Robert Van Gulik

Robert Van Gulik was born in the Netherlands in 1910.
After studying law and politics in Leiden and Utrecht, he began a diplomatic career that would keep him in the East for almost his entire life.
A scholar and polyglot (he spoke Dutch, English, Japanese, Malay, Javanese, Latin, and Greek, but also Chinese and Russian), his name is associated with important studies on Chinese culture. It was in 1948, in Japan, that he translated a Chinese detective novel, the... Dee Gong Na or Cases Solved by Judge DeeInspired by this and other ancient Chinese narratives, Van Gulik wrote seventeen fictional detective stories featuring Judge Dee as the main character, which introduce Western readers to many aspects of social life in ancient China.