UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Hardboiled and the Haunted: Race, Masculinity, and the Asian American Detective Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2jr6h026 Author McMillin, Calvin Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ THE HARDBOILED AND THE HAUNTED: RACE, MASCULINITY, AND THE ASIAN AMERICAN DETECTIVE A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in LITERATURE by Calvin McMillin June 2012 This dissertation of Calvin McMillin is approved: _______________________________ Professor Rob Wilson, Chair _______________________________ Professor Karen Tei Yamashita _______________________________ Professor Christine Hong _______________________________ Professor Shelley Stamp ______________________________ Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Calvin McMillin 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT. ................................................................................................................ vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................................... viii INTRODUCTION. ....................................................................................................... 1 1. THE SPECTER OF CHARLIE CHAN: RACIAL MASQUERADE AND THE UNMANNING OF THE ASIAN AMERICAN MALE. ............................................ 30 2. ASIAN AMERICAN NOIR: HAUNTED SPACES AND THE DE- ORIENTALIZING OF ASIAN AMERICAN SUBJECTIVITY. .............................. 75 Revisioning Charlie Chan: Phil Rosen's Phantom of Chinatown ...........................82 Race, Romance, & the Specter of Racism: Samuel Fuller's The Crimson Kimono ................................................................................................................................103 Chinatown Revisited: Chan is Missing as Neo-Noir ............................................132 3. ASIAN AMERICAN DETECTIVE FICTION: HAUNTED MEN AND THE HARDBOILED GENRE. ......................................................................................... 169 Playing Detective: Performing Identity in Dale Furutani’s Ken Tanaka Series ...173 New Millennium, New Choice: Leonard Chang’s Allen Choice Trilogy .............191 Masculinities in Crisis: The Crime Fiction of Henry Chang and Ed Lin ..............210 EPILOGUE. .............................................................................................................. 235 AFTERWORD. ......................................................................................................... 254 BIBLIOGRAPHY. .................................................................................................... 258 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Number Page 1. Humphrey Bogart ................................................................................................... 20 2. The Return of Charlie Chan (1973). ....................................................................... 43 3. Chang Apana and Warner Oland ............................................................................ 56 4. The New Adventures of Charlie Chan (1957). ........................................................ 59 5. E.L. Park in Behind That Curtain (1929). .............................................................. 64 6. Poster for The Fatal Hour (1940) ........................................................................... 82 7. Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937) ..................................................................... 87 8-9. The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1938). ....................................................................... 90 10. Phantom of Chinatown (1940).. ............................................................................ 93 11. Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937). ............................................................................. 104 12. The Crimson Kimono (1959). ............................................................................. 107 13-14. The Crimson Kimono (1959).. ....................................................................... 112 15-18. The Crimson Kimono (1959)... ...................................................................... 113 19. The Crimson Kimono (1959).... .......................................................................... 116 20. The Crimson Kimono (1959)..... ......................................................................... 118 21. The Crimson Kimono (1959)..... ......................................................................... 121 22-25. The Crimson Kimono (1959)... ...................................................................... 128 26-27. The Crimson Kimono (1959)... ...................................................................... 129 28-29. The Crimson Kimono (1959)... ...................................................................... 131 30-31. Chan Is Missing (1982). ................................................................................ 153 32. The Big Combo (1955) ........................................................................................ 154 33. Chan Is Missing (1982)... .................................................................................... 154 34-35. Chan Is Missing (1982).. ............................................................................... 155 36-37. Kiss Me Deadly (1955).. ................................................................................ 156 38-39. Chan Is Missing (1982).. ............................................................................... 156 40-41. Chan Is Missing (1982).. ............................................................................... 158 iv 42. Chan Is Missing (1982).. ..................................................................................... 159 43. Chan Is Missing (1982).. ..................................................................................... 160 44. Yin Yang Symbol ............................................................................................... 160 45. Chinatown (1974).. ............................................................................................. 162 46. Maid for Murder (1955). .................................................................................... 169 47. Over the Shoulder (2001), Underkill (2003), and Fade to Clear (2004)............ 195 48. Daniel Dae Kim. ................................................................................................. 210 49. Snakes Can’t Run (2010) .................................................................................... 231 50. Girl in Translation (2011) .................................................................................. 231 51. How To Be an American Housewife (2010) ....................................................... 231 52. Assassin’s Touch (2005) ..................................................................................... 231 v ABSTRACT The Hardboiled and the Haunted: Race, Masculinity, and the Asian American Detective Calvin McMillin Created by Earl Derr Biggers in the 1920s, Charlie Chan appeared in six popular mystery novels and a long-running film series that starred white actors in the title role. Since the early 1970s, however, attempts to revive the fictional character have drawn fervent protests from Asian American critics and activists. Despite his initial fame, Chan became closely identified with the racist stereotyping of Asians in U.S. popular culture. While he may indeed be culturally “dead,” Charlie Chan remains a controversial figure in Asian American discourse even today. Seeking to clarify this agonistic relationship, this dissertation presents the first critical examination of Asian American detectives in literature and film that have emerged in the wake of Chan’s ostensible demise. Chapter 1 provides a close reading of the “canonical” body of work featuring Charlie Chan and explains why this infamous cultural icon – an otherwise moribund relic of the early twentieth century – remains deeply inscribed in the U.S. cultural imaginary. Chapter 2 examines three detective films – Phantom of Chinatown (1940), The Crimson Kimono (1959), and Chan Is Missing (1982) – that eschewed Yellowface casting in favor of spotlighting Asian Americans in starring roles. While historicizing these movies within the context of the often Orientalist representations vi of Asians in classic Hollywood cinema, I demonstrate how each of these landmark films re-signifies Asian American male subjectivity, examining what it means to be Asian American in the shadow of Charlie Chan. Chapter 3 explores the work of a group of Asian American male writers – Dale Furutani, Leonard Chang, Ed Lin, and Henry Chang – who each confront the emasculated stereotypes of the past and reframe Asian American masculinity through the use of the hardboiled detective genre. This dissertation concludes with an overview of more recent efforts to revive Charlie Chan onscreen and a survey of contemporary Asian American detective fiction. Through an analysis of these various attempts to exorcise Charlie Chan’s lingering specter, this dissertation seeks to illuminate the long shadow that this notorious Yellowface icon has cast for nearly a century and bring a new subgenre