102 STEPHEN WILKINSON


 In Havana, Chan LiPo was sponsored to advertise a chocolate bar, Armada,
 and within six months was sold to Argentina. It later became the advertising
 vehicle for Sabat6s SA and was broadcast on the COCO radio station until
 1941 when Caignet dropped it in favour of romantic soap operas. Thus,
 whereas Fantoches 1926 was a subtle way of criticising the status quo, in the
 case of Chan LiPo, coming only a year after the convulsion of the revolution
 of 1933 and the overthrow of the Machado dictatorship, the detective
 narrative becomes associated with a purely commercial interest. It also
 coincides with the advent of widespread radio set ownership and the rapid
 growth of the medium as a means of entertainment, especially in a society in
 which relatively few people could read.10
 According to L6pez, Chan Li Po was 'el espectAculo mAs oido de todos los
tiempos' becoming so popular that cinemas would advertise a pause in the evening
screenings to tune in to that night's episode so people would not miss it:

 [... ] el 6xito es tal en 37 que a las ocho de la noche se para la ciudad de
 La Habana. Si usted caminaba por la calle se oia el episodio del chino
 hablando desde el moment que sali6 al aire. (1995)

 The popularity of the series merits some discussion especially as
competition between radio stations was intense. Investment in the industry,
particularly by U.S. companies was high and according to L6pez, Cuba could
boast of being fourth in the world league of countries having the highest
number of radio stations with 62 (1981:91). The question arises as to why
should people choose to listen to Chan Li Po? There seems little doubt that
one factor in its popularity lay in the humorous portrayal of the character,
whose exaggerated Chinese accent is so stereotypical that it might be
considered a caricature. (Oscar Luis L6pez is not Chinese and most definitely
seems to turn Chan Li Po into a caricature). The plots are also parodies
reminiscent of grand guignol sensationalist melodramas which depend heavily
on terror rather than mystery for their appeal, each episode written with a
carefully constructed 'cliff-hanger' ending. L6pez writes:

 Escribiendo este program, Caignet adquiere un dominio absolute del
 suspense y falso suspense, que dejaba al radiooyente con la ansiedad
 e interns de escucharlo al dia siguiente. (1981: 506)

10 Cuba's relative underdevelopment prior to the Revolution meant that governments
were inefficient in the collection of statistics. No figures for radio ownership are
available for the 1930s but by 1949, according to the UN statistical yearbook (quoted
in Thomas 1971: 766), there were 595,000 radio sets in Cuba, more than one per
family. A Census taken in 1919 showed that half the population of the island was
illiterate although more than 90 per cent of the population of Havana could read
(Thomas 1971: 1,112). L6pez (1981:91) puts the national illiteracy rate at over 70
per cent in the 1930s


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