Sir Conan Doyle’s Curly Fu & Peanut!

The British Broadcasting Corporation’s ‘Sherlock’ series has garnered great support and has probably amassed a huge fandom since it premiered. I think this has taken place quickly and more so than other English soaps because each season has just three episodes which leave the audience begging for more. Even more so is the great initiative to bring Doyle’s most beloved character into the present age and still maintain the same amount of respect for the author’s original work. But then, the BBC is expected to do something new and that is why it is where it stands today.

Photo Courtesy: Google Images.

Now this may seem a bit funky because I read it in a feature on BBC’s website itself but it claims that Sherlock has obtained widespread acclaim from Chinese viewers too. It seems that when the British Prime Minister visited China and opened an account on a local social networking site, most of the requests he received were for the third season of ‘Sherlock’ to be released as soon as possible. This may and can be true, but with so many international issues at stake, would the most number of requests a Prime Minister receives be concerning a show? (China, you never cease to amaze me).

Let me now explain the title to this post. It seems that Curly Fu and Peanut are the names given to the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson respectively by their fans there. Apparently, their names resemble the Chinese (Cantonese or Mandarin, I don’t know which) names to some extent.

Another interesting part of that selfsame article was where it was mentioned that people there also read homosexuality in the show. They claim to make out that the show reinforces a strong tie that exists between the two central characters to such an extent that may even be homosexual in nature. Now I, in my three years of reading Doyle’s work as a reader and in another three as a student of English literature have never even imagined that such a relationship may be hinted at, what with Watson getting married and Sherlock having a secret crush on ‘The Woman’. Well, it may be so in the show and maybe I've never thought of it like that but I’m certainly going to watch the previous two seasons very closely, not only for this factor but also for others which may have escaped me before.

And to the director of this show, I say, “Good show, old chap!”