L Ron Hubbard’s Travel Advice to Manchuria, 1935

Posted: July 13th, 2022 | No Comments »

Having written about the teenage L Ron Hubbard’s travels to China in the South China Morning Post weekend magazine last week I did not that one of his best pulp fiction stories set in China was The Red Dragon (1935). A full description of the story below but this line is a classic of the time and genre…

‘My dear Miss Sheldon, you must believe me when I say that Manchuria is no place for a lady.’

As a lieutenant in the US Marine Corps—as handsome and cocky as Richard Gere—Michael Stuart was once considered an officer and a gentleman. But that’s all changed. Now he’s seen as a renegade, a traitor and a thief.

Stuart is a man without a country … and perhaps without a prayer. Why? Because in a daring plot to foil the Japanese puppet regime in China, he set out to reinstate the country’s true emperor. Known now as the Red Dragon, Stuart is a soldier of fortune in war-torn Manchuria—and a man of honor in a world of treachery.

Stuart’s latest adventure takes him from Peking to the Great Wall and beyond. He’s in a race against time and against the Japanese super-spy known as the Hell-Cat, both of them in hot pursuit of an elusive black chest. For Stuart, the ultimate prize is one filled with mystery, power, and treasure—not only in the chest itself, but in the love of the beautiful woman who has sent him on this mission.…

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