When I was going up in Taiwan, the first translated books from the West that I read were adventure stories about a handsome yet mysterious “burglar gentleman” named Yasen Luopin, as well as those featuring the famous detective Sherlock Holmes or Fu’er Muosi. For years I have been wondering who this Yasen Luopin is in the English language.
Today I was reading an article about Punch, the adorable baby monkey in a Japanese zoo that “reminds us ‘we all need soft places'”. Did a quick search and learned the cute macaque was named after the famous Japanese manga artist Monkey Punch, or Kazuhiko Katō, who is known for his series Lupin III. It turns out that Lupin III is the grandson of the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, a character created in 1905 by French writer Maurice Leblanc.
Mystery solved. A separate search revealed how popular Arsène Lupin’s adventures (and those about Sherlock Holmes for that matter) remain in translation in the Chinese World even today, particularly for young readers.
Images thanks to: 1. Baby Monkey Punch (above. via ABC and Reuters). 2. Cover of “Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Cambrioleur” (1907) (via Wikipedia). 3. Cover of “Arsène Lupin Contre Herlock Sholmes” (1910) (via Wikipedia). 4-7. Covers of various contemporary Traditional Chinese editions about the French gentleman thief and his adventures (via the Internet).
Voices under the Sun 陽光下的聲音 