Charlie Chan

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

By: Yunte Huang

Narrated by: Alfred Gingold

Shortlisted for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography and the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Book.

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 storytelling" (Donna Seaman, Los Angeles Times).

©2010 Yunte Huang (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"An ingenious and absorbing book.... It will permanently change the way we tell this troubled yet gripping story." (Jonathan Spence)

great book strange choice of narrator.

a great book with a very important statement. i am not the best person to make a comment on this being that i am not chinese, however i love the warner oland charlie chan movies and i love historical books. and this book is a loving tribute to apanna (the true charlie chan) and the charlie chan movies.
its amazing to me how something so simple as a movie can offer pride and hope to the world.
Racism in all forms is bad , and i hope one day we can have a chinese actor portray charlie chan and redeem him for a modern world.
i dont know if im wrong for saying that, i hope im not. all i do know is that this book is great if ( big if) you can get past the narrator. he was a wierd choice.
please give this book a chance.

Good history of Charlie Chan with modern views

The story is good with good coverage of the Biggers character, the original Hawaiian detective who was the inspiration and the Chan author. The digressions into the authors life are mostly good. Since the author is Chinese, it is good to get his take on the charges of racism now being leveled at the books and movies. As a moderate Charlie Chan fan, I would recommend it.

Great Book. Mediocre Narrator

What they say about a weak narrator diminishing the quality of the book is exemplified here. I ended up buying the Kindle version. Alexa read it better.

It’s sad because the author does a superlative job putting Charlie Chan’s uneven history in perspective and telling us about his heroic real life personification.

Very thorough review of the subject(s)

At first I thought I might not like the narrator. But after awhile I grew to appreciate his clarity and verbal vigor. Not warm and fuzzy or intellectually nuanced, Gingold delivers in a straightforward robust manner. Ultimately it works well for the subject matter and writing style. Beyond that, the book is a deep dive into cultural stereotypes that goes well beyond Charlie Chan in print and on screen. Comprehensive, authoritative, and proves that not all racial stereotypes are created equal. Biggers actually created Chan in counterpoint to Fu Manchu, and the stereotyping was more a product of Hollywood studios repeatedly casting non-Chinese, non-Asian actors in the Chan role.

HORRIBLE narration, okay story

I really cannot fathom how someone picks a narrator for a book that has so much of Hawaii in it and he cannot pronounce a single Hawaiian word. I only finished this book because it cost me a credit. If you have read his book obout Anna May Wong, approximately 1/4 of this book is copied and pasted from that one. The author skims over the radio shows that lead up to the films of CC and spends SO much time on movies that have nothing to do with CC.