Chun-Li
"I'm the strongest woman in the world!"
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Chun-Li (春麗, also チュン・リー, Chun Rī; pinyin: Chūn Lì) |
| Occupation: | Interpol officer |
| Relationships: | Dorai (father); Gen (master); Ryu (friend); Ken Masters (friend); Cammy White (friend); Guile (friend); Juri Han (rival); Li-Fen (presumed ward) |
| Fandom: | Street Fighter |
| Other: | |
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Chun-Li (春麗, also チュン・リー, Chun Rī; pinyin: Chūn Lì) is a character in Capcom's Street Fighter fighting video game series. First appearing in the 1991 video game Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, Chun-Li was the first female playable character in any fighting video game to achieve mainstream recognition, appearing in nearly all Street Fighter installments and related media, as well as in crossover video games.[1]
Since her debut, Chun-Li has become a mainstay of the franchise and one of its most popular figures. She has appeared in nearly all subsequent installments of the series and several Capcom spinoff games. She is also featured prominently in Street Fighter-related media, including two feature films, multiple anime and comic book productions, and other official series merchandise. She has earned much positive fan and critical reception for factors such as her backstory, athleticism and in-game playability. She is considered a trailblazer for female characters in fighting title and in general video gaming.[2]
Fan Community
Reception and Popularity
Chun-Li is widely regarded as one of the most popular characters in the Street Fighter franchise.
While Chun-Li was not the first playable female fighting game character, she is definitely the first prominent and well-known one, earning her the honorary title "First Lady of Fighting Games"[3] in the gaming community.
The creation of Street Fighter II: Champion Edition was in fact inspired by an argument between two girls over which one of them would play as Chun-Li, which was witnessed by Capcom USA's Jeff Walker who then asked Capcom's founder Kenzo Tsujimoto to make a version allowing both players to play the same character.[2][4]
As one of the most popular female video game characters of all time (alongside others such as Samus Aran, Lara Croft, and Mai Shiranui), Chun-Li has been a popular subject of fan art, cosplay,[5], and memes[6] on social media, with an extensive amount of dedicated fan works found on Tumblr, Pixiv, DeviantArt, Twitter and other sites.[6]
The trend of female fighting characters being quicker and lighter than their male counterparts, and favoring kick-based attacks, can be traced directly to Chun-Li's huge and powerful legs.[1]
In 2019, Chinese bodybuilder and doctor Yuan Herong went viral due after sharing her cosplay of the character.[6]
On 20 February 2021, Epic Games added Street Fighter characters Chun-Li and Ryu as skins in its battle royale video game Fortnite. The addition of the Chun-Li prompted a surge of memes, fan art and thirstposting online, with many noting that the muscular thighs of Chun-Li's in-game model would inevitably attract players' attention.[6]
In 2002, Chun-Li was voted number one in Capcom's own poll of top 85 characters for the 15th anniversary of Street Fighter.[7] In a 2018 worldwide poll by Capcom, Chun-Li was voted sixth most popular Street Fighter character.[8]
Fanon and Tropes
This article or section needs expansion. |
Shipping
As Ryu and Chun-Li are the most prominent SF characters and often appear across media as the representatives of their home franchise, they are also commonly paired together by fans, and appeared as a married couple in at least one official manga. Fans also see potential love interests for Chun-Li in her close friend Cammy White, her dear friend Charlie Nash, and her rival Juri Han.
Notable Ships
Fan Works
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fan Fiction
Fan Art
- https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xwREO
- https://www.deviantart.com/edwinhuang/art/Street-Fighter-UDON-473074178
- https://www.deviantart.com/edwinhuang/art/Chun-Li-Wins-487101791
Cosplay
Meta
External Links
Fan Sites, Communities, and Archives
- FanFiction.Net (FFN): Street Fighter stories and crossovers featuring Chun-Li
- DeviantArt (DA): Chun-Li-Club
- Archive of Our Own (AO3): Chun-Li tag
- Pixiv: #春麗
- Reddit: r/ChunLi
Resources
References
- ^ a b TV Tropes. Characters / Street Fighter II. (Accessed Mar 2021.)
- ^ a b Wikipedia. Chun-Li. (Accessed 31 Mar 2021).
- ^ "Chun-Li: The First Lady of Video Games". Retro Junk. 2009. Archived from the original on June 8, 2011. Retrieved April 1, 2008.
- ^ Hendershot, Steve (2017). Undisputed Street Fighter. Dynamite. pp. 135–136.
- ^ "10 Best Female Video Game Characters". GameRevolution. 2016-08-29. Archived from the original on 2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-11-22.
- ^ a b c d Know Your Meme.
- ^ 2005-12-19 https://web.archive.org/web/20051219091936/http://www2.geestore.com/sf15th2/sf15rank/ninkichara.html. Archived from the original on December 19, 2005. Retrieved 2011-09-29.
- ^ "第1回 キャラクター人気投票 | CAPCOM：シャドルー格闘家研究所". game.capcom.com (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2018-02-25. Retrieved 2018-11-24.