Confucius say: "Charlie Chan is a Good Thing"

Jewish World Review ^ | July 3, 2003 / 3 Tamuz, 5763 | Greg Crosby

[UnklGene]

Greg Crosby

Confucius Say: "Charlie Chan is a Good Thing"

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | The Fox Movie Channel was all ready to broadcast a summer festival of vintage Charlie Chan mysteries from the thirties and forties, but at the last minute decided to drop the whole thing. The cable channel cited "concerns about racial insensitivity" voiced by some Asian activist organizations which led Fox to discontinue showing the pictures.

In a letter to Fox last week, Christine Chen, Executive Director for a Washington D.C. based civil rights group called Organization of Chinese Americans Inc. labeled the films "A painful reminder of Hollywood's racist refusal to hire minorities to play parts that were designated for them."

Well, political correctness strikes again. Once again, witch-hunting activist groups on the left have saved the world from yet another evil -- this time they have struck down those mean-spirited racist Charlie Chan movies that have been poisoning the minds of white America for over seventy years and have added to the vast Caucasian conspiracy in keeping Asian Americans downtrodden and out of mainstream society in this country.

Thanks to civil rights advocacy groups, such as the Organization of Chinese Americans Inc. and the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, the classic Charlie Chan detective films have been banished from the broadcast airwaves. Nicely done, political activists! And now that Charlie Chan is out of the way, the "industry" can concentrate on creating more socially relevant and morally uplifting Asian films, like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and about nine thousand more kung fu movies.

Writer Earl Derr Briggers created Charlie Chan, an Oriental detective on the Honolulu police force, for a series of novels which became enormously popular at the beginning of the last century. The character first appeared on screen in 1926 and gained in popularity throughout the thirties and forties, appearing in more than forty feature films -- the last one, "Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen" made in 1981 starring Peter Ustinov.

When Warner Oland, a Swedish-born character actor, took over the role in 1931 the series really took off. Keye Luke was cast as his enthusiastic Americanized "number one son" Lee and audiences loved it. In his movie and video guide, Leonard Maltin describes the chemistry between Oland and Luke and how that relationship really made the pictures special. He says, "their good-natured parrying gave the series a uniquely human, and humorous, foundation that made them more than mere whodunits."

Sidney Toler took over the part after Oland died in 1937. He was joined by Victor Sen Young as Jimmy Chan, Charlie's Number Two Son and the series continued.

Some of my happiest memories are of watching old movies on television with my dad on Saturday afternoons. We'd sit on the couch together and watch a good old cowboy picture with Randolph Scott or sometimes a gangster picture starring Sterling Hayden or Robert Mitchum. Sometimes we'd share laughs watching Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello -- how my dad loved Stan Laurel and Lou Costello!

And whenever they'd run a Charlie Chan detective mystery, well, it didn't get much better than that. You not only got a suspenseful murder mystery, but they were great fun, too. We especially loved the character relationship between Charlie and his "number one son" (and later, various other numbered sons and even a bobby soxer daughter). For me, I must admit, Sidney Toler was my favorite over Warner Oland.

Civil rights activists get their jollies in looking for bigotry, sexism, and unfair practices in the movies made during the golden age of Hollywood. Was it always fair for everyone back then? No. Is it fair for everyone now? No. Will it ever be completely fair for all? Not as long as human beings run it. See, movie people are only human, after all -- no matter what some people think.

I'm certain that one big problem the civil rights groups have with the Charlie Chan films is the fact that white actors have always portrayed him. I have two words for that -- so what? That's why they call it acting. The conception that only an actor who is Asian should play Asian is new. Traditionally actors played all manner of characters, races, religions, nationalities and personalities without having to actually BE the person they are pretending to be. That's okay. Brando has played an Asian character. So did Katharine Hepburn. Should only Jewish people play Jews on screen? Should only gays play gay characters?

There may be some isolated, embarrassing examples of stereotyping in old films, but they are a product of their time. It is patently unfair to assign the mores of today to the movies of fifty or sixty years ago. Furthermore, when your talking about Charlie Chan, the character was never portrayed in an ugly way. Chan was, quite simply, a gentleman. Not only that, he was an ingenious sleuth, and a loving family man.

Charlie Chan was never intimidated by anyone -- he didn't take any crap from his kids or anyone else. An he never took a back seat to anyone. He was never made fun of in those movies. The audience laughed with Chan, never at him. Charlie Chan was always shown respect as a father by all members of his family in ways that are never portrayed in today's movies and television (for any race). Not only that, but all the white detectives, cops, and others in the pictures show him nothing but the highest respect as a person and have admiration for his brilliance as a crime solving detective.

It is clear to me that the spokespeople condemning Charlie Chan movies as racist, have never watched them. Far from being a "racial embarrassment" Charlie Chan was a genuine credit to his race, to his heritage, to his profession, and to his family. A man of principle and honor and tradition. For most of America in the last century, he was the first true Asian super hero. And he did it without using Kung Fu. He used his wits, his humor, and his logic -- several attributes that are sorely lacking within the politically correct community of witch-hunters.

No Charlie Chan movies will be shown this summer. Too bad. We are all a bit poorer without them.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Thanks, UnklGene! And, William...blogworthy? ;-)

[You Gotta Be Kidding Me]

"In a letter to Fox last week, Christine Chen, Executive Director for a Washington D.C. based civil rights group called Organization of Chinese Americans Inc. labeled the films "A painful reminder of Hollywood's racist refusal to hire minorities to play parts that were designated for them."

...just as the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding racial quotas is a painful reminder to me of the job that I was denied, in 1984, because I am white and my last name is not "P.C." The Davis-Monthan AFB EEO officer standing between me and that job said:

"You are not the man for the job, for it is plain to see. Your last name ends not with a vowel, but a consonant other than 'Z' "

[TexanToTheCore]

I love those old Charlie Chan movies, real classics. They were great fun and were at times hilarious, when Charlie would chastise number one son.

[David Isaac]

We always have been and always will be cursed with idiots. The problem is not with the idiots but with the people who give them credence.

Recently it was noted that Wal-Mart had caved into the gay lobby and included gays into their group of people who cannot be touched for any reason. There seem to be a new example every day. Our political, business, and educational leaders seem to have take leave of their senses, at least I think it "seems" that way. Others say that it is just a part of the natural course of events or that our leaders have to follow the will of the people.

CODSWALLOP! Most of the noteworthy things that have occured in the last century, or more, have happened precisely because someone wished them to happen and had the means to make them happen

Leaders make decisions, they do not take orders.

[visualops]

Fox Reconsiders Chan Movie Festival Ban
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
July 03, 2003

(CNSNews.com) - The Fox Movie Channel, apparently torn between the sensitivities of Asian Americans and the desires of its viewers, has amended an earlier decision to cancel a Charlie Chan film festival.

Fox had announced the cancellation of the broadcasts last week after complaints from Asian American groups about the fictional Chinese detective the groups said was portrayed as a racially offensive stereotype.

However, the Fox Movie Channel, which serves about 20 million households through either cable or satellite service, added a sentence late Tuesday to its website statement indicating a possible shift in the network's decision to cancel the Chan film festival.

The sentence added to the Fox website reads as follows:

"Fox Movie Channel will schedule Charlie Chan films based on the feedback of its subscribers."

The cable channel's apparent softening of its position is firing up Asian groups who had protested the airing of the Chan films in the first place.

"This is really the second time [Fox Movie Channel has] caved to public pressure. I would imagine that the movies are probably going to run now," Andrew Rice, spokesman for the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC), told CNSNews.com.

The NAPALC, along with the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA), have been among the leaders of the campaign to remove Chan films from the airwaves. The NAATA called Chan "one of the most offensive Asian caricatures of America's cinematic past." More than 40 films were produced featuring the crime-solving character Charlie Chan, beginning in the silent era of the 1920s and continuing into the late 1940s.

Rice predicted supporters of the Chan films would dominate the "feedback" that Fox will receive.

"It's disappointing. Anytime you're dealing with a minority group, you are not going to be the majority," Rice said.

Tim Lucas, editor and co-publisher of the monthly magazine Video Watchdog, one of the leaders of the effort by Chan fans to persuade Fox to reverse its cancellation, sees the new website "feedback" statement as a hopeful sign.

"It shows me that [the Fox Movie Channel is] beginning to give some credence to the [Chan supporters'] viewpoints, who never had a chance to make their opinion known prior to the decision to cancel," Lucas told CNSNews.com.

Lucas welcomes a decision based on viewer feedback because he believes Chan fans have the facts on their side.

"The people who are objecting to the [Charlie Chan] ban are explaining why in well-reasoned terms, and the [Asian] organizations that have asked for the films to be withdrawn have been falling back on misinformation," Lucas explained.

"I have received nothing but support from Asian-Americans' correspondence," he added.

Rice's group, the NAPALC, earlier on Tuesday had praised Fox for its decision to cancel the Chan broadcasts. In a press release, the group praised the movie channel as "a responsible corporate citizen because they understand that in 2003 we need to move beyond stereotypes."

Rice said a Fox Movie Channel executive told him the network cancelled the Chan films because they were "getting a lot of negative feedback, and [the Fox executive] felt like it was the right thing to do - to pull the movies because they were so offensive to the Asian community."

But Rice now believes that if Fox allows the films to be broadcast as the result of popularity or "feedback" from viewers, the network will have forfeited its ethical concern for racial sensitivity.

Novelist Earl Derr Biggers created the fictional Chan character, and the Chan movie series featured various actors portraying the detective. Swedish actor Warner Oland, who according to Lucas, credits his Asian appearance to Mongolian ancestry, popularized the role of Chan in the 1930s. The movies also featured Asian actor Keye Luke as Charlie Chan's "number one son," who attempted to help his dad solve cases but mostly served as comic relief in the films.

Lucas said he has a growing suspicion that the Fox Movie Channel is milking the controversy for publicity and ratings.

"I don't want to jinx anything, but the addition of that little caveat to Fox's statement - which is making Chan fans hopeful - makes me start to wonder if this whole controversy might not be someone's brilliant plan to bring more attention to the Chan festival," Lucas said, noting that Fox affiliates were still running ads on Tuesday of this week for the Chan film festival on the Fox Movie Channel.

"I'd like to believe that my feelings haven't been deliberately manipulated, but if it gets the movies back on TV in the long run - manipulate away," he added.

Several phone calls to the Fox Movie Channel seeking comment were not returned.

Listen to audio for this story.

See Earlier Story:
Fox Movie Channel Bans Charlie Chan Movies (July 1, 2003)

[debaryfl]

Charlie Chan was superior detective. He used his intellect and police skills to solve crimes that stumped all other authorities.

I can see how certain groups might object. (sarcasm)

[wolficatZ]

Read this if you get a chance and are interested in the history behind the films SOCIETY HONORS PIONEER CHINESE AMERICAN ACTORS

[KC_for_Freedom]

Please stop saving us from ourselves. Drop the PC movement before it is too late. (Jewish, part indian, Alabama resident and Charlie Chan fan.)

[Chuckster]

I don't, and won't, own a television set. I do, however have quite a collection of films on DVD. You can get all of the Charlie Chan films on DVD

[carbon14]

Any left-wing pilgrim who cuts an inch of Charlie Chan films gets my shish kabob treatment...now leave me alone to teach Princess Bortai how to ride horsey.

[HitmanLV]

I've been following this story as I am a big movie fan. Check fox movie's website - they may end up airing them after all. More people are complaining about the ban, than the original criticsims. Go Chan!

Also, one of the main forces behind the original criticisms and the cancellation of the series is a man named 'Mr. Wong,' which should be funny to any longtime movie fan!

[Political Junkie Too]

What nobody has talked about in either Charlie Chan thread is the true stereotype in the movie, the black chauffeur Birmingham played by Mantan Moreland, who was the sidekick for Number One Son. As for multiculturalism, one can argue that the Chan films were multicultural for their time given that the character was a respected Asian at a time when Asians were persecuted in San Francisco, and also that an Asian hired an African American as his chauffeur instead of another Asian.

This also reminds me of the "controversy" that surrounded the Broadway musical Miss Saigon, where special interest groups threatened to boycott because the lead actor was not Asian, but an Englishman playing an Asian.

I guess we should also ban Shakespeare. Didn't the men play all the parts, including the women characters?

-PJ

[4mycountry]

Tagline ping

[breakem]

Now there's a movie worth boycotting. One of the top ten worst of all time. I think it was filmed in southern Utah downwind from the Nevada nuclear test site and an inordinate number of cast and crew died of cancer. I almost died of horror when my mom took us to see it.