Charlie Chan in the Shanghai Papers…

In my essay collection Destination Shanghai I wrote about Hollywood Charlie Chan actor Warner Oland’s visit to Shanghai in 1936 where, despite playing yellowface on screen, he was feted by film fans and the local Chinese mayor. More detials in that book (and you can hear an abridged versuon of the chapter here on RTHK3) and in Yunte Huang’s book Charlie Chan: The Untold Story.

However, i was unaware that there were Charlie Chan excerpts running in the English language Shanghai newspapers throughout the 1930s. Primarily in the China Press, an American-funded and largely staffed daily paper…