Fah Lo Suee is the daughter of Fu Manchu an unnamed Russian woman. Her real name was never revealed, Fah Lo Suee means Sweet Perfume.
Other names used were Lady of the Si-Fan, Madame Ingomar, Queen Mamaloi, Mrs van Roorden and Koreani. Her goal is to usurp the father’s place in the Si-Fan.
She falls in love with Sir Denis Nayland Smith, her father’s enemy.
Creation
Fah Lo Suee was created by author Sax Rohmer, and first appeared in his 1917 novel, The Si-Fan Mysteries, where she is called by her father the Lady of the Si-Fan, her nickname Fah Lo Suee was only revealed in the following novel The Daughter of Fu Manchu (1931).
Marvel
Fah Lo Suee possesses powers of hynopsis, enhanced by the ruby eyes of the Golden Beetle and mimosa gas, as well as longevity, due to the Elixer Vitae. She used to lead Oriental Expediters and the Golden Daggers sect and was a member of the Si-Fan and Council of Seven. She is the daughter of Fu Manchu and sister of Shang-Chi and Moving Shadow. Fah Lo Suee has an ambiguous relationship with his father, sometimes fighting by his side, sometimes opposing him, fell in love with one of his enemies, Nayland Smith.
Marvel lost its license to use Sax Rohmer’s characters, Fah Lo Suee came to be called Cursed Lotus, but his real name was revealed as Zheng Bao Yu and his father is now called Zheng Zu and Si-Fan started to be called Hai-Dai. After Zheng Zu’s death, Zheng Bao Yu led Hai-Dai.
In the limited series Shang-Chi (2020) and in the series Shang-Chi (2021), writen by Gene Luen Yang, it was revealed that Si-Fan and Hai-Dai was one of the names used by the Five Weapon Society, created by Zheng Zu and his brother Zheng Yi, it was also revealed that Zheng Zu has other children: Shi-Hua (like Shang-Chi, she is the daughter of her concubine, Jiang Li), Takeshi, Esme, Brother Staff and Zhilan, all members of the Society, however, Bao Yu is not mentioned (perhaps by trying to get away from the Sax Rohmer stories), Shi-Hua seems to replace Bao Yu, she also dominated the organization created by her father.
Other Media
Literature
- The Hand of Fu Manchu (1917) (also known as The Si-Fan Mysteries)
- Daughter of Fu Manchu (1931)
- The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
- The Trail of Fu Manchu (1934)
- President Fu Manchu (1936)
- The Island of Fu Manchu (1940)
- The Wrath of Fu Manchu (1973)
Movies
Fah Lo Suee appeared in several Fu Manchu films, but not always using that name: Anna May Wong played Ling Moy in Daughter of the Dragon (1931). Myrna Loy portrayed Fah Lo See in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932). Gloria Franklin played the role of Fah Lo Suee in Drums of Fu Manchu (1940). Tsai Chin played Dr. Fu Manchu’s daughter, Lin Tang, in Christopher Lee‘s five films from the 1960s.
- Daughter of the Dragon (1931) “Ling Moy”
- The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
- The Brides of Fu Manchu (1933)
- Drums of Fu Manchu (1939)
- The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966) “Lin Tang”
- The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967) “Lin Tang”
- The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968) “Lin Tang”
- The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969) “Lin Tang”
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
In a live-action Shang-Chi film released in September 2021, popular Hong Kong star Tony Leung has been cast as the Xu Wenwu, a character composed of Mandarin and Fu Manchu, the film’s main antagonist and her father. Actress Meng’er Zhang plays Xu Xialing, the protagonist’s sister and daughter of Wenwu and Ying Li. In the film, Xialing commands the Golden Daggers Club, a clandestine fight club in Macau, and eventually becomes the leader of Ten Rings, the organization created by her father. Tsai Chin appears in the film as Waipo, Katy’s grandmother.