Editing Charlie Chan (section)

== Modern interpretations and criticism ==

The character of Charlie Chan has been the subject of controversy. Some find the character to be a positive [[role model]], while others argue that Chan is an [[Stereotype|offensive stereotype]]. Critic John Soister argues that Charlie Chan is both; when Biggers created the character, he offered a unique alternative to stereotypical evil Chinamen, a man who was at the same time "sufficiently accommodating in personality... unthreatening in demeanor... and removed from his Asian homeland... to quell any underlying xenophobia."<ref>Soister (2004), 67.</ref>

Critic Michael Brodhead argues that "Biggers's sympathetic treatment of the Charlie Chan novels convinces the reader that the author consciously and forthrightly spoke out for the Chinese – a people to be not only accepted but admired. Biggers's sympathetic treatment of the Chinese reflected and contributed to the greater acceptance of Chinese-Americans in the first third of [the twentieth] century."<ref>Michael Brodhead, quoted in Chan (2001), 56.</ref> S. T. Karnick writes in the ''[[National Review]]'' that Chan is "a brilliant detective with understandably limited facility in the English language [whose] powers of observation, logic, and personal rectitude and humility made him an exemplary, entirely honorable character."<ref name="Karnick">Karnick (2006).</ref> [[Ellery Queen]] called Biggers's characterization of Charlie Chan "a service to humanity and to inter-racial relations."<ref name="Queen 1969, 102" /> Dave Kehr of ''[[The New York Times]]'' said Chan "might have been a stereotype, but he was a stereotype on the side of the angels."<ref name="nytimesreview">{{cite news |title=New DVD's: Charlie Chan |first=Dave |last=Kehr |newspaper=The New York Times |date=20 June 2006 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/20/movies/20dvd.html?_r=1 }}</ref> Keye Luke, an actor who played Chan's son in a number of films, agreed; when asked if he thought that the character was demeaning to the race, he responded, "Demeaning to the race? My God! You've got a ''Chinese hero!''"<ref>Quoted in Hanke (2004), xv.</ref> and "[W]e were making the best damn murder mysteries in Hollywood."<ref name="lepore20100809">Lepore, Jill. "[http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/08/09/100809crbo_books_lepore?currentPage=all CHAN, THE MAN]'" ''The New Yorker'', 9 August 2010.</ref><ref>Quoted in Hanke (2004), xiii.</ref>

Other critics, such as sociologist [[Yen Le Espiritu]] and Huang Guiyou, argue that Chan, while portrayed positively in some ways, is not on a par with white characters, but a "benevolent Other"<ref>Kato (2007), 138.</ref> who is "one-dimensional".<ref>Le Espiritu (1996), 99.</ref> The films' use of white actors to portray East Asian characters indicates the character's "absolute Oriental Otherness;"<ref>Dave (2005), xiii.</ref> the films were only successful as "the domain of white actors who impersonated heavily-accented masters of murder mysteries as well as purveyors of cryptic proverbs." Chan's character "embodies the stereotypes of Chinese Americans, particularly of males: smart, subservient, effeminate."<ref>Huang (2006), 211.</ref> Chan is representative of a [[model minority]],<ref name="Crean">{{Cite book |last=Crean |first=Jeffrey |title=The Fear of Chinese Power: an International History |date=2024 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |isbn=978-1-350-23394-2 |edition= |series=New Approaches to International History series |location=London, UK |pages=}}</ref>{{Rp|page=43}} the good stereotype that counters a bad stereotype: "Each stereotypical image is filled with contradictions: the bloodthirsty Indian is tempered with the image of the noble savage; the ''bandido'' exists along with the loyal sidekick; and Fu Manchu is offset by Charlie Chan."<ref>Michael Omi, quoted in Chan (2001), 51.</ref> However, Fu Manchu's evil qualities are presented as inherently Chinese, while Charlie Chan's good qualities are exceptional; "Fu represents his race; his counterpart stands away from the other Asian Hawaiians."<ref name="Ma 2000, 13" />

Some argue that the character's popularity is dependent on its contrast with stereotypes of the Yellow Peril or Japanese people in particular. American opinion of China and Chinese Americans grew more positive in the 1920s and '30s in contrast to the Japanese, who were increasingly viewed with suspicion. Sheng-mei Ma argues that the character is a psychological over-compensation to "rampant paranoia over the racial other."<ref>Ma (2000), 4.</ref>

In June 2003, the [[Fox Movie Channel]] cancelled a planned Charlie Chan Festival, soon after beginning restoration for cablecasting, after a special-interest group protested. Fox reversed its decision two months later, and on 13 September 2003, the first film in the festival was aired on Fox. The films, when broadcast on the Fox Movie Channel, were followed by round-table discussions by prominent East Asians in the American entertainment industry, led by [[George Takei]], most of whom were against the films.<ref name="China" /> Collections such as [[Frank Chin]]'s ''[[Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers]]'' and Jessica Hagedorn's ''[[Charlie Chan Is Dead]]'' are put forth as alternatives to the Charlie Chan stereotype and "[articulate] cultural anger and exclusion as their animating force."<ref>Dave (2005), 339.</ref> Fox has released all of its extant Charlie Chan features on DVD,<ref name="Karnick" /> and [[Warner Bros.]] (the current proprietor of the Monogram library) has issued all of the Sidney Toler and Roland Winters Monogram features on DVD.

Modern critics, particularly Asian Americans, continue to have mixed feelings on Charlie Chan. Fletcher Chan, a defender of the works, argues that the Chan of Biggers's novels is not subservient to white characters, citing ''The Chinese Parrot'' as an example; in this novel, Chan's eyes blaze with anger at racist remarks and in the end, after exposing the murderer, Chan remarks "Perhaps listening to a 'Chinaman' is no disgrace."<ref>''The Chinese Parrot'', quoted in Chan (2007).</ref> In the films, both ''[[Charlie Chan in London]]'' (1934) and ''[[Charlie Chan in Paris]]'' (1935) "contain scenes in which Chan coolly and wittily dispatches other characters' racist remarks."<ref name="nytimesreview" /> Yunte Huang manifests an ambivalent attitude, stating that in the US, Chan "epitomizes the racist heritage and the creative genius of this nation's culture."<ref>Huang (2011)</ref> Huang also suggests that critics of Charlie Chan may have themselves, at times, "caricatured" Chan himself.<ref>Huang (2011), p. 280.</ref>

Chan's character has also come under fire for "nuggets of fortune cookie Confucius"{{sfnb|Hanke|1989|p=xv}} and the "counterfeit proverbs" which became so widespread in popular culture. The Biggers novels did not introduce the "Confucius say" proverbs, which were added in the films, but one novel features Chan remarking: "As all those who know me have learned to their distress, Chinese have proverbs to fit every possible situation."{{sfnb|Hawley|1991|p=137}} Huang Yunte gives as examples "Tongue often hang man quicker than rope," "Mind, like parachute, only function when open," and "Man who flirt with dynamite sometime fly with angels." He argues, however, that these "colorful aphorisms" display "amazing linguistic acrobatic skills." Like the "[[signifying monkey]]" of African American folklore, Huang continues, Chan "imparts as much insult as wisdom."{{sfnb|Huang|2010|p=287}}