-wai.

The title sequence depicted Smith and Dr. Fu Manchu in a game of chess as the announcer stated that "the devil is said to play for men's souls.

Unlike the Holmes/Watson type relationship of the films, the series featured Smith as a law enforcement officer and Petrie as a staff member for the Surgeon-General.

[35] In 2010, Fu Manchu's connections with the University of Edinburgh where he supposedly obtained a doctorate were investigated in a mockumentary by Miles Jupp for BBC Radio 4.

Between 1962 and 1973, the French newspaper Le Parisien Libéré published a comic strip by Juliette Benzoni (script) and Robert Bressy (art).

[50] The stories of Dr Fu Manchu, both in print and on screen, have sparked accusations of racism and orientalism, from his fiendish design to his nonsensical Chinese name.

[52][53] Following the release of Republic Pictures' serial adaptation of Drums of Fu Manchu (1940) the U.S. State Department requested that the studio make no further films about the character, as China was an ally against Japan during the Second World War.

Los Angeles TV station KTLA shared similar sentiments, but ultimately decided to run The Brides of Fu Manchu with the disclaimer: "This feature is presented as fictional entertainment and is not intended to reflect adversely on any race, creed or national origin.

"[55] Rohmer responded to charges that his work demonized Asians in Master of Villainy, a biography co-written by his widow: Of course, not the whole Chinese population of Limehouse was criminal.

They brought their crimes with them.It was Rohmer's contention that he based Dr Fu Manchu and other "Yellow Peril" mysteries on real Chinese criminals he met as a newspaper reporter covering Limehouse.

In May 2013, General Motors cancelled an advertisement after complaints that a phrase it contained, "the land of Fu Manchu", which was intended to refer to China, was offensive.

[56] Characterizing Dr Fu Manchu as an overtly racist creation has been criticized in the book Lord of Strange Deaths: The Fiendish World of Sax Rohmer.