Adventure and Detection in Charles Gilson's Fiction, 1907-1934

Autor/in	Chen, Shih-Wen
Titel	Adventure and Detection in Charles Gilson's Fiction, 1907-1934
Quelle	In: Children's Literature in Education, 46 (2015) 1, S.53-69 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0045-6713
DOI	10.1007/s10583-014-9227-x
Schlagwörter	Childrens Literature; Authors; Fiction; Crime; Stereotypes; Chinese Americans; Personality Traits; Foreign Countries; Foreign Policy; Literary Genres; Military Personnel; China + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? 'Children''s literature'; Kinderliteratur; Author; Autor; Autorin; Fiktion; Crimes; Delict; Delicts; Delikt; Klischee; Asian immigrant; Chinese; United States; Asiatischer Einwanderer; Chinesen; USA; Individual characteristics; Personality characteristic; Persönlichkeitsmerkmal; Ausland; Außenpolitik; Literarische Form
Abstract	Before Charlie Chan and Fu Manchu became household names, San Francisco-born detective Mr. Wang and his rival Jugatai, the Manchu head of the Secret Society of Federated Asia, entertained young British readers in the early twentieth century. This article examines these under-explored characters, created by the prolific military officer-turned-writer Charles Gilson. It explores how Gilson developed a fictional formula that appealed to young readers and made slight variations to it in order to keep those readers interested. The characters of Mr. Wang and his nemesis Jugatai are also examined in terms of the conventions of the adventure story; in particular, the classic detective story stereotypes of the Chinese and fears of the yellow peril are subject to analysis. It is seen that Gilson created Mr. Wang as a respected character possessing many positive traits. However, to some extent, Mr. Wang is also a mouthpiece to support Western involvement in China, while Jugatai is an evil plotter destined to fail because of the superiority of the British. Therefore, although Gilson pushed some boundaries in detective fiction by featuring a Chinese detective more than a decade before the creation of Charlie Chan, he still conformed to certain formulaic plotlines of the boy's adventure story genre. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01