The real Charlie Chan was more like Indiana Jones...

[Bill Mattocks]

At least, in the sense that he used a bullwhip to arrest criminals in Hawaii!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129424778

Who knew?

Huang subsequently left Buffalo to teach at Harvard, where he researched E.D. Biggers, the author who created the character of Charlie Chan. Huang was surprised to learn that Chan was based on a real Chinese policeman who "had been neglected in history," he says.
Huang set out to give that honorable policeman, Chang Apana, the recognition he deserves. Apana "was a 5-foot-tall Cantonese cop in Honolulu in the early 20th century," Huang explains. Originally, Apana had worked as a paniolo, or Hawaiian cowboy. In 1898 — the same year that the United States officially annexed Hawaii — he joined the police force.
"As a police officer, he worked almost the most dangerous beats in Chinatown, carrying a bullwhip in hand," says Huang. "He never used a gun, and he was a master of disguise. One time, he single-handedly arrested 40 people without firing a shot" — apprehending a large group of Chinese gamblers using only his bullwhip.