New Year's Eve in Lan-fang. A Judge Dee Story - Inscribed - Robert H. Van Gulik 1958 - By the Author, Printed by &ldquo - One of only 200 printed An exceptional fine uncut and unopened example of the rarest Van Gulik Judge Dee titles, with fine provenance, being inscribed to the great German sinologist Dr. Wolfgang Franke and signed ‘R. H. van Gulik, Beirut, May ‘59’.

‘One of these beautifully printed booklets happened to come my way, finding my hand on an Amsterdam street stall. It numbers 32 pages and is called
New Year’s Eve in Lan-fang. Printed in Beirut, on high quality paper, with perfect binding and an elegant lettertype, it may have been created by a monk, moonlighting in the ‘Imprimerie catholique.’ The illustrations were drawn by van Gulik himself–consisting of two stylized Chinese characters (each in one unbroken line), the one [on the title page] meaning Fu (to be happy) and the one [on last page of the story] saying Shou (long life). Together the two symbols form the traditional Chinese wish for a Happy New Year.’ - from the final page of Janwillem van de Wetering’s ‘Robert van Gulik. His Life, His Work’.

This rare, small (17.5 x 11 cm), thirty two page booklet, was produced by Van Gulik and sent out as a New Year’s greeting for 1959, whilst posted as Dutch envoy to Syria and Lebanon. In addition to the two red Chinese characters referred to by van Wetering, there is a full page frontispiece from a woodblock print by Van Gulik.
  Reprinted with very slightly altered text in 1967 as 'Murder on New Year's Eve' in 'Judge Dee at Work'.

Provenance: Dr. Wolfgang Leopold Friedrich Franke (1912-2007), the son of the sinologist Otto Franke. After studying sinology in Berlin and Hamburg, he gained his doctorate and moved to China where from 1937 to 1945 he worked as a research assistant at the Deutschland-Institut in Peking. After the war, he became a professor at the Sichuan University and the private West China Union University (WCUU) in Chengdu (Sichuan province) and then at the University of Beijing. After 13 years in China, he returned to Germany and was appointed to the Chair of Sinology at the University of Hamburg, retiring in 1977. AFter the death of his wife Hu Chun-yin in 1988 he lived in Malaysia, returning to Germany in 2000 for his final years. Franke was internationally known as a China expert and became a focal point of international China research due to his personal contacts in China. He worked in various national and international committees on China and Asia studies and was a member of the university club of the University of Hamburg.

Reference: Wessells,
R.H. van Gulik: Di[plomat, Orientalist, Novelist. Foon, Wolfgang Franke 1912-2007, Ming Studies (2008). Walravens, In Memoriam, Monumenta Serica (2007).

pp. 32. Pagination includes endpapers, but not publisher’s cream coloured wrappers, front panel lettered in brown.
  Condition: Fine, unopened with bolts uncut.   Ref: 111041   Price: HK$ 25,000