Stereotypes of East Asians in the United States forms of racial discrimination or social issues in American society at large, and that their community is thriving, having "gained" socioeconomic success through their own merit. Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan are two important and well-known fictional East Asian characters in America's cultural history. Created by Sax Rohmer and Earl Derr Biggers in the early part of the 20th century, Fu Manchu is the embodiment of America's imagination of a threatening mysterious East Asian people while Charlie Chan is an apologetic submissive Chinese-Hawaiian detective who represents America's archetypal "good" East Asian. Both characters found widespread popularity in numerous novels and
Charlie Chan the 1930s and 1940s, five Chan films were produced in Shanghai and Hong Kong. In these films, Chan owns his detective agency and is aided, not by a son, but by a daughter, Manna, played first by Gu Meijun (顾梅君) in the Shanghai productions and then by Bai Yan (白燕) in postwar Hong Kong. Chinese audiences also saw the original American Charlie Chan films. They were by far the most popular American films in 1930s China and among Chinese expatriates; "one of the reasons for this acceptance was this was the first time Chinese audiences saw a positive Chinese character