BAD BLACK MEN AND COMICAL CHINESE 101

is rooted in popular culture and perceived threats. Before 1959, in a capitalist,
neocolonial culture and society, the preoccupations of race and violent crime
surface in the narratives. They surface perhaps because they are sensationalist
and attract readers in what was a commercial market.
 Evidence of the power of the market and a more subtle form of
Orientalism is discernible in the next important Cuban detective creation,
Chan Li Po, a Chinese detective character who made radio history in the
1930s. Chan Li Po was indisputably an imitation of a foreign character. Its
creator, a journalist and theatre director turned radio entrepreneur from
Santiago de Cuba, Felix B. Caignet, admitted that he had imitated the Charlie
Chan serials in the cinema.8 Earl Derr Bigger's polite oriental sleuth with
the large family and even larger repertoire of Chinese proverbs, was first
serialised in the cinema in 1926.9 Caignet's genius was to transfer the
character to the radio, beginning in Santiago in 1934. He had already begun
narrating children's stories in weekly episodes in 1931 with some success
but Chan Li Po was to revolutionize radio broadcasting in the island.
According to Oscar Luis L6pez, the actor who played the character of the
detective and who has since written the only history of radio broadcasting
in Cuba, Caignet invented the character at the suggestion of the head of a
tobacco company, Eden Cigarettes, who in turn sponsored its production
on the U.S. owned station, CMKD (1981:506). The success of Chan Li Po
prompted all the radio stations to imitate it.

 A partir de 1934, con la salida al aire de ese especticulo en todo Oriente, en
 todas emisoras grandes o pequefas alguien se sent6 y empez6 a hacer
 episodios en forma humoristica, con detectives humoristicos tambien y
 haciendo una parodia de lo que era Chan Li Po. (Interview with Oscar Luis
 L6pez in Havana 1995)

 In 1937, Caignet brought his show to Havana but failed to convince radio bosses
of its attraction. They were locked in a 'drama war' broadcasting three act plays
and were afraid to try something new. Eventually he managed to convince one of
them to give Chan Li Po a test run:

 [...] 61 le dijo que a 61 le interesaba pero 61 querria hacer una prueba. Es
 decir, en una hora que 61 tenia que radiar teatros, una noche cualquiera no
 radiar el teatro y explicar que iban a someter a la audiencia un nuevo
 espectaculo e iban a poner un capitulo que Ilamaran, que escribieran para
 ver si gustaba o no. Y entonces l1 cogi6 un capitulo de La serpiente roja y lo
 puso esa noche. Demis estA decir que se cay6 el tel6fono llamando todo el
 mundo, llamando: jQue se repetieran! iQue lo pusieran! (1995)

8 Author's interview with Oscar Luis L6pez.
9 Halliwell's Filmgoer's Companion (1979:144) lists sixteen Charlie Chan serials
starring Warner Oland released between 1931 and 1936.