 The " amiable Chinese " made his first appearance in The House Without a Key ( 1925 ) . The character was not central to the novel and was not mentioned by name on the dust jacket of the first edition . In the novel , Chan is described as walking with " the light dainty step of a woman " and as being " very fat indeed … an undistinguished figure in his Western clothes . " According to critic Sandra Hawley , this description of Chan allows Biggers to portray the character as <unk> , the opposite of evil Chinese characters , such as Fu Manchu , while simultaneously emphasizing supposedly Chinese characteristics such as impassivity and stoicism . 
