the amazin chan and the chan clan

CAAM Presents: Cherylene Lee on CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OLYMPICS

I was heartened that Yunte Huang’s book, Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History, actually gave vivid life to the real-life detective, Chang Apana, a Hawaiian policeman, who inspired Earl Biggers to create the Charlie Chan book series. He presented a revisionist image to the Charlie Chan movies I had seen where a white actor played the sage, wise, unbeatable detective.