Pao Tcheou is a fictional character from a series of French novels. Referring to himself as "Maitre de L'invisible" ("Master of the Invisible"), due to his ability to turn himself

invisible Invisibility is the state of an object that cannot be seen. An object in this state is said to be ''invisible'' (literally, "not visible"). The phenomenon is studied by physics and perceptual psychology. Since objects can be seen by light in ...

, Pao is a megalomaniacal

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

villain, evocative of the

Yellow Peril The Yellow Peril (also the Yellow Terror and the Yellow Specter) is a racial color metaphor that depicts the peoples of East and Southeast Asia as an existential danger to the Western world. As a psychocultural menace from the Eastern world ...

and similar to the famous

Fu Manchu Dr. Fu Manchu () is a supervillain who was introduced in a series of novels by the English author Sax Rohmer beginning shortly before World War I and continuing for another forty years. The character featured in cinema, television, radio, com ...

; indeed he is supposedly his cousin. Pao Tcheou was created by "Edward Brooker", the nom de plume for a French writer who has never been identified, and the series was continued by the equally pseudonymous "Sam P. Norwood". The first series of novels ran from 1946 to 1947, and the second from 1953 to 1956. The Pao Tcheou series was massive in its scope, spanning all of the Earth and beyond, including a journey to

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

. The evil conqueror Pao is opposed by the heroic team of Lapertot, a stalwart adventurer, and Professor Faustulus, a learned doctor who assists with the scientific aspects of the adventures. Pao's efforts to take control of the world are many and varied, including

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may ...

atomic bombs A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

, and giant monsters.''Le Maitre de L'Invisible'', book 34, ''Lîle aux Monstres''.

References

Pao Tcheou

Footnotes

{{Reflist Characters in pulp fiction Fictional Chinese people in literature Characters in French novels of the 20th century Literary characters introduced in 1946