The World of Suzie Wong

Old wine in a new cheongsam

By William Wetherall

First posted 1 September 2006
Last updated 1 September 2006


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1957 hardcover edition (US)
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1957 hardcover edition (UK)
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1958 Signet paperback (1st)
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1960 Signet paperback (8th)
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1964 Signet paperback (10th)
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1982 Fontana paperback (21st)
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1994 Pegasus paperback (HK)
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1964 German paperback (Rowohlt)
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1976 German paperback (Rowohlt)
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2001 German paperback (Heyne)

Richard Mason
The World of Suzie Wong

Hardcover editions

Cleveland: The World Publishing Co., 1957
345 pages, hardcover

London: Collins, 1957
383 pages, hardcover
Dust jacket design by Harry Toothill

Paperback editions
German paperbacks

Richard Mason
Suzie Wong (Roman)
Translated by Edmund Th. Kauer
Hamburg:Rowohlt, 1964 (1959)
385 pages, paperback (rororo Taschenbuch 325-326)

Richard Mason
Suzie Wong (Roman)
Translated by Edmund Th. Kauer
Hamburg:Rowohlt, 1976 (1959)
385 pages, paperback (rororo Taschenbuch 325)

Richard Mason
Suzie Wong (Roman)
Translated by Edmund Th. Kauer
Munchen: Heyne-Verlag, 2001
399 pages, paperback (13285)

"Suzie Wong" is a household word in Steamy East lore, throughout the world, thanks less to Richard Mason's 1957 novel than to Nancy Kwan's portral of Mee Ling "Suzie" Wong in the 1960 movie directed by Richard Quine (1920-1989). The movie was based on a play by Paul Osborn (1901-1988), who wrote the screenplay Sayonara, a 1957 film based on James Michener's novel.

To be continued.

The name "Suzie Wong"

Richard Mason wrote Suzie Wong in four months while in Hong Kong in 1956. He has said that Suzie Wong was "a mixture of the different girls in the bar" he observed. A girl named Suzie was going to sue him but the Suzie in his novel was no one in particular -- just "a good name; rather like naming a pet, you look for a good name" (Guy Haydon, "About the Author", in Suzie Wong, Hong Kong: Pegasus, 1994).

Guy Haydon also relates Mason's account of how Suzie came to be "Wong" (Ibid.).

"Originally I called her Suzie something else, but then, when I was looking for a title for the book, I thought of The World of Suzie . . . and the World of Suzie whatever I'd got didn't sound right. I thought it must alliterate. Then I chose the Wong."