Hats Off to the Guys at Bounding Into Comics
I’m impressed by my editor.
One of the comics I mentioned on my Arktoons Roundup was Chuck Dixon Presents – Charlie Chan.
“So how did the Chinese feel about Chan?
Well, when actor Werner Oland – who portrayed the Chinese detective across over four dozen films starting in 1926 – visited Shanghai in the 1930s, he got a hero’s welcome from the Chinese.
In fact, Chan films were so popular in China that an industry of Shanghai-produced, Charlie Chan knock-off films thrived throughout the decade. So much so that Xu Xinyuan, the Chinese actor who portrayed Chan in said films, even took painstaking care to copy Oland’s dress, apperance, and mannerisms.”
My Google-Fu is strong and masculine but I had to give up on finding the name of the Chinese actor who played Charlie Chan in the Shanghai knock-offs. But my editor actually found the guy’s name.
I had been frantic to find out what a Chinese impersonating a Swede impersontating a Chinese looked like.
Well done sir!
