Editing Charlie Chan (section)

==== Chinese-language adaptations ====

During the 1930s and 1940s, five Chan films were produced in Shanghai and Hong Kong. In these films, Chan, played by Xu Xinyuan (徐莘园),  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.<ref name="China" />

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 that this was the first time Chinese audiences saw a positive Chinese character in an American film, a departure from the [[Stereotypes of East Asians in the Western world|sinister East Asian stereotypes]] in earlier movies like ''[[The Thief of Bagdad (1924 film)|Thief of Baghdad]]'' (1924) and [[Harold Lloyd]]'s ''[[Welcome Danger]]'' (1929), which incited riots that shut down the Shanghai theater showing it." Oland's visit to China was reported extensively in Chinese newspapers, and the actor was respectfully called "Mr. Chan".<ref name="China" />