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

by Huang, Yunte

• ISBN13: 9780393340396
• ISBN10: 0393340392
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-08-15
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

Hailed as #xE2;#x80;#x9C;irrepressibly spirited and entertaining#xE2;#x80;#x9D; (Pico Iyer, Time) and #xE2;#x80;#x9C;a fascinating cultural survey#xE2;#x80;#x9D; (Paul Devlin, Daily Beast), this provocative first biography of Charlie Chan presents American history in a way that it has never been told before. Yunte Huang ingeniously traces Charlie Chan from his real beginnings as a bullwhip-wielding detective in territorial Hawaii to his reinvention as a literary sleuth and Hollywood film icon. Huang finally resurrects the #xE2;#x80;#x9C;honorable detective#xE2;#x80;#x9D; from the graveyard of detested postmodern symbols and reclaims him as the embodiment of America#xE2;#x80;#x99;s rich cultural diversity. The result is one of the most critically acclaimed books of the year and a #xE2;#x80;#x9C;deeply personal . . . voyage into racial stereotyping and the humanizing force of story telling#xE2;#x80;#x9D; (Donna Seaman, Los Angeles Times).

Author Biography

Born in China, Yunte Huang arrived in Alabama in 1991 and received his PhD at SUNY Buffalo. The author of Transpacific Imaginations, Huang has taught at Harvard and is currently a professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xi
Introduction	p. xv
Prologue	p. 1
The "Real" Charlie Chan
Sandalwood Mountains	p. 7
Canton	p. 22
Paniolo, the Hawaiian Cowboy	p. 28
The Wilders of Waikiki	p. 37
"Book 'em, Danno!"	p. 44
Chinatown	p. 54
The See Yup Man	p. 61
Desperadoes	p. 68
Double Murder	p. 73
Charlie Chan's Pop
The Other Canton	p. 83
Lampoon	p. 96
The Raconteur	p. 102
The House Without a Key	p. 108
Charlie Chan, The Chinaman
The Heathen Chinee	p. 117
Fu Manchu	p. 136
Charlie Chan, the Chinaman	p. 146
Kaimuki	p. 161
Pasadena	p. 171
A Meeting of East and West	p. 181
Charlie Chan at the Movies
Hollywood's Chinoiserie	p. 189
Yellowface	p. 198
Between the Real and the Reel	p. 205
Rape in Paradise	p. 211
The Black Camel	p. 230
Racial Parables	p. 238
Charlie Chan Carries on
Charlie Chan in China	p. 247
Charlie Chan Soldiers On	p. 259
The Fu Manchurian Candidate	p. 268
Will the Real Charlie Chan Please Stand Up?	p. 278
Epilogue	p. 289
A List of Charlie Chanisms	p. 299
A List of Charlie Chan Films	p. 302
Acknowledgments	p. 305
Notes	p. 307
Selected Bibliography	p. 329
Index	p. 337
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