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Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History
Winner of the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Book Shortlisted for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography Named One of Esquire's 50 Best Biographies of All Time "An ingenious and absorbing book…It will permanently change the way we tell this troubled yet gripping story." —Jonathan Spence Hailed as “irrepressibly spirited and entertaining” (Pico Iyer, Time) and “a fascinating cultural survey” (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 “honorable detective” from the graveyard of detested postmodern symbols and reclaims him as the embodiment of America’s rich cultural diversity. The result is one of the most critically acclaimed books of the year and a “deeply personal . . . voyage into racial stereotyping and the humanizing force of story telling” (Donna Seaman, Los Angeles Times).
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Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History
Winner of the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Book Shortlisted for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography Named One of Esquire's 50 Best Biographies of All Time "An ingenious and absorbing book…It will permanently change the way we tell this troubled yet gripping story." —Jonathan Spence Hailed as “irrepressibly spirited and entertaining” (Pico Iyer, Time) and “a fascinating cultural survey” (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 “honorable detective” from the graveyard of detested postmodern symbols and reclaims him as the embodiment of America’s rich cultural diversity. The result is one of the most critically acclaimed books of the year and a “deeply personal . . . voyage into racial stereotyping and the humanizing force of story telling” (Donna Seaman, Los Angeles Times).
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Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History
Winner of the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Book Shortlisted for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography Named One of Esquire's 50 Best Biographies of All Time "An ingenious and absorbing book…It will permanently change the way we tell this troubled yet gripping story." —Jonathan Spence Hailed as “irrepressibly spirited and entertaining” (Pico Iyer, Time) and “a fascinating cultural survey” (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 “honorable detective” from the graveyard of detested postmodern symbols and reclaims him as the embodiment of America’s rich cultural diversity. The result is one of the most critically acclaimed books of the year and a “deeply personal . . . voyage into racial stereotyping and the humanizing force of story telling” (Donna Seaman, Los Angeles Times).
Yunte Huang, a Guggenheim Fellow, has taught at Harvard and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is a Distinguished Professor of English. The author of the Edgar Award–winning biography Charlie Chan and Inseparable, both NBCC finalists, Huang speaks frequently about American popular culture.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Introduction xv
Prologue 1
Part 1 The "Real" Charlie Chan
1 Sandalwood Mountains 7
2 Canton 22
3 Paniolo, the Hawaiian Cowboy 28
4 The Wilders of Waikiki 37
5 "Book 'em, Danno!" 44
6 Chinatown 54
7 The See Yup Man 61
8 Desperadoes 68
9 Double Murder 73
Part 2 Charlie Chan's Pop
10 The Other Canton 83
11 Lampoon 96
12 The Raconteur 102
13 The House Without a Key 108
Part 3 Charlie Chan, The Chinaman
14 The Heathen Chinee 117
15 Fu Manchu 136
16 Charlie Chan, the Chinaman 146
17 Kaimuki 161
18 Pasadena 171
19 A Meeting of East and West 181
Part 4 Charlie Chan at the Movies
20 Hollywood's Chinoiserie 189
21 Yellowface 198
22 Between the Real and the Reel 205
23 Rape in Paradise 211
24 The Black Camel 230
25 Racial Parables 238
Part 5 Charlie Chan Carries on
26 Charlie Chan in China 247
27 Charlie Chan Soldiers On 259
28 The Fu Manchurian Candidate 268
29 Will the Real Charlie Chan Please Stand Up? 278
"An ingenious and absorbing book, that provides a convincing new mode for examining the Chinese experience through both Chinese and Western eyes. It will permanently change the way we tell this troubled yet gripping story."—Jonathan Spence, author of The Search for Modern China and Return to Dragon Mountain