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Charlie Chan is a fictional character created by Earl Derr Biggers. Biggers loosely based Chan on Honolulu 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 actors, and the films met with little success. In 1931, the Fox Film Corporation cast Swedish actor Warner Oland as Chan in ''Charlie Chan Carries On''; the film became popular, and Fox went on to produce fifteen more Chan films with Oland in the title role. After Oland's death, American actor Sidney Toler was cast as Chan; Toler made twenty-two Chan films, first for Fox and then for Monogram Studios. After Toler's death, six films were made, starring Roland Winters. Readers and movie-goers greeted Chan warmly (in the 1930s, audiences even in Shanghai found the character positive and funny), but twenty-first century critics have taken contending views. Some see Chan as an attractive character who is portrayed as intelligent, heroic, benevolent and honorable in contrast to the racist depictions of evil or conniving Asians which dominated Hollywood and national media. Others find that Chan, despite his good qualities, reinforces condescending stereotypes such as an alleged incapacity to speak idiomatic English and a tradition-bound and subservient nature. Many found it objectionable that he was played on screen by Caucasian actors in so-called Yellowface. More recent film adaptations in the 1990s have been poorly received. The character has been featured in several radio programs, two television shows, and comics. ==Books== The character of Charlie Chan was created by Earl Derr Biggers. In 1919,〔Mitchell (1999), xxv.〕 while visiting Hawaii, Biggers planned a detective novel to be called ''The House Without a Key''. He did not begin to write that novel until four years later, however, when he was inspired to add a Chinese-American police officer to the plot after reading in a newspaper of Chang Apana (鄭阿平) and Lee Fook, two detectives on the Honolulu police force.〔This point is debated. Hawley says Apana directly inspired Biggers (135); Herbert says Apana ''may'' have done so (20). However, Biggers himself, in a 1931 interview, cited both Apana and Fook as inspirations for the character of Charlie Chan ("Creating Charlie Chan" ()). When Biggers actually met Apana a few years later, he found that his character and Apana had little in common.〕 Biggers, who disliked the Yellow Peril stereotypes he found when he came to California, explicitly conceived of the character as an alternative: "Sinister and wicked Chinese are old stuff, but an amiable Chinese on the side of law and order has never been used."〔Earl Derr Biggers, quoted in "Creating Charlie Chan" (1931).〕 The "amiable Chinese" made his first appearance in ''The House Without a Key'' (1925). The character was not central to the novel and was not mentioned by name on the dust jacket of the first edition.〔Queen (1969), 102.〕 In the novel, Chan is described as walking with "the light dainty step of a woman"〔''The House Without a Key'', quoted in Odo (2002), 388.〕 and as being "very fat indeed ... an undistinguished figure in his Western clothes."〔''The House Without a Key'', quoted in Hawley (1991), 136.〕 According to critic Sandra Hawley, this description of Chan allows Biggers to portray the character as nonthreatening, the opposite of evil Chinese characters, such as Fu Manchu, while simultaneously emphasizing supposedly Chinese characteristics such as impassivity and stoicism. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Charlie Chan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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