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

I found this to be a fascinating story--about the "real" Charlie Chan, Chinese- Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. A fearless man, standing only five feet tall, he became a legend in Honolulu. And he was the inspiration for the fictional Chinese detective "Charlie Chan," created by an Ohioan named Earl Derr Biggers. Indeed, Apana would come to be called "Charlie Chan"--and he was proud to be identified with the famous fictional character. For me, the best part of the book was about Chang Apana, and Huang shows the strong racism against Asians in Hawaii ( and America ) as the backdrop to Apana's life. However, I also found it fascinating that Biggers --who knew next to nothing about China and the Chinese--was able to create a fictional Chinese character who became so popular in both books and film. Huang, the author, is a native-born southern Chinese who has become a professor of English (at UC, Santa Barbara), and relates his own story about his growing interest in Charlie Chan and his following the trail of Chan, taking him to Ohio, Hawaii, and Shanghai. While the author's part in his story seemed to detract from the main story concerning Apana, Chan, and Biggers, it reminded me of Bill Bryson or Tony Horwitz ( "Confederates in the Attic"), who are two authors I enjoy very much.. While Charlie Chan is now seen as a stereotyping of Asians-and an example of "yellowface," as the Chinese detective was mainly portrayed by Caucasians, Huang sees the positive side of Charlie Chan, as, after all, Charlie Chan was one of the first and most famous Asian heroes in books and film for Americans.