Chun-Li's new look in Street Fighter 6. Is it a step backwards?

Today we are going to look at the last character I had yet to talk about for Street Fighter 6. Chun-Li was an icon. I had her listed #2 on my list of the 30 most important Street Fighter characters of the past 30 years. When she appeared in the SF6 debut trailer audiences all over the world celebrated. Fan art started pouring in online featuring her in the new costume. The reaction so far had been overwhelmingly supportive. I’m sure this pleased SF6 Designer Yusuke Hashimoto. I was happy to see her return, along with the rest of the original World Warriors. What I didn’t care for frankly was her new outfit. I think it's actually regressive, and betrays the spirit, and design that made Chun-Li unique.

Let’s take a deep dive into the origins of Chun-Li. The nation of China and the Chinese martial arts were perfect for video games. They were celebrated for their visual splendor, and fancy moves. Especially in Hong Kong cinema. Fan and Star were featured opponents in Yie Ar Kung-Fu, released by Konami in 1984. They were the first female martial arts fighters in a game. They predated Chun-Li by six years. In fact before Capcom even created Chun-Li they had designed a trio of female martial artists that could hold their own against the titular character Strider Hiryu in the arcade game Strider. The Kuniang Martial Arts Team aka The Tong Pooh Three Sisters appeared in 1989. Chun-Li would not appear until 1991. The sisters were fabled bounty hunters, selling their deadly talents to the highest bidder. Their pseudo-traditional Chinese martial arts uniforms beguiled their amazing powers. The sisters could cut tanks in half with their powerful kicks. They were the perfect challenge to the futuristic ninja Hiryu.

In some of the earliest design notes Chun-Li was essentially credited as another one of the sisters. Her method of fighting was originally listed as Northern Praying Mantis. Not only that, but her special attack was based on whipping her hair. Capcom was one of my favorite companies growing up. I loved their games, yet looking back I could see that some cultural stereotypes were also perpetuated by the studio. Chinese characters in fighting games were often presented in some sort of pre-revolutionary martial arts costume. It didn't matter if the characters were appearing in a current timeline. They were often dressed in the costume that would have been appropriate in the late 19th century rather than in casual modern clothing. For example the Three Sisters were presented in outfits that made more sense in classical Chinese Opera rather than in the science fiction future that Strider was set in. Even Chun-Li was presented in a pseudo-traditional costume in Street Fighter II. Within the context of the game however her costume made sense. It took a lot of subtle changes to get Chun-Li just right. Let’s talk about her evolution.

Chun-Li was going to be a very generic female kung-fu practitioner. According to the “father” of Chun-Li; Akira “Akiman” Yasuda said she was inspired by Tao from the anime Genma Wars: Harmagedon (1983). Japan had a fondness for setting stories in China, or borrowing cultural touchstones from China in the '80s. This included putting characters in traditional dresses, even if they didn’t reflect contemporary Chinese fashion. Lynn Minmay was a half-Chinese heroine in Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982), Son Goku in Dragon Ball (1984) was a retelling of Journey to the West, then there was Pai from 3x3 Eyes (1987), and Ranma from Ranma ½ (1987) to name a few. Chun-Li was going to be as middle-of-the-road Chinese character as you could get. Even in the early design notes from Capcom she was labeled “Chirei” which translated to Chinese Daughter. Something amazing happened though. The studio kept going back and revising the cast again, and again. They poured more people into the development of Street Fighter than had ever been assembled on any other Capcom game. The end result was nothing short of amazing.

It was the insistence of all the senior developers in making the lineup better than any of their concept art. Producer Yoshiki Okamoto, and Designers Akira Nishitani, and Akira Yasuda pushed the staff to create a lineup that would not only define a franchise, but set the standard for the genre as well. With Chun-Li they really dug into the heart of the character. They knew that it would be great to have a representative of the different fighting arts as playable figures. In the earliest drafts they even had a military contractor, and capoeira master set for SFII. Yet they knew that audiences wanted more than a plain karate guy, or kung-fu girl in the roster. These characters needed to have more dimension, more personality, and more details than were provided in Yie Ar Kung-Fu. Chun-Li came to life when the studio realized that she was actually an undercover cop in a fighting tournament.

