According to critic Sandra Hawley, this description of Chan allows Biggers to portray the character as nonthreatening, the opposite of evil Chinese characters, such as Fu Manchu, while simultaneously emphasizing supposedly Chinese characteristics such as impassivity and stoicism. In the novel, Chan is described as "very fat indeed, yet he walked with the light dainty step of a woman" and in The Chinese Parrot as being " … an undistinguished figure in his Western clothes. The character was not central to the novel and was not mentioned by name on the dust jacket of the first edition. The "amiable Chinese" made his first appearance in The House Without a Key (1925).
Charlie Chan, speaking of a murderer's accomplice, in Keeper of the Keys, by Earl Derr Biggers Am I, then, a Chinese? Not in the eyes of Ah Sing.
While I – I bear the brand – the label – Americanized. As Chinese to-day as in the first moon of his existence.
Why? Because he, though among Caucasians many more years than I, still remains Chinese. But when I look into his eyes I discover that a gulf like the heaving Pacific lies between us. It overwhelms me with sadness to admit it … for he is of my own origin, my own race, as you know. Biggers, who disliked the Yellow Peril stereotypes he found when he came to California, explicitly conceived of the character as an alternative: "Sinister and wicked Chinese are old stuff, but an amiable Chinese on the side of law and order has never been used." He did not begin to write that novel until four years later, however, when he was inspired to add a Chinese-American police officer to the plot after reading in a newspaper of Chang Apana and Lee Fook, two detectives on the Honolulu police force. In 1919, while visiting Hawaii, Biggers planned a detective novel to be called The House Without a Key. The character of Charlie Chan was created by Earl Derr Biggers.
After Oland's death, American actor Sidney Toler was cast as Chan Toler made 22 Chan films, first for Fox and then for Monogram Studios. In 1931, for the first film centering on Chan, Charlie Chan Carries On, the Fox Film Corporation cast Swedish actor Warner Oland the film became popular, and Fox went on to produce 15 more Chan films with Oland in the title role. The character, featured only as a supporting character, was first portrayed by East Asian actors, and the films met with little success. Over four dozen films featuring Charlie Chan were made, beginning in 1926. Many stories feature Chan traveling the world beyond Hawaii as he investigates mysteries and solves crimes.Ĭhan first appeared in Biggers' novels and then was featured in a number of media. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes and villains like Fu Manchu. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana.
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Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels.