Asian-American Special: British pulp novelist Sax Rohmer wrote 13 novels and a collection of short stories featuring the evil Chinese scientist Fu Manchu, who dreams of world domination. Many of them were adapted into movies in both England and America, of which the Pre-Code Hollywood film The Mask of Fu Manchu is a good example, with Boris Karloff as Fu and Myrna Loy as his sex-crazed daughter (1932, 68 minutes). Fu Manchu was reincarnated in the 1960s by Christopher Lee, who played him gleefully in five different movies when he wasn’t playing Dracula.
To counteract the depiction of Asian-Americans as “The Yellow Peril,” American novelist Earl Derr Biggers wrote six novels about Charlie Chan, a savvy Chinese detective from Honolulu who became the Confucius-quoting sleuth in over four dozen films, played by multiple actors through the years, most memorably by Warner Oland, of which Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936, 68 minutes) is considered among the best in the series. Both Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan are now equally derided by Asian-Americans as racist depictions. Panel discussion follows, with panelists TBA.
Email plim@ku.edu for Zoom link.