Her costume was literally a disguise, it was something to hide her true identity. Although the cut, and color of the outfit seemed authentic, there was nothing remotely classical about it. The short dress with open sides, large puffy shoulders, dark tights, wrestling boots, and weighted spiked bracelets had never been worn by an actual practitioner of any Chinese martial art. The genius of Akiman was that he assembled all the elements in such a way that on first glance they looked like authentic kung-fu garb, that was until you looked closer. Akiman, and SHOEI would paint official character art to remind us what Chun-Li was like in between fights. They presented her with her hair down, sometimes without makeup. She was an actual person. These were some of the most important illustrations that defined the character. We could see that she had an Adidas sports bag where she kept all her gear. She would rather be wearing sneakers when traveling instead of slippers or boots.

Audiences were reminded again, and again in the ending screens that she was a modern woman. She was not a stereotypical Chinese girl from manga, or anime. Chun-Li was often presented either in her police uniform, or in casual urban clothing. She didn’t stay in costume once the fighting was done. Sometimes she was seen in workout gear, or while going out on a date with her friends. This didn't really change until 1999, when in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike the company turned her into a sort of martial arts instructor that stayed in costume. Prior to that the studio did a major revision to her in Street Fighter Zero / Alpha in 1995. They created a costume for a young Chun-Li. With it they had her in a striped bodysuit, weighted bracelet, a pseudo-traditional crop top, and sneakers. She kept the Capcom logo colors of blue, and yellow even in this outfit. It went over well with audiences as they were reminded of the striped bodysuit worn by Bruce Lee in his final film the Game of Death. The original, and young versions of the outfits were so well crafted that it would be easy to dismiss them as traditional Chinese, but were actually costumes put together for a modern woman. These were the things that Capcom had started ignoring when designing alternate costumes for her in Street Fighter V. The goal seemed to be make Chun-Li sexier, and sexier with every revision.

I think the SF6 developers completely missed the mark with her as well. It was as if they took that first-glance understanding of Chun-Li, and perpetuated only the Chinese stereotypes. They essentially regressed the character to Chunrei. Her costume became more formal, the dress became longer, with pants, and flats. No more wrestling boots, gone was her spiked bracelet, replaced by a more modest gold, and mahogany bangle. Her subversive design elements became more conservative. Chun-Li had inspired the creation of other female kung-fu masters in the genre. Most of the developers working on their own variation never got past the Chinese Daughter look. Sega most notably had Pai Chan, the daughter of Lau Chan in Virtua Fighter from 1993. It was no accident that her costume was blue with gold trim, or that she had her hair in braids. Pai’s costume was much more authentic, and it made sense in context. Sega was trying to make their series look, and feel more realistic than Street Fighter. The plausible fantastic was one of the things audiences enjoyed most with the design of the World Warriors. It was possible to have a seven-foot one eyed muay thai master, it was possible to have an air force pilot with a wild flat top. You might never see them, but they could be out there. With Chun-Li's new look she was easily out there because her outfit was so middle-of-the-road. 

When I look at the changes that Capcom made to Chun-Li I saw them going backwards. They were forgetting her evolution, and what the countless artists working at the studio changed during the revision process. She was never designed to be an ancient Chinese master, like Gen, or Lee. She was an Interpol officer working an undercover assignment. The world seemed to offer more for her other than fighting in the story mode. Seeing her floating in the air like Ip Man, acting like a movie hero in the SF6 trailer made me doubt the studio. I’m sure she still plays like Chun-Li, and will be a top tier character. No doubt about it. I do hope that they consider her original design, and purpose moving forward. I’ll be eager to see what DLC outfits they have planned for her. Like Ken, Ryu, and Cammy, I’m not feeling her new look. That’s my take anyway. Please let me know what you think about Chun-Li’s updated design. Will she be a character you try out on day one? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!