ABSTRACT
Charlie Chan, a character created by American fiction writer Earl Derr Biggers in the 1920s, is a literary figure whose image contrasts sharply with Sax Rohmer’s Dr. Fu Manchu. Charlie Chan’s popularity provided a convenient way to justify growing anti-Japanese sentiments while masking a broader-based xenophobia by being ethnically specific. Charlie Chan’s image of a model minority is also coded in terms of gender. In order to disinherit and sabotage the controlling image of Charlie Chan, the narrator in Frank Chin’s story declares his intent to kill his “movie father,” reclaim his Chinese ancestry, and regenerate a Chinese American masculine identity through violence. The mythologizing of Charlie Chan is most clearly shown when the source of Biggers’ character is compared to the literary figure. Charlie Chan’s lack of emotional complexity and physical aggression can be interpreted as a form of cultural domestication.
