Charlie Chan

This is the first biography of the cinematic hero Charlie Chan, whose character was inspired by the real-life story of Chang Apana, a bullwhip-wielding, five-foot-tall Chinese-American immigrant detective whose raids on opium dens and gambling parlours made him a legend. Emerging against the backdrop of racially riven early-twentieth-century Hawaii, Apana's bravado inspired mystery writer Earl Derr Biggers to write six best-selling novels. The resulting Hollywood character was not a stereotypical "Chinaman" but a wisecracking sleuth with a knack for turning oriental wisdom into soup-alley Chinatown blues. Examining Chan in fact and fiction, Huang follows this untold story from the beaches of Waikiki to the studios of Hollywood.