RELOADING THE DRAGON LADY: READING THE CHARACTER OF CHUN LI IN STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN LI
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Abstract
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li movie revolves around the journey of Chun Li, a Chinese female fighter of the Street Fighter series, and her eventual fight against Bison. This study focuses on the portrayal of Chun Li as a representative of Asian women in an American movie, and compares it to her original portrayal in the game. There are two big groups of representation of Asian women in the Western media: the submissive ‘lotus blossom baby’ and the aggressive ‘dragon lady.’ As a form of content analysis, this study analyzes both textual and visual elements of the Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li movie and Street Fighter game series which represent the portrayal of an Asian woman character named Chun Li. Result shows that Chun Li character in the movie leans more towards the ‘dragon lady’ group with her strong and seductive characteristics, while her game self exhibits a broader range of qualities.
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How to Cite
Adelia, S., Fitriana, E., Andriani, Y., Kusumaningtyas, D., & Dirgantari, A. (2024). RELOADING THE DRAGON LADY: READING THE CHARACTER OF CHUN LI IN STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN LI. English Review: Journal of English Education, 12(2), 577-590. https://doi.org/10.25134/erjee.v12i2.9118
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Brown, J. A. (2004). Gender, Sexuality, and Toughness: The Bad Girls of Action Film and Comic Books. In Action Chicks (pp. 47–74). Palgrave Macmillan, NewYork.https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403981240_3
Chin, J. (2011). Mongrel: Essays, Diatribes, and Pranks. New York: St. Martin Press.
Clark, A. W. (2012). Disturbing Stereotypes: Fu Man/Chan and Dragon Lady Blossoms. Asian American Literature Discourses & Pedagogies, 3, 99-118.
Furfari, P. (2010). Top 50 Street Fighter Characters. UGO.Com. http://www.ugo.com/games/top-50-street-fighter-characters.html
Gerbner, G. (1998). Casting the American Scene : A Look at the Characters on Prime time and Daytime Television from 1994-1997.
Hagedorn, J. (1997). Asian Women in Film: No Joy, No Luck. In Facing Diferrence: Race, Gender, and Mass Media (Vol. 1, pp. 32–37).
Hoeveler, D. L., & Cass, J. (Eds.). (2006). Interrogating orientalism: contextual approaches and pedagogical practices. Ohio State University Press.
Hoppenstand, G. (1992). Yellow devil doctors and opium dens: The yellow peril stereotype in mass media entertainment. In Nachbar, J. G., & Lause, K. (Eds.). Popular culture: An introductory text (pp 277-91). Popular Press.
Hwang, M. C., & Parreñas, R. S. (2021). The gendered racialization of Asian women as villainous temptresses. Gender & Society, 35(4), 567-576.
Jessop, M. P., (2021). Revisiting Asian American Representations in Hollywood: Negotiating Identity, Gender, and Sexuality [Major Paper]. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/major-papers/183
Johnson, L. L. R. (2004). Asian and Asian American Representations in American Film [WWU Honors Program Senior Projects, Western Washington University]. https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwu_honors/210
Kim, M., & Chung, A. Y. (2005). Consuming Orientalism: Images of Asian/American Women in Multicultural Advertising. Qualitative Sociology, 28(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-005-2631-1
Lee, J. (2018). East Asian “China Doll” or “Dragon Lady”? Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections, 3(1). http://scholars.wlu.ca/bridges_contemporary_connectionshttp://scholars.wlu.ca/bridges_contemporary_connections/vol3/iss1/2
Leong, K. J. (2005). The China Mystique: Pearl S. Buck, Anna May Wong, Mayling Soong, and the Transformation of American Orientalism. University of California Press.
Ma, C. L. (2020). Visual Manipulation of East Asian Women in American Pop Female Performances. Reconceptualizing the Digital Humanities in Asia: New Representations of Art, History and Culture, 115-125.
Matsumoto, K. (2020). Orientalism and the Legacy of Racialized Sexism: Disparate Representational Images of Asian and Eurasian Women in American Culture. Young Scholars in Writing, 17, 114-126. https://youngscholarsinwriting.org /index.php/ysiw/article/view/305/329
Nakamatsu, T. (2005). Faces of “Asian brides”: Gender, race, and class in the representations of immigrant women in Japan. Women’s Studies International Forum, 28(5), 405–417. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.WSIF.2005.05.003
Ofianti, R. D. (2021). Orientalism Stereotypes as Reflected in the Disney’s Movie Aladdin [Bachelor Thesis, Universitas Islam Sultan Agung]. Universitas Islam Sultan Agung Repository. https://repository.unissula.ac.id
Paner, I. (2018). The marginalization and stereotyping of Asians in American film [Honors Theses]. https://doi.org/10.33015/dominican.edu/2018.HONORS.ST.08
Ranji, B. (2021). Traces of orientalism in media studies. Media, Culture & Society, 43(6), 1136–1146. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437211022692
Said, E. (1995). Orientalism. Penguin Books India.
Said, E. (2023). Introduction to orientalism. In Imperialism (pp. 30-52). Routledge.
Sriganeshvarun, N., & Wen, C. P. (2020). Asian Stereotypes: Asian Representation in Hollywood Films. Inti Journal, 63.
Staszak, J. F. (2015). Performing race and gender: the exoticization of Josephine Baker and Anna May Wong. Gender, Place & Culture, 22(5), 626-643.
Wiley, C. (1995). Unbroken Thread: An Anthology of Plays by Asian American Women. Theatre Journal, 47(1), 151-154.
Wu, S. (2023). A Study on the ABG, a Racialized, Gendered Social Label. Asian American Research Journal, 3. http://dx.doi.org/10.5070/RJ43060699
Tajima, R. (1989). Lotus Blossom Don’t Bleed: Images of Asian Women. In Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings by and about Asian American women.
Tung, C. (2004). Embodying an Image: Gender, Race, and Sexuality in La Femme Nikita. Action Chicks, 95–121. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403981240_5
Zhou, Y., & Paul, B. (2016). Lotus Blossom or Dragon Lady: A Content Analysis of “Asian Women” Online Pornography. Sexuality and Culture, 20(4), 1083–1100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-016-9375-9