Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective & His Rendezvous with American History
Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 5:45 pm
USF Main Campus, Fromm Hall (Parker & Golden Gate), San Francisco
University of San Francisco, Center of the Pacific Rim presents
(with CHSA co-sponsoring):
A Book Reading by Dr. Yunte Huang,
author of CHARLIE CHAN
From Honolulu to Harvard to Hollywood, the creation of a Chinese “fictional” detective launched both books & film series; successful then, damned now.
In the 1930s Charlie Chan was the good Chinese stereotype as opposed to his bad opposite, Dr. Fu Manchu. Cinema chieftans insisted both be played by Whites in “yellow face,” the same racist view that forced White actors into “black face” when imitating Blacks. Unlike Fu Manchu, a real Chinese detective, Chang Apana, who rose from Oahu houseboy to Waimea cowboy to a bullwhip-toting cop no one called “boy,” served as a model for Charlie.
Come hear & see the controversy at this special reading!
Dr. Patrick Hatcher, PhD, Kiriyama Fellow at the Center, will moderate. Free & Open to the Public. Please call 415-422-6828 to RSVP. Co-sponsored by CHSA, USF’s Media Studies Department, & the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning.