Two people star in “Charlie Chan.” One is Chang Apana, the 5-foot-tall, tough-as-leather, bullwhip-wielding Chinese-American detective in Honolulu who was born around 1871 and died in 1933.

The city’s most beloved cartoon character, the teenage scrappy journalist-detective, is all over this stylish and beautiful metropolis. Look up and see his giant profile high in the sky above ...