The students in my Orientalism course are watching a film, "Charlie Chan in Shanghai," from 1935 next week. Charlie Chan is a Chinese detective who travels around the world solving cases in various exotic locations. Today the films are generally considered as condescending and quasi-racist, but at the time the idea was to provide a positive image of Chinese people in American life. The Charlie Chan movies were also extremely popular in China.

Never one to knowingly commit copyright crimes, I bought the DVD from Amazon, and the box arrived yesterday.  Yes, the lead -- Warner Oland -- is indeed not Chinese, he is from Bjurholm, northern Sweden!  Born as Johan Verner Ölund his family emigrated to the US when he was 12. Curiously, he does look a bit Oriental -- and apparently he didn't need to use a lot of make-up during shoots.  Of course it's terrible that Hollywood didn't use a proper Chinese actor, but when Ölund visited China he was fêted like a native son. In the 1930s, he was Sweden's second most popular Hollywood star, after Greta Garbo.

I'm intrigued by this Swedish Oriental look. Come to think of it, on my father's side of the family there are a number of people who look distinctly Chinese (my uncle Torgil was a spitting image of Chairman Mao ... see phto on the left).  But where do these Chinese genes come from?

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Cecily (98.27.187.xxx) 2009-10-15 18:36:26 This may be a long shot, but would it not be likely that some Northern Swedes have some Sami in them? That may give them an Asian touch. Not to say that Sami and Chinese are interchangeable by any means, but they certainly look more Asiatic than their Caucasian friends to the South of Sweden. Cool discovery! (p.s I once had a boyfriend in Chile who looked Chinese like many Chileans due to their conquests to Polynesia). ReplyQuote

Erik (SAdministrator) 2009-10-16 02:11:07 Hi Cecily, Hmmmm ... my wife said the same thing actually. I guess it could be. Then again there was always such a lot of prejudice against the Sami and not a lot of inter-marriage. Perhaps, rather, it has something to do with the Finnish connection -- there are some Finns who look pretty Siberian ... Cool boyfriend! We have a lot of Chinese Latin Americans at my university. People called Alejandro Chang etc. If you speak fluent Spanish, Chinese and English you can talk to 98 percent of the world's population! ReplyQuote

Cecily (131.123.181.xxx) 2009-10-16 02:33:42 Erik-- You are right about those Finns. There is something awfully Siberian about a lot of them. A recent trip to Helsinki brought about that same thought. Chinese Latin Americans, now you're talking. I hear there is a huge Japanese/Peruvian population, and not just Fujimori! I just need to learn Chinese and I'll be communicating up a storm. These last three years of Swedish have been rubbish! :-) Keep blogging and we'll all keep reading! ReplyQuote

Erik (SAdministrator) 2009-10-16 02:57:34 Hiya Cecily, Sorry about Swedish. Who needs to speak to a Swede, right! My blog had a bit of an identity crisis the last couple of months, but I'm starting to really like the new format. I'll keep on writing no doubt. Btw, I really like your new blog. I'll pick up the feed from it on these pages once I figure out how to do it. yours always! ReplyQuote

Pål (83.226.109.xxx) 2009-11-16 18:30:49 I'm Swedish and definitely have a slight touch of Asian looks. My grandfather's nickname was "Kina" ("China") due to his slanted eyes. The nickname was used so often that I only knew him by that name. And I recently saw an old newspaper clip in the local paper with a story about my dad playing soccer and the text mentioned him as "lill-kina" or "little-China". A Cambodian girl in a doughnut shop in Los Angeles once asked me if I was mixed - "half Thai"! And I have only Swedish genes (at least as far back as I am aware). Paul ReplyQuote

Pål (79.102.26.xxx) 2009-11-19 19:40:48 Off-topic quirky detail about Charlie Chan: My father - yes, "lill-Kina" - adds that Charlie Chan was also the jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker's pseudonym when he wanted to record with a studio other than the one with which he had an exclusive contract. ReplyQuote

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