Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History

Like many who grew up in the 1950's and 1960's, I enjoyed the adventures of the fictional detective known as Charlie Chan. I did not know, however, that there really was a policeman whose adventures in law enforcement in Honolulu at the beginning of the twentieth century served as inspiration for great fictional detective. His name was Chang Apana (1871-1933). He stood only five feet tall, but at times carried a bull whip with him as he patrolled Honolulu's Chinatown.The story of how Chang Apana became the inspiration for author Earl Derr Biggers' fictional character, Charlie Chan, is the subject of Yunte Huang's CHARLIE CHAN: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE HONORABLE DETECTIVE AND HIS RENDEZVOUS WITH AMERICAN HISTORY (New York: W. H. Norton & Company, 2010). Yunte Huang is a distinguished scholar and professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of a number of books praised for their scholarship and readability.Professor Huang used both archival materials and extensive reading in secondary sources to tell the story of both Chang Apana and Earl Derr Biggers, creator of Charlie Chan. He documents how Biggers’ creation one the most popular icons American popular culture through novels, and even more through movies. The book includes an extensive bibliography, which, together with the chapter notes and index, makes the book both enjoyable to read as well and a good source for one interested in a serious study of American popular culture during the first half of the twenty-first century.Readers who have seen many of the Charlie Chan movies will no doubt enjoy “A List of Charlie Chanisms” in Appendix I. There are 56 of these gems including:“Every maybe has a wife called Maybe-Not.”“The fool questions others, the wise man questions himself.”“Learn from hen—never boast about egg until after egg’s birthday.”“Trouble, like first love, teach many lessons.”Appendix II contains a list of 47 Charlie Chan films produced between 1926 and 1949. Charlie Chan was played by 5 different actors over the years: George Kuwa (1926), Kamiyama Sojin (1927), E. L. Park (1929), Warner Oland (1931-1937), Sidney Toler (1938-1946) and Roland Winters (1947-2949).In conclusion, I agree with Jonathan Spence’s (author of The Search for Modern China and Return to Dragon Mountain) assessment of Huang’s Charlie Chan: “An ingenious and absorbing book that provides a convincing new mode for examining the Chinese experience through Chinese and Western eyes. It will permanently change the way we tell this troubled gripping story.”

In 350 odd pages for less than 12 bucks - almost an 60 cents less for the Kindle edition (!) you will get: a biography of the real Charlie Chan; the biography of the man who wrote the legendary Charlie Chan books; some of the filmography of the Charlie Chan actors and flicks plus more. The author is a Chinese born - American citizen, Ph. D. English professor and expert on subjects transpacific. The writing is breezy, easy to read and neither too scholarly (good!) nor too tightly edited (maybe not so good).The real Charlie Chan was a Chinese peasant born self - made man. His real name: Chang Apana. Chang began as a cowboy on a Hawaiian ranch and in steps earned his way from: Animal Control Officer (first in Hawaii) to a highly respected police detective. He achieved all of this at a time and in a place where his race would be held against him. His police work would routinely be more dangerous than his self-made, preferred side arm: a bull whip.Earl Biggers was a competent mystery writer from the east coast of the US. On a visit to Hawaii, he would get to know about Chang Apana and build from this real person, one of the few ethic mystery detectives to become famous in the west. Biggers' Charlie Chan would be the wizened solver of crimes and source of "Confucian" aphorisms in 6 Biggers' books and more than 50 Movies.In fleshing out the histories of these two men, Yunte Huang will tells us about his personal climb from Chinese poverty to the position of respected American Scholar and his travels to locate information on the several threads of this book. He will also give us his take, as a spokesman for Asians, on the problems of racism and stereotyping related to the continued popularity of the Charlie Chan character. This last point is worthy of its own study. However, this study like my abbreviated summary will not be as interesting as this book.Chang Apena is a fascinating person. I would have liked to know more about him.The tale of Biggers is about right in terms of detail and depth. There is perhaps too much on the Charlie Chan films. Then again, it is possible that the movies connect most people to Charlie Chan.Besides, where else will you learn that the secret to speaking in the pigeon English that the directors wanted for Chan; was to be half drunk?Professor Yunte Huang has a breezy, easy to read style. He is not tied to a tightly written narrative style. This can make the text more personal, but can also produce padding. He has a passion for his topic. The result is something like fan boy scholarship. The payoff is that you won't feel like you are being dragged through a college lecture.Charlie Chan is designed to be light reading. This many layered biography is true to that model and therefore fun to read.

It wasn't what I expected as I thought it would be solely about the actor who was famous for playing Charlie Chan. I was more than halfway through before the author got round to that.However, it gave the full history of the Charlie Chan character - the author who wrote the stories; the detective on whom the character was based; the filming of the books plus the different actors who played him, several of whom only did the one film.All in all a very good book, packed with information and a book I shall be returning to many times, I should think.

A fascinating read and shows a new perspective on the character which has been overlooked.The seller dispatched the item promptly and the product was in better condition than I expected for a former library book.

This is a great story, masterfully told, about the pop culture phenom that was Charlie Chan. But more importantly, it gives indelible insight into Hollywood's not always "honorable" portrayl of the Asian man. A fascinating tale on many levels.

If only the author had kept himself out of it, I might've finished reading his eloquent study of Biggers and his cultural misfit, Inspector Charlie Chan.

I learned of this book while reading Leportes essays on American history. I had no idea this fascinating scholarship existed. Thank you Jill and Amazon.