Charlie Chan Charlie Chan Charlie Chan is a fictional character created by Earl Derr Biggers. Biggers loosely based Chan on Honolulu, Hawaii, detective Chang Apana, and conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes and villains like Fu Manchu. Chan is a detective for the Honolulu police, though many stories feature Chan traveling the world as he investigates mysteries and solves crimes. Chan first appeared in Biggers' novels, then was featured in a number of media. Over four dozen films featuring Charlie Chan were made, beginning in 1926. The character was first portrayed by East Asian
Charlie Chan such as Fu Manchu, while simultaneously emphasizing supposedly Chinese characteristics such as impassivity and stoicism. Biggers wrote six novels in which Charlie Chan appears: The first Charlie Chan film was "The House Without a Key" (1926), a ten-chapter serial produced by Pathé Studios, starring George Kuwa, a Japanese actor, as Chan. A year later Universal Pictures followed with "The Chinese Parrot", starring Japanese actor, Kamiyama Sojin, in the starring role. In both productions, Charlie Chan's role was minimized. Contemporary reviews were unfavorable; in the words of one reviewer, speaking of "The Chinese Parrot", Sojin plays "the Chink sleuth as a