Charlie Chan: The Untold Story Of The Honorable Detective And His Rendezvous With American History (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
Thorough to a fault, this book will tell you everything you could ever want to know (and more) about the honorable detective, Charlie Chan: his real-life origins, his literary adventures, his prolific success in Hollywood, the racial controversies he engendered, and the social context underpinning all of the above. Some people will find the extent of Yunte Huang's research rather excessive, but lovers of history are unlikely to mind all the various tangents and rabbit trails that the book explores. Thankfully, Huang is the kind of writer who can make just about any topic interesting, and the only parts of the book that I found dull were the two or three chapters in which he attempts to follow in the footsteps, geographically speaking, of Charlie Chan's creators.This book casts a very wide net, and you couldn't ask for a more detailed or astute examination of a fictional character. It's so good, in fact, that you don't even need to know a thing about Charlie Chan in order to enjoy it (I speak from personal experience here). Yunte Huang also does an admirable job of discussing the reasons why some people see Mr. Chan as an offensive racial stereotype, and why the character's legacy has lost much of its luster in recent years. Yet, Mr. Huang also recognizes the positive impact Charlie Chan has had on American culture, and he admirably refuses to throw Chan under the bus simply to appease the god of political correctness. There's a book I read a while back called "Charlie Chan" by Yunte Huang, a naturalized US citizen born in China. Huang came over to the US for college, worked odd jobs to pay his way, and stumbled upon the persona of Charlie Chan. Huang's journeys across the country lead to his "discovering" Chan and Chan's creator and make for an entertaining spin. Once he gets into Chan and his predecessorFu Manchu as image of the Chinaman in the US, the reading gets drier, but still interesting, especially when he goes into the history of Honolulu and an ace Chinese/Hawaiian detective who worked there in the early 20th century. After I'd read the book I checked out a few Chan novels from the library. They were written around 1925 and as detective books go not too bad, but certainly not Hammett or Chandler. Earl Derr, the writer, relies on some hilarious cliches -- I counted five times in the book that someone "leaped out of his chair" upon hearing some surprising bit of information. Even funnier, in the last chapter someone comes halfway up out of his chair -- the information not being all that surprising but maybe just a little.Coincidentally, after I read Huang's book I noticed that he was teaching at UC Santa Barbara, the same school where my brother Dan graduated and where my friend Chuck now teaches. Chuck emailed me a photo of Huang on the cover of one of the campus magazines.
What do You think about Charlie Chan: The Untold Story Of The Honorable Detective And His Rendezvous With American History (2010)?
Interesting observations on anti Chinese and anti Asian sentiment in the US. A little un focused.
—isaac
This was a very interesting book. I enjoyed it but was distracted by the author's side tangents.
—staceyc
I'm looking forward to reading this. I never realized that "Charlie Chan" was a real person!
—mick
a good read and well-researched. i never knew all of this.
—Shyramae
