Charlie Chan: Difference between revisions

{{short description|Fictional detective}}

{{good article}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}}

| image = Warner Oland.jpg

| caption = [[Warner Oland]] as Charlie Chan

| creator = [[Earl Derr Biggers]]

| portrayer = {{plainlist|

| children = 14

| relatives =

| nationality = [[United States|American]]-[[China|Chinese]]

}}

{{blockquote|quote=It overwhelms me with sadness to admit it… for he is of my own origin, my own race, as you know. But when I look into his eyes I discover that a gulf like the heaving Pacific lies between us. Why? Because he, though among Caucasians many more years than I, still remains Chinese. As Chinese to-day as in the first moon of his existence. While I – I bear the brand – the label – Americanized.... I traveled with the current.... I was ambitious. I sought success. For what I have won, I paid the price. Am I an American? No. Am I, then, a Chinese? Not in the eyes of Ah Sing.|source=Charlie Chan, speaking of a murderer's accomplice, in ''Keeper of the Keys'', by Earl Derr Biggers<ref>Quoted in Sommer (), 211.</ref>}}

Biggers wrote six novels in which Charlie Chan appears:

Oland died in 1938, and the Chan film ''Charlie Chan at the Ringside'' was rewritten with additional footage as ''[[Mr.&nbsp;Moto's Gamble]]'', an entry in the [[Mr. Moto]] series, another contemporary series featuring an East Asian protagonist; Luke appeared as Lee Chan, not only in already shot footage but also in scenes with Moto actor [[Peter Lorre]]. Fox hired another white actor, [[Sidney Toler]], to play Charlie Chan, and produced eleven Chan films through 1942.<ref name= "Hanke169" >Hanke (1989), 169.</ref> Toler's Chan was less mild-mannered than Oland's, a "switch in attitude that added some of the vigor of the original books to the films." <ref name= "Hanke111" /> He is frequently accompanied, and irritated, by his Number Two Son, Jimmy Chan, played by [[Victor Sen Yung]],<ref>Hanke (1989), 111-114.</ref> who later portrayed "Hop Sing" in the long-running [[Western (genre)|Western]] television series ''[[Bonanza]]''.

==== Spanish-language adaptations ====

In Neil Simon's ''[[Murder By Death]]'', [[Peter Sellers]] plays a Chinese detective called Sidney Wang, a parody of Chan.

===Radio===<!-- This section is linked from [[Mutual Broadcasting System]] -->

=== Stage ===

* In 1956–57, ''[[The New Adventures of Charlie Chan]]'', starring [[J. Carrol Naish]] in the title role, were made independently for TV syndication in 39 episodes, by [[Television Programs of America]]. The series was filmed in England.<ref>Mitchell (1999), 237.</ref> In this series, Chan is based in London rather than the United States. Ratings were poor, and the series was canceled.<ref>Mitchell (1999), 238.</ref>

* In the 1960s, [[Joey Forman]] played an obvious parody of Chan named "Harry Hoo" in two episodes of ''[[Get Smart]]''.

* ''[[The Return of Charlie Chan]]'', a television film starring [[Ross Martin]] as Chan, was made in 1971 but did not air until 1979.

A ''Charlie Chan'' [[comic strip]], drawn by [[Alfred Andriola]], was distributed by the [[McNaught Syndicate]] beginning October 24, 1938.<ref>Young (2007), 128. Ma (2000), 13 gives the dates as 1935 to 1938; however, Young's obituary in ''The New York Times'' states that the strip began in 1938.</ref> Andriola was chosen by Biggers to draw the character.<ref name= "Ma 2000, 13" >Ma (2000), 13.</ref> Following the Japanese attack on [[Pearl Harbor]], the strip was dropped; the last strip ran on May 30, 1942.<ref name=Holtz>{{cite book |last1=Holtz |first1=Allan |title=American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide |date=2012 |publisher=The University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=9780472117567 |page=100}}</ref> In 2019, [[The Library of American Comics]] reprinted one year of the strip (1938) in their ''[[List of The Library of American Comics publications#LoAC Essentials|LoAC Essentials]]'' line of books ({{ISBN|978-1-68405-506-7}}).

In addition, a board game, ''The Great Charlie Chan Detective Mystery Game'' (1937),<ref>Rinker (1988), 312.</ref> and a ''Charlie Chan Card Game'' (1939), have been released.

