Throwback Thursday: A Brief History of China’s Caped Crusaders

What is a hero? A hero might be someone who is willing to sacrifice his own life for others or someone who just wants to go out on an adventure.

Whether it be the classic gods of Greece, the Celts’ Cu Chulainn (aka the Irish hound), or Horus and Isis from Egypt, for centuries, mankind has created stories of heroic supernatural beings, and this continues today, albeit now mostly for entertainment purposes.

China has its own share of unique heroes and villains, as Harrow Student, Bill L, explored in the September 2018 issue of Beijingkids. From the classic journeys of Sun Wukong (aka the Monkey King) to the recent emergence of Captain China by Excel Comics, there have always been myths about legendary figures that had supernatural powers.

One of the earliest examples of a Chinese superhero came in the 1500s, when Wu Cheng’en published a book called Journey to the West, well-known for being one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. The main protagonist is a monkey named Sun Wukong, who was born from a stone nourished by the five elements. Wukong was blessed with many supernatural abilities, his most iconic being the 72 polymorphic transformations in which he could create 72 false decoys of himself. In this epic story, Sun Wukong aids Tang Sanzang on his journey to the western world along with Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing. Zhu Bajie’s dramatic windy entrance is now a famous Chinese saying to convey that the wind is strong.

Now more than 600 years old, Journey to the West has since been adapted into hundreds of operas, movies, and TV shows. It even inspired Japanese author Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Z. Wukong was a very influential hero, and his weapon, the Ruyi Jingu Bang (Sun Wukong’s magical staff), is a very popular toy for many Chinese kids.

However, Sun Wukong is not the only hero that China will ever make though.

During the 1900s, a new trend started in the western world, particularly in the United States. “Superhero” became a word used to describe masked avengers fighting crime and inequality around the globe. These new heroes not only attracted a wider audience but completely changed the face of literature as we know it, with colorful comic books with entertaining storylines becoming a form of popular literature. These heroes often had to keep their personal life a secret while fighting for the greater good. DC’s iconic Superman is now a symbol of the comic book industry and heroes like him and many others would completely change the way that the Chinese write comics, since the traditional way of reading was from left to right.

Black Cat Detective was one of the first Chinese superhero cartoons created by the Shanghai Animation Film Studios in 1984 and was directly influenced by cartoons from the US and Europe. It was considered by many to be a more violent version of Tom and Jerry, although still appropriate for younger audiences. The story is essentially about the Black Cat’s wanderings on his motorcycle stopping villains through the use of excessive force.

China’s next famous cartoon superheroes were the Calabash Brothers. Calabash Brothers was produced in 1980 and it was praised domestically almost as much as Journey to the West. The story is about seven brothers, each with their own unique superpowers, who set out to rid Calabash Mountain of demons and reunite with their Grandpa. The show only had 13 episodes, but its impact can be felt even today as it is readily available for viewing across many streaming platforms.