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Chinese Sherlock Holmes The Chinese New Year (Year of the Pig) has barely begun and last week's stock market felt the full brunt of the surging Chinese Stock Market's effect on the world economy. When the Chinese Stock Market had a sell-off, the rest of the world suffered equally. What does this have to do Sherlock Holmes? I have no idea except the Chinese markets have not seen much inflation in the prices I pay for Chinese translations. I recently mentioned that I had bought several older Chinese translations of the Canon. These books arrived and I am happy to report my satisfaction with my purchase. I bought a total of twelve editions but only three were listed in De Waal. A Collection of Sherlock Holmes is listed as C2420 in De Waal. This is a 3-volume set. I also bought another set of these books except it was a 5-volume set and published the year before and it is not listed in De Waal.
Sherlock Holmes New Mysteries was a series published by Tse Ming Press in 1940. I have not been able to determine the number of volumes in this series. I picked up volume 5 - The Return of Sherlock Holmes and volume 7 - The Hound of the Baskervilles. These are both frail, paperback editions with some wear however both volumes are intact. I would love to know where these books have been residing since they were published.
The final Chinese translation is, according to Yuichi Hirayama, BSI, a very rare book that wasn’t published in China, even though it is written in Chinese. The Hound of the Baskervilles was published by Fentian Dashu Press, July 10, 1938. What makes this book rare is Fentian Dashu Press was in Fentian, Manchuko, which was a Japanese protective country from 1932 to 1945. Fentian today is called Shenyang. This is the first known translation from Manchuria! The cover looks like it should be from either REDH or 3GAR but the text is HOUN.
I hope to discover more of these hidden treasures through my new best friend in Beijing. Happy Collecting!!
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