The Chinese Parrot
3.5/5
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About this ebook
The Chinese Parrot (1926) is the second novel in the Charlie Chan series of mystery novels by Earl Derr Biggers. It is the first in which Chan travels from Hawaii to mainland California, and involves a crime whose exposure is hastened by the death of a parrot.
The story concerns a valuable string of pearls which is purchased by a wealthy and eccentric financier. The handsome young son of the jeweller is assigned to shepherd the transfer of the pearls to the financier's vacation home in a desert area of California. Because of his long association with the owner of the pearls—before joining the police force, he was her houseboy—Charlie Chan travels from Hawaii to California with the pearls. After two mysterious deaths, first of a Chinese-speaking parrot and then of the household's Chinese man-of-all-work, Charlie Chan masquerades as a pidgin-speaking cook named Ah Kim and works underground to solve a number of crimes. Along the way, the jeweller's son meets a beautiful young woman who works as a location scout and decides to stay in the California desert.
Earl Derr Biggers
Earl Derr Biggers (1884-1933) was an American novelist and playwright. Born in Ohio, Biggers went on to graduate from Harvard University, where he was a member of The Harvard Lampoon, a humor publication for undergraduates. Following a brief career as a journalist, most significantly for Cleveland-based newspaper The Plain Dealer, Biggers turned to fiction, writing novels and plays for a popular audience. Many of his works have been adapted into film and theater productions, including the novel Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913), which was made into a Broadway stage play the same year it was published. Towards the end of his career, he produced a highly popular series of novels centered on Honolulu police detective Charlie Chan. Beginning with The House Without a Key (1925), Biggers intended his character as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes prominent in the early twentieth century. His series of Charlie Chan novels inspired dozens of films in the United States and China, and has been recognized as an imperfect attempt to use popular media to depict Chinese Americans in a positive light.
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Reviews for The Chinese Parrot
57 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Von den ersten 3 Charlie Chan Romanen, die ich gelesen habe, fand ich diesen am besten.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Personally, I prefer the Charlie Chan mysteries set in Hawaii, but this one is set during a visit to California, with Chan investigating a murder on a ranch, where one of the witnesses is a Chinese parrot (which gets killed itself if I recall rightly -I read it years ago.)
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Solid story and nice piece of zeitgeist. Much less casual racism than I anticipated given the times. Chan bristles at the loss of dignity incurred as a part of his undercover persona as well he should have. The fact that Chan is such a smart, thoughtful and dignified character helps to overcome all of that. I probably would have given a higher rating, but I had more or less figured out the ending early on which took away a little bit of the pleasure of reading the book. But overall, an interesting bit of pop culture Americana.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The twist at the end salvaged the story for me because the goings on were not making sense although I liked the main good guys. I use that term because there was a Western flavor to the action.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A weak Charlie Chan. Charlie is on vacation but is asked by an old friend to deliver some expensive jewels to a new buyer. Charlie and the jeweler’s son, Bob Eden, travel into the desert to complete the transaction but mysterious things seem to be happening and Charlie is determined to get to the bottom of it before turning over the pearls. In the process, Charlie has to disguise himself as a cook and his dialogue, which is stylized to begin with ("All time big Pacific Ocean suffer sharp pain down below, and toss about to prove it. Maybe from sympathy, I am in same fix."), becomes almost incomprehensible ("Maybe you wantee catch 'um moah fiah, hey, boss?"). Charlie’s part is actually much smaller than that of Bob Eden but it is a pleasant enough story with a little romance thrown in for good measure.