Asian-American Detectives
Name an Asian-American detective besides Charlie Chan. Fu Manchu - no, he was a master criminal. I can only think of Chin Ho Kelly on the old Hawaii Five-O TV series. ("Kelly" ? For a Chinese guy?)Although Charlie Chan was an extremely competent detective, why did they always have a Caucasian actor playing him? They had Asian-American actors playing his sons (the Number 2 son always seemed to get himself into trouble).
Anyway, I do like to read detective fiction and I find that I learn more about different locales from many of the different series. Charlie Chan is from the Honolulu Police Department, where there is a large Asian-American contingent. I've only read one Charlie Chan book by Earl Derr Biggers and hadn't been inspired to read anymore of the series.
Being at a loss for some Asian-American detectives, I did a Google search. I came up with a couple of series to check out. Rei Shimura, a Japanese-American English teacher in Japan is the main character is a series of books by Sujata Massey - the first book is The Salaryman's Wife. Naomi Hirahara has a series of books featuring Mas Arai, a Japanese-American gardener in Pasedena - the first book in the series being The Summer of the Big Bachi. (Note, the Bangkok series by John Burdett has a Thai detective, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, who is not an American.)
There is also another series about which I've heard good things in the mystery book discussion groups. These are the Lydia Chin - Bill Smith books (Lydia Chin is Chinese-American) in New York City's Chinatown. The first book of the series is China Trade.
I find it interesting that all of these Asian-American detectives (or amateur sleuths) are female. Is it that the Asian stereotype for the villian is too strong? Is it hard for an author to create a male Asian-American detective and not have immediate comparisons to Charlie Chan? Anyway, I look forward to checking these books out.
posted by tjh14850 @ 11:00 PM
2 Comments:
Hey, thanks for the mention! Just to clarify--my sleuth, Mas Arai, is male, and a seventysomething male at that.
There are some other Asian American mysteries you might be interested in--Henry Chang just published a book with Soho Crime called CHINATOWN BEAT. And Leonard Chang has a series set in Silicon Valley with a Korean American security officer. Lono Waiwaiole's character, Wiley, is part Hawaiian, I think. Dale Furutani's L.A. sleuth is named Ken Tanaka and he has another samurai series set in Japan. There are a ton of mysteries featuring Asian American detectives that have been written by non-Asians.
Check out the third Mas Arai book, SNAKESKIN SHAMISEN. It's about Okinawan Americans, so you might enjoy it.
I'm interested how well the non-Asian American writers do when trying to take the point of view of Asian Americans. I'll have to look these writers up.
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