Chun-Li

"I am the strongest woman in the world!"

- Chun-Li

"There's no shortcut to getting strong, only daily training!"

- Chun-Li

Chun-Li is a Chinese Interpol detective, a powerful martial artist, and a heroine in the Street Fighter series. She is the first female player character that appears in the series, one of the series' major lead characters alongside Ryu and Ken and the first playable female character to appear in a 1-on-1 fighting game. Introduced in Street Fighter II, Chun-Li was the only female character in the game, as well as one of the youngest fighters, and while not as physically powerful as the other characters, she is by far the quickest. She is one of the most popular playable female characters in the series.

Her most famous attack is the Hyakuretsukyaku ("Hundred Rending Legs", commonly known as the "Lightning Kick"), where she repeatedly kicks her opponent from a tilted standing position with incredible speed.

Name
Chun-Li's name is Mandarin; chun 春 "spring", lì 丽 "beautiful", which means she is a single young girl filled with the beauty of spring.

Older official sources from the early 90's indicate Chung was Chun-Li's surname, although it is worth noting this could very well not be the case anymore. In the 1994 live-action movie and 1995 animated TV series, Chun-Li was given the surname Xiang, but Capcom has not officially recognized it.

Appearance
Chun-Li's appearance has differed several times in the Street Fighter series, as well as in official art and cameos she has made in other works. She is known for her very muscular thighs. She is 5ft 6.5" according to her Street Fighter Alpha 3 biography.

Clothing
Chun-Li wears the qipao, a Chinese dress imported over from Manchuria, yet popular among girls during the early 20th century. Her outfit is modified to allow a far wider range of movement than a normal qipao. She also wears white combat boots and a blue leotard with dark brown sheer pantyhose with her qipao. Her qipao is blue with golden accents. She was originally supposed to wear a peach-colored qipao, as seen in her in-game profile and ending in the original Street Fighter II.

During the period covered in Street Fighter Alpha, she wore an embroidered vest, unitard and athletic shoes, as well as studded wristbands. It is unclear why she chose to stop using this outfit and switch to the qipao in subsequent Street Fighter games. With the switch to the qipao, she also swapped her wristbands for large spiked bracelets. In the Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation movie, her vest has changed to red instead of blue. Chun-Li's alternate costume in Street Fighter IV consists of a black sleeveless evening gown with gold accents at the bottom. She wears a black and gold sash held by a red rope-like belt. The outfit is completed with red shoes, gold earrings and black and gold bracelets. The outfit resembles the clothes she wore in one of the episodes of the American cartoon series Street Fighter.

In various official art, she has also been shown in her police outfit, as well as (presumably) her favorite casual attire: a varsity-style jacket, T-shirt, jeans and white tennis shoes. It has been shown in some official art that when wearing her casual attire, she also wears her Alpha wristbands.

Hairstyle
Her hairstyle is called "ox horns", a typical style in which Chinese children dress their hair; depictions of girls in Chinese paintings frequently show girls in ox horns.

During the Alpha series, she chose to wear them unadorned, while in the remaining games, she uses silk brocades and ribbons to cover them, colored white to signify the mourning of her father. These silk brocades and ribbons that cover them are sometimes called bao.

In Street Fighter IV, when wearing her alternate costume, she wears her ox horns unadorned, just like in her Alpha appearance, only this time it's held by red ropes with golden balls at the tip.

Personality
Chun-Li is a resourceful and dedicated officer of the law with a strong sense of justice that rivals that of her father, as she strongly believes in protecting the innocent and saving the lives of others.

She is a highly disciplined, seasoned, and courageous woman, and is often the voice of reason. As an official of Interpol, she takes her work as a cop with pride (showing pride at what she does when she saves another), outside of her duty as a cop, she has an elegant, sweet, and feminine personality. Chun-Li however, is not without her flaws, as she has shown to get very competitive with criminals in Street Fighter media, and does not take kindly to those who insult her pride as a cop. Because of her devotion to justice, she often becomes allies and friends with other soldiers and cops. Additionally, she has shown great resilience and determination in pursuing intense crime organizations, such as Shadaloo.

Relationships
Cammy White is actually Chun-Li's best friend from the United Kingdom who works for the British special forces called the "Delta Red" so that she can help her friend defeat M. Bison, the leader of Shadaloo. She had a very good relationship with her father. Chun-Li has an "on/off" relationship with Ryu and is close friends with Guile, Ken, Sakura and Karin. However, Chun-Li has a complicated relationship with Juri, as they started off as bitter enemies in Street Fighter IV before becoming uneasy allies in Project X Zone and Street Fighter V. Chun-Li trained with Gen for a certain time. She has made enemies with M.Bison, Vega, Balrog, Crimson Viper, Seth and Urien.

Gameplay
Chun-Li is the original fast character in the Street Fighter series, utilizing multiple rapid attacks rather than the slow damaging strikes of larger characters like Zangief. Her agile and swift movements are a favorite amongst game-players. It is interesting to note that in the early days of arcade fighting games, many other female characters played in a similarly speedy style, following the example set by Chun-Li. In previous games (Street Fighter II mainly) she was basically a charge character along with Guile and E.Honda, but her style was changed in later games to give her a more technical feel as well as her trademark "speed" granted to the player.

Techniques
In almost every game, Chun-Li's signature move is the Hyakuretsu Kyaku which was her ability to throw multiple kicks in one sitting. It is referred to as the Lightning Kick. Its easy accessibility (bluntly pressing a kick button rapidly) has become a staple in many games. Her Spinning Bird Kick acts like Ryu's and Ken's own Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku. Chun-Li can also wall-jump, meaning that pressing in the opposite direction after touching the wall during a jump will allow her to bounce off of it. While jumping, she can perform a Stomp Kick on top of her opponent's heads. Beginning with Street Fighter Alpha, this move was replaced by the Sen'en Shuu, which was an overhead dropkick which knocked the opponent down. This, in itself, was replaced by the Hazan Shuu in Street Fighter III, which was a similar move where Chun-Li flipped in the air before attacking with her overhead kick. She also regained her Spinning Bird Kick in that game.

Her Kaku Kyaku Raku was basically a move where she flips in the air and drop kicks her opponents on the head, causing them to fall down. This was replaced in Street Fighter III with the Tenshin Shuu Kyaku which requires her to jump all the way behind the opponent to attack, but also lets her combo afterward. Her trademark projectile is called the Kikoken, and has alternately been a motion attack and a charge attack depending on the game. Her Tenshou Kyaku enabled her to jump in the air and perform 3-4 consecutive kicks that can damage air born opponents.

Other notable moves that have appeared include the Sou Hakkei, a powerful palm strike that Chun-Li can do in her X-ISM mode in Street Fighter Alpha 3; the Reishiki Kikou Ken, a toned-down version of the Kikou Shou as it appeared in the Alpha games that Chun-Li can do at any time in the Marvel vs. Capcom series; and the Tenshin Enbu in SvC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, a command grab similar to Yun's Zenpou Tenshin that does no damage but leaves the opponent open to a combo.

Super Attacks
Chun-Li's first Super Attack, the Senretsu Kyaku, was an extended Hyakuretsu Kyaku that moved Chun-Li forward and could go through fireballs. Her Kikou Shou, which she received in Street Fighter Alpha, was a stationary ball of energy that could hit attacks coming from above and in front. Her Hazan Tenshou Kyaku was a powered-up version of the Tenshou Kyaku. These moves received typical power increases in the Marvel vs. Capcom series.

Her appearance in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike saw her retain only one Super Art from before, the Kikosho, in a version that more resembled the Marvel version than the original Alpha version. Her two new Super Arts where the Hoyoku Sen, a re-imagined Senretsu Kyaku that was made up of two flurries of rapid kicks followed by a final kick that sent the opponent upward; and the Tensei Ranka, an aerial flip-kick that ended with a final kick crashing straight downward.

In Street Fighter IV, Chun-Li gains a new Ultra Combo called Hosenka. It is very much like Hoyoku Sen, except instead of kicking the opponent away after the Hyakuretsu Kyaku, she kicks the opponent upwards and does a powered-up Spinning Bird Kick, which causes a tornado and does significant damage. She then kicks the opponent up into the air with a lot of force, landing gracefully after the opponent falls back on to the floor.

In the latest version of Street Fighter IV (Ultra Street Fighter IV), one can select an Ultra Combo among Hosenka and Kikosho. The Kikosho animation is nearly identical to what is depicted in Street Fighter III: Third Strike.

Project X Zone
Chun-Li makes an appearance in Project X Zone. She is a playable character who is partnered up with Morrigan.

Crosspedia Entry
An ICPO (International Criminal Police Organization) detective and master of Chinese Kempo. Her quick movements and beautiful kicking techniques have proven too much for countless evildoers. She formerly worked on the investigation into the Shadaloo organization, who were responsible for the death of her father.

After that, during a case investigating a succession of disappearances among young martial artists, she first came across the name S.I.N. She started to investigate the links of this new organization to Shadaloo. Has a strong sense of justice and of duty toward her work, but a part her also desires to just be a normal young woman. Strongly determined, she hates indecisiveness. She does, however, love crepes, all manner of sweets and fruit.