A lot of people go into seizures of rage at the mention of Charlie Chan, mostly because the long-running series of B-movies had white actors playing an Asian. As much fun as being outraged can be, they're missing the point. Here you had a Chinese-American who was a respected, world-famous detective, bringing killers to justice and showing up the (white) police every time. Chan was a good husband and father, never used a gun, treated everyone with courtesy. He was a lot better role model than Mike Shayne or Mike Hammer ever was, that's for sure.

If there was to be a new series of Charlie Chan movies, the first likely actor to come to mind would Samo Hung. I'd go see it. He may be past his best fighting days, but Samo could still do a great scene at the end where he defends himself against an accused killer. A young actor as his son, played very Westernized and groaning over Chan's mottos, would add some conflict and humor. ("C'mon, pop, not the 'alibi like dead fish' bit again!")

Here's the cover to CHARLIE CHAN# 2, 1966 - art by Frank Springer. Camp was dominating comics at the time, and we see Chan coping with a cat burglar in a typical super-villain costume. It's a good thing Archie Comics didn't have right to the property, they would have put Chan himself in a cape and tights, with Paul Reinman art. (ack)



Going back to 1956, we see CHARLIE CHAN# 8, from Charlton.



Then we see the most familiar visualization of Chan, based on Warner Oland's portrayal in all those B-pictures. Oland, by the way, wore no make-up at all (so he can't be vilified as playing in "yellowface"), he just had a certain look that audiences of that time could accept as Asian. This is from the 1974 Bantam reprints of the Earl Derr Biggers books.




Finally, Chan as actually described in the books. Whoa. Are you sure that's not supposed to be Nero Wolfe. This illustration is from a 1929 issue of THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, where Bigger's books ran in serial form. [This appeared here recently, I'm including it for completeness.]


There was also a new authorized novel in the mid-1970s by Dennis Lynds, CHARLIE CHAN RETURNS. Pretty good stuff. It had Chan explain his methods are based on traditional procedures hundreds of years old, before forensics, and rely on manuevering the criminal into confessing before witnesses. Thus, the inevitable scene where Chan gathers everyone together to point out the killer.