After completing studies at several universities in Europe, he went to China and Japan in the 1930s, where he studied Chinese popular literature and folk painting along with Chinese classical literature and history, later becoming an authority in Chinese ch'uan-ch'i fiction, or wonder tales.
這段時間，他研究中國歷史與古典文學，特別是民間文學、民俗畫，成為歐洲研究中國傳奇小說的權威。