Greeting and salutations. I was wondering if any of us though about doing something together as a group, online, in person or whatever to celebrate Detective Chan in the near future?

August 26th this year marks the 140th birthday of Earl Derr Biggers, and January 24 (next year) will mark the 100th anniversary of the first (of 7) serialized portions of Bigger's first Chan novel "The House Without a Key, 1925" in The Saturday Evening Post.

I believe, John L. Swann (Ref: Death I said: A Charlie Chan Mystery) will be releasing his second book in the series of revisited Chan novels. However, other than that I'm not aware of anything.

I'd like to propose we do something...anything...to celebrate. I realize this August is pretty close and probably not doable--but next year?

Here's a couple of suggestions I'd like to throw out there. Of course, everyone's situation or schedule will not allow (medical, financial, life, etc.):

1. A trip to Honolulu to visit the sites and locations of Chang Apana, The Films, grave, and other locations pertaining to our detective.

2. A trip to 7 Keys Lodge, in Estes Park, CO. Rather than explain here's a blog I did: https://thepostmanonholiday.com/2021/08/01/need-a-place-to-write-that-mystery-seven-keys-lodge-in-colorado-has-a-history-of-mystery/

3. A visit to Warren, Ohio--Biggers' birthplace.

4. Start a Charlie Chan fan club.

5. Host a Zoom meeting or talk.

Just thinking out loud. Hope everyone is doing well. Happy Spring/Summer all!

Lou

Dear Lou,

I love the thought of a number of us meeting together in some way for a Charlie Chan celebration! While a trip to Honolulu, the "epicenter" of Chandom, sadly, that is probably out of the reach of most of us. I believe that in late August I will be in California as we visit our older daughter there so, that is as close to Honolulu as I will be getting for now! Perhaps the Zoom gathering is the best possibility. Let's think on this, shall we?

Charlie Chan is always worthy of a celebration!

Sincerely,
Rush

The Zoom idea seems both eminently do-able, and a nice supplement to our weekly gatherings.

Maybe we could think of a quarterly Zoom get-together, with "normal" chats on the other weeks?

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As far as travel, we could do any of the non-Hawaii destinations, though dates could be tricky with our other schedules. Ohio or Colorado are do-able for a weekend for us.

The most cool thing would be a meeting in Honolulu for some major Chan milestone. We'd just need abundant lead time (a year or so?) to plan (and to keep our schedules clear).

We need to celebrate Chan of course, but even more we should celebrate...

...us! This group is quite remarkable and should be celebrated!

I agree with all of the above! A Zoom meeting would be easiest, of course, but meeting in person could potentially be do-able for me. It would involve international travel, but is something I could look into, if given enough notice.

Meeting in Honolulu someday for a big Chan milestone would be awesome!