Charlie Chan: The Untold Story...

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

The full title of this book is Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History, by Yunte Huang.



My daily Twitter review: CHARLIE CHAN LIVES in this utterly absorbing look at the real Hawai'i cop who inspired the fictional detective. A MINUS

This is an insightful work of cultural history that is also really entertaining. The author, Yunte Huang, is a scholar who emigrated to the US from China as an adult, and whose first exposure to the whole Charlie Chan phenomenon surprised and fascinated him.

Huang's research led him to the real life inspiration for Charlie Chan, a late 19th/early 20th century Hawai'i police officer named Chang Apana. Chang Apana's story is a rich and complex one, and Huang covers both the events of his police career and the challenges he faced because of his Chinese heritage.

Huang then traces how Earl Derr Biggers, the white creator of Charlie Chan, learned about Chang Apana's story and how he transformed it into something very different, and how Hollywood took the narrative in other directions. I really enjoyed Huang's writing, which navigates truly complicated issues while keeping up a page-turning pace.

Comments

[erinlin.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to read that, thanks for reviewing it.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review, I've now put it on my library list.

[mongrelheart.livejournal.com]

I'd really like to read this. Back in high school in Hawaii, we had a field trip to the Honolulu police station where (among other things) we saw Chang Apana's picture and some of his personal effects.