Lyons starred in the title role of all 23 movies (which ran about 20 –25 minutes each in length), all of which featured Fu's ongoing battle with his two British nemeses, Sir Nayland Smith (played by Fred Paul) and his assistant Dr. Petrie.
[2] In spite of the many films in which Lyons played an Oriental character, the obviously British actor "put forth little effort to make himself seem anything other than Caucasian".
Sin Fang, another Asian character, in a low-budget 1928 six-picture film series produced by Pioneer Productions.
The Sin Fang films were produced and directed by Fred Paul (who also co-starred in them as the regularly appearing police lieutenant John Byrne) and were written by Patrick K. Heale.
Fred Paul (who had also directed a number of the earlier Fu Manchu films) co-produced the 6 Sin Fang films with A. M. Brooks, and created the Sin Fang character to be as similar to Fu Manchu as he could possibly be, without being sued by Sax Rohmer for copyright infringement.