The World of Suzie Wong

1957 World Publishing hardcover edition (1st) (US) Copped and cropped from AbeBooks.com	1957 hardcover edition (UK) Copped and cropped from AbeBooks.com
1957 Collins hardcover edition (UK) Yosha Bunko scan
August 1958 (1st) Signet paperback (US) Yosha Bunko scan	November 1960 (8th) Signet paperback (US), Movie tie-in Yosha Bunko scan
Play premiered 14 October 1958 at Broadhurst Theatre 1959 Broadhurst Theatre playbill (US) Featured France Nuyen as Suzie Wong and William Shatner as Robert Lomax Yosha Bunko scan	Yosha Bunko scan
Released in Japan on 25 January 1961 as Suuzii Won [woŋ] no sekai 1960 Paramount Pictures Japan poster Featured Nancy Kwan as Suzie Wong and William Holden as Robert Lomax Yosha Bunko scan
1995 Paramount Pictures VHS carboard sleeve edition (US) Yosha Bunko scans
July 1964 (10th) Signet paperback (US) Yosha Bunko scan	Copped and cropped from AbeBooks.com
November 1960 (9th) Fontana paperback (UK) Yosha Bunko scan	November 1982 (21st) Fontana paperback (UK) Yosha Bunko scan
8-23 June 1985 Theatre Apple production pamphlet (Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan) Featured Judy Ongg as Suzie Wong and Nakayama Jin as Robert Lomax Nakamura was born in Taiwan, in the Empire of Japan, in 1942 Ongg was born in Taiwan, in the Republic of China, in 1950 Yosha Bunko scans
蘇絲黃的世界 Susi Huang [Wong] de shijie 1994 Pegasus paperback (Hong Kong) Copped and cropped from AbeBooks.com	December 1964 Rowohlt paperback (Germany) Yosha Bunko scan
November 1976 Rowohlt paperback (Germany) Yosha Bunko scan	2001 Heyne paperback (Germany) Copped and cropped from AbeBooks.com

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.

Translations

The World of Suzie Wong
Le Monde de Suzie Wong
Le Petit Monde de Suzie Wong
Il mondo di Suzie Wong
El mundo de Suzie Wong
Suzie Wong (German)

Includes an introduction titled "Suzie Wong entre réve et réalité" by Gérard Henry (pages 3-5, net 2008), an afterword titled "Le monde de Suzie Wong: est un conte de fées" by Étienne rosse (net 2009, pages 443-448), and a chronology of Mason's life titled "Repères chronologiques et bibliographiiques" (pages 449-450).