If [...] it is remembered the Chinese author as a matter of course takes it for granted that his reader is thoroughly familiar with the working of the law in China, and Chinese manners and customs, it will be clear that translating a Chinese detective novel for the general Western public implies rewriting it from beginning to end, and even then the pages of such a translation would be bristling with footnotes. It is true that an occasional footnote lends an air of dignity and veracity to a detective story, as in Van Dine’s novels describing Philo Vance’s exploits, but one can hardly expect the reader to like a lengthy footnote on every other page.
—Robert Van Gulik on translating Chinese detective novels for Western audiences, foreword of Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee
