Winner of the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Book Shortlisted for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography Named One of Esquires 50 Best Biographies of All Time An ingenious and absorbing book8230It will permanently change the way we tell this troubled yet gripping story 8213Jonathan Spence Hailed as 8220irrepressibly spirited and entertaining8221 (Pico Iyer, Time) and 8220a fascinating cultural survey8221 (Paul Devlin, Daily Beast), this provocative first biography of Charlie Chan presents American history in a way that it has never been told before Yunte Huang ingeniously traces Charlie Chan from his real beginnings as a bullwhipwielding detective in territorial Hawaii to his reinvention as a literary sleuth and Hollywood film icon Huang finally resurrects the 8220honorable detective8221 from the graveyard of detested postmodern symbols and reclaims him as the embodiment of America8217s rich cultural diversity The result is one of the most critically acclaimed books of the year and a 8220deeply personal voyage into racial stereotyping and the humanizing force of story telling8221 (Donna Seaman, Los Angeles Times) 35 blackandwhite illustrations