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HOUSE_WITHOUT_A_KEY

                                             January 19, 2015

The "The House Without a Key" (1925) is the first of the
Charlie Chan novels-- it's very heavy on travelogue detail,
primarily focusing on Hawaii (with a little bit of very
gratuitous San Francisco).  The main cultural tension here is
between the stiff, restrained world of an upper-class Boston
family, and their disreputable behavior once they get out into
the tropical Hawaian life.  Many people on stage comment on how
great things were in Honolulu back before it was spoiled (you
know, back in the days of press gangs and the slave trade?  And
the irony here was very much intended by the author).

Charlie Chan's arrival on stage is accompanied by
quite a few racist remarks by our upper class
Bostonians ("but-- he's Chinese!"), but he's
immediately defended as an excellent detective.

Charlie Chan's dialog is much like the Charlie Chan
of the films-- a stilted broken english, excessively
polite, with occasional Confuscian references.
There's no "number one son" on stage to supply a
second generation Americanized voice, though there
are some minor characters who inject it on occasion.

Chan himself also enages in some racist condescension
when visiting a restaurant run by Japanese people--
this reminds that the reputation of the Japanese          For historical
people was not yet very elevated in the early 1930s.      reference:

                                                          1926: House Without
                                                                A Key
                                                          1931: Invasion of
                                                                Manchuria by
                                                                Japan

There's a contrast drawn the style of operation of
Charlie Chan and that of a white detective he works
with-- the white guy seems inclined to jump to
conclusions and to try to brow-beat confessions out of
witnesses.  In contrast Chan is very cautious and
restrained, a much more reasonable figure.

        The title, "The House Without a Key", refers to the
        house of a rich person which was nevertheless never
        locked because of it's location in this friendly
        tropical paradise.

        This motif is interesting in contrast to another book
        by Earl der Biggers "Seven Keys to Baldpate", about a
        deserted resort hotel where seven different people
        all show up bearing keys.



   Unlike many a fictional version of tropical
   paradises, this rendition shows it to be too
   hot and humid to want to move around very
   much.  Newcomers are weirded out by the
   "little lizards" (geckos) crawling all over
   the place.


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