Any study of Chinese females portrayed in English and American literature over the past century will find no lack of sources, from the works of Pearl Buck and Louise Jordan Miln to those by Han Suyin, Amy Tan and Jung Chang.
In the genre of crime fiction, such portrayals have tended toward a limited number of familiar stereotypes — mostly "Dragon Lady" vamps interspersed with tragic victims — as exemplified by works like "Chinatown Beat," reviewed on this page May 27.
While Honolulu detective Charlie Chan made his literary debut back in 1925, it was not until 1994 that a Chinese American female cop was to be featured in a series, when S.J. Rozan's private eye Lydia Chin appeared in "China Trade."