Chun-Li
Chun-Li (春麗) is a video game character created by Capcom. She is part of the Street Fighter series of fighting games, and is considered to be the first female fighting game character. Introduced in Street Fighter II, Chun-Li was the only female character in the game, and while not as physically powerful as the other characters, she was by far the quickest. Various bootleg versions of the game gave her a projectile attack, something that was later officially incorporated into Street Fighter II' Turbo as the Kikouken and has been part of her official move repertoire since. Her most famous attack is the Hyakuretsukyaku (a.k.a. the Lightning Kick), which she repeated kicks to her opponent from a standing position with incredible speed.
Chun-Li is also notable for being one of the first successful and popular female video game protagonists. Prior to Street Fighter II being released in 1991, most female characters in games existed as objectives to be rescued or cast in the roles of other supporting characters, such as townspeople, girlfriends, the occasional opponent, or simply background decoration. Beyond RPGs, there were very, very few female heroes in action-based video games. After the success of Street Fighter II and Chun-Li's popularity, female protagonists became more and more common. Since then, in games with selectable characters, at least one or two of them will be female; and there has been a number of games released since that have placed a woman or girl in the lead role.
According to her official biography, Chun-Li was born in the People's Republic of China on March 1, 1968. She stands 169 cm (just over 5' 6½"), and her weight is undisclosed. She is a crack shot (ranking 6th in an international shooting contest), and likes fruits and European treats. She hates crime, people with no clarity, and utterly loathes M. Bison.
In the original English version of Street Fighter II and in many of the following editions she is played by well-known voice actress Lynn Harris. In a number of games, her voice is provided by actress/singer Yuko Miyamura, while in more recent games she is performed by Atsuko Tanaka. In Capcom vs. SNK and Capcom vs. SNK 2, Chun-Li is voiced by Michiko Neya. In SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, Chun-Li is voiced by Mari Jitsukawa. She was played by Ming-Na Wen in the 1994 Street Fighter film.
Background
When she was five years old, Chun-Li saw a Bruce Lee movie, and it was this that led her into the martial arts. Her style is said to be a mixture of Tai Chi and Wushu. Her father was very close friends with Gen, who taught her a few moves.
When she learned that her father had gone missing on an assignment, Gen gave her directions to investigate Shadoloo. She confronted M. Bison, and was defeated in hand-to-hand combat and ran away. M. Bison told her that he would kill her, just like her father, the next time they met.
Chun-Li joined the ICPO in order to hunt down Shadoloo and get revenge for her father's death. She joined the AWOL USAF officer Charlie in an unsanctioned mission to take down Shadoloo. Along with Guile, one of Charlie's subordinates, they destroyed Shadoloo's Thailand base, but Charlie sacrificed his life to prevent Bison from escaping.
Chun-Li received an invitation to the second World Warrior tournament, and discovered that Bison had apparently survived the Thailand base's destruction. The outcome of this tournament is not clear, but there are strong hints that Chun-Li earned the right to face Bison, but was unable to fight him as Akuma destroyed Bison before the match with the Shun Goku Satsu.
Having made her peace, she continued her work as a police officer, and retired to teach young girls martial arts after taking Shadoloo down piece by piece. In Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Urien refers to her "powerful legs" having taken down "that organization," inferred to be Shadoloo.
Trivia
- Chun-Li was originally supposed to wear a peach-colored outfit, and her in-game profile in the original Street Fighter II displays this. This was corrected to her blue outfit in Street Fighter II': Champion Edition.
- In the Marvel vs. Capcom series, Chun-Li receives an offer to join the X-Men despite not having any mutant powers. She considers mutant abilities to be nothing out of the ordinary, citing her abilities to fire a projectile (the Kikouken).
- Some fans believe her to be a good romantic match for the main character of Street Fighter, Ryu. This is bolstered by the fact that Ryu and Chun-Li were a couple in the 1993 Malibu Comics' Street Fighter series, though it is not considered canon, and were romantically close in the 1993 Tokuma Comics' Street Fighter II manga. The two are acquainted. In SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, their pre-fight dialogue hints that of all her opponents, Ryu is her favorite, since she was very happy to see him again. He enjoys fighting her as well, and considers her to be a good friend and ally.
- Chun-Li has an alternate version in Marvel vs. Capcom called Shadow Lady. The apperance is Chun-Li but with more dark colors. Her fighting style indicates that it might be Chun-Li (or her clone) which is mechanized like Charlie. She also has a Shun Goku Satsu-like move like Shadow Charile does, sending her opponent to the air by her High Kick.
- Chun-Li is a favorite cameo personality of anime and manga directors. She has appeared in cameo in various settings from the manwha Fairies' Landing to a background scene in the US cartoon Jackie Chan Adventures.
- Chun-Li makes a cameo appearance in the RPG Breath of Fire and in the first stage of Final Fight 2, both also by Capcom.
- In the Jacky Chan live-action movie City Hunter, he magically transformed to Chun Li and fought against his adversaries, (he was first transformed into Blanka in the beginning).
- The clothing that Chun Li wears is a traditional Chinese dress called qipao in which it was quite popular clothing during the early 20th Century in China amongs girls. Her hair style is called "Ox horns" in which Chinese children dress their hair in; depictions of girls in Chinese paintings frequently show that that girls do their hair as two buns while boys only have one.
- Chun Li wears a customized Chinese Qi Pao.
Related characters
See also
- Street Fighter
- Pocket Fighter
- Marvel vs. Capcom series
- SNK vs. series
- Namco x Capcom
- Capcom Fighting Evolution
External links
- Kikouken.Com - An extensive fansite dedicated to Chun-Li.
- Omiod.Com - Chun-Li background an related characters.