== Modern interpretations and criticism ==

Critic Michael Brodhead argues that "Biggers's sympathetic treatment of the Charlie Chan novels convinces the reader that the author consciously and forthrightly spoke out for the Chinese – a people to be not only accepted but admired. Biggers's sympathetic treatment of the Chinese reflected and contributed to the greater acceptance of Chinese-Americans in the first third of [the twentieth] century." <ref>Michael Brodhead, quoted in Chan (2001), 56.</ref> S. T. Karnick writes in the ''[[National Review]]'' that Chan is "a brilliant detective with understandably limited facility in the English language [whose] powers of observation, logic, and personal rectitude and humility made him an exemplary, entirely honorable character." <ref name= "Karnick" >Karnick (2006).</ref> [[Ellery Queen]] called Biggers's characterization of Charlie Chan "a service to humanity and to inter-racial relations." <ref name= "Queen 1969, 102" /> Dave Kehr of ''[[The New York Times]]'' said Chan "might have been a stereotype, but he was a stereotype on the side of the angels." <ref name= "nytimesreview" >{{cite news |title=New DVD's: Charlie Chan |first=Dave |last=Kehr |newspaper=The New York Times |date=20 June 2006 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/20/movies/20dvd.html?_r=1 }}</ref> Keye Luke, an actor who played Chan's son in a number of films, agreed; when asked if he thought that the character was demeaning to the race, he responded, "Demeaning to the race? My God! You've got a ''Chinese hero!''" <ref>Quoted in Hanke (2004), xv.</ref> and "[W]e were making the best damn murder mysteries in Hollywood." <ref name= "lepore20100809" >Lepore, Jill. "[http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/08/09/100809crbo_books_lepore?currentPage=all CHAN, THE MAN]'" ''The New Yorker'', 9 August 2010.</ref><ref>Quoted in Hanke (2004), xiii.</ref>

Some argue that the character's popularity is dependent on its contrast with stereotypes of the Yellow Peril or Japanese people in particular. American opinion of China and Chinese Americans grew more positive in the 1920s and '30s in contrast to the Japanese, who were increasingly viewed with suspicion. Sheng-mei Ma argues that the character is a psychological over-compensation to "rampant paranoia over the racial other." <ref>Ma (2000), 4.</ref>

Modern critics, particularly Asian Americans, continue to have mixed feelings on Charlie Chan. Fletcher Chan, a defender of the works, argues that the Chan of Biggers's novels is not subservient to white characters, citing ''The Chinese Parrot'' as an example; in this novel, Chan's eyes blaze with anger at racist remarks and in the end, after exposing the murderer, Chan remarks "Perhaps listening to a 'Chinaman' is no disgrace." <ref>''The Chinese Parrot'', quoted in Chan (2007).</ref> In the films, both ''[[Charlie Chan in London]]'' (1934) and ''[[Charlie Chan in Paris]]'' (1935) "contain scenes in which Chan coolly and wittily dispatches other characters' racist remarks." <ref name= "nytimesreview" /> Yunte Huang manifests an ambivalent attitude, stating that in the US, Chan "epitomizes the racist heritage and the creative genius of this nation's culture." <ref>Huang (2011)</ref> Huang also suggests that critics of Charlie Chan may have themselves, at times, "caricatured" Chan himself.<ref>Huang (2011), p. 280.</ref>

* —. ''[[Charlie Chan Carries On]]''. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1930.

* —. ''[[Keeper of the Keys]]''. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1932.

* [[Michael Collins (American author)|Lynds, Dennis]]. ''Charlie Chan Returns''. New York: Bantam Books, 1974. ASIN B000CD3I22.

* [[Bill Pronzini|Pronzini, Bill]], and Jeffrey M. Wallmann. ''Charlie Chan in the Pawns of Death''. 1974. ''Charlie Chan's Mystery Magazine''. Reprinted by Borgo Press, 2003. {{ISBN|978-1-59224-010-4}}.

* [[Michael Avallone|Avallone, Michael]]. ''Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen''. New York: Pinnacle, 1981. {{ISBN|0-523-41505-2}}.

* [[John L. Swann|Swann, John L.]]. ''Death, I Said: A Charlie Chan Mystery''. Utica, New York: Nicholas K. Burns Publishing, 2023. {{ISBN|978-0-9755224-5-5}}.

{{clear}}

|rowspan=5 | 1946

|Charlie Chan 3-Film Collection (Warner Archive, 2016)

|-

|''[[Dark Alibi]]''

|Phil Karlson

|-

|''[[Shadows Over Chinatown]]''

|Charlie Chan Collection (Warner Home Video, 2013)

|

|-

|''[[The Trap (1946 film)|The Trap]]''

|[[Howard Bretherton]]

|Public domain due to the omission of a valid copyright notice on original prints. Toler's last film.

|-

|''The Disappearing Corpse'' (in [[Standard Chinese|Chinese]])

|rowspan=5 | Xu Xinyuan

|1937

|

[[Category:Dell Comics titles]]

[[Category:Detective radio shows]]

[[Category:Fictional American police detectives|Chan, Charlie]]

[[Category:Fictional characters based on real people]]

[[Category:Stereotypes of East Asian people]]

[[Category:Works based on Charlie Chan| 01]]

[[Category:Fictional Chinese people]]