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JOURNAL OF MODERN MYTHOLOGY AND POP CULTURE INTRODUCTION PAGE 47
Biggers wrote six Chan novels, and there are others by various authors. Detective Chan and his wife have fourteen children, the eldest usually referred to as "number one son." The many films came under criticism because white actors in makeup instead of an Asian portrayed Chan. Some feel that the movies of the 1930s and 1940s created both Asian stereotypes and positive attributes (Chan is intelligent, formidable yet compassionate, conscientious, and courageous). Asian-American actor Keye Luke, who played "number one son" in the 1930s and 1940s (Master Po in the television series Kung Fu) once said of the Chan films: "Demeaning to the race? My God! You've got a Chinese hero!" See Ken Hanke's book Charlie Chan at the Movies for more of Luke's opinions on the Charlie Chan series.
Left: 1933, Fox Film Corporation. Right: Renown Publications, 1974.
Detective Chan appeared on radio between 1932 and 1948 on four networks. He also emerged in comic strips, comic books, TV, and an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Chan plays an important part in augmenting The Big Six in the reinstatement of Myth and Pop Culture as a central focus of modern life, and the return of the more-than-human archtype. The refined hero created to negate racist Yellow Peril stereotypes popular during the twenties struggled against racial prejudice in many of Earl Derr Biggers's novels. In Detective Chan's own words: "Every man must wear out at least one pair of fool's shoes."
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