“It was about a Chinese idol”. Murder and the empire in Fergus Hume’s The Golden Wang-ho

Abstract

This essay focuses on Fergus Hume’s 1901 novel The Golden Wang-ho, whose most striking character is the Chinese monk Jinfou. At the time of its publication, China was at the forefront of international news, with the Boxer uprising, the rescue of the Beijing Legation quarter, and the ongoing tension among the Western powers on the still doubtful fate of the Qing empire. It is likely that Hume meant to capitalise on the public’s interest with a China-themed story, but his text also offers an intriguing example of the formal and ideological flexibility of turn-of-the-century crime fiction. In particular, the depiction of Jinfou, combined with the representation of other characters variously involved in the imperial project, conveys a multi-layered image of Britain’s engagement overseas, which is further reinforced by the comments of the narrator. I suggest that, in this work, Hume plays with current stereotypes about crime and ethnicity, challenging readerly expectations both through his plot twists and his formal choices