Orange Is the New Black Belt: The Problem of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu
Moench’s longest sustained work at Marvel is also his most critically acclaimed: Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu. He began with the second half of issue 20 (September 1974) and ended with issue 122 (March 1983), missing only two issues along the way (64 and 121), but more than making up for them with annuals, quarterlies, specials, and contributions the black-and-white magazine Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (which ran from April 1974 through February 1977). [1] Yet despite the accomplishments of Moench and his collaborators, Master of Kung Fu has had a difficult afterlife, primarily because of the original sins that haunt the series to this day.
Shang-Chi (the protagonist of Master of Kung Fu) was created by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin, although they did not stay with the series all that long (Moench took over after just a few issues). Just as Marvel’s horror characters were a response to the genre’s revival in film, Master of Kung Fu (along with Iron Fist) was an attempt to cash in on a then-current fad: the 1970s martial arts boom. This period is now best remembered for the films of Bruce Lee, but the real impetus for Master of Kung Fu was Kung Fu, an American television series that whitewashed the genre with a largely Caucasian cast. The show’s combination of martial arts action and faux-Eastern philosophy resulted in a hit that lasted from 1972 through 1975.
Englehart originally was hoping that Marvel could simply license the show, but editor Roy Thomas, whose affection for Golden Age comics characters and pulp heroes is well-known, had a different idea: licensing the characters associated with Sax Rohmer’s early twentieth-century pulp villain, Fu Manchu. This was a decision that would lead to several powerful storylines and fascinating character development, but also impose a burden that the comic would never really escape. On a pragmatic level, the Fu Manchu connection hindered attempts at reprinting the comics years later, after the license had expired, and would prompt subsequent writers to either use Fu Manchu without referring to him by name, or eventually reveal that the unspoken name “Fu Manchu” was actually a pseudonym to disguise his real name (now said to be "Zheng Zhu").
But those are mere technicalities. The real problem is the undeniable racism that surrounds Fu Manchu in the original novels, the movie adaptations, and Master of Kung Fu itself. Usually depicted with his characteristic droopy mustache, talon-like fingernails, and hypnotic stare, Fu Manchu was described in his first appearance as “the yellow peril incarnate in one man.” When fighting against the virtuous (and, of course, white) Denis Nayland Smith, he availed himself of weapons including magic potions, venomous vermin, seductive “Oriental” women, and all manner of treachery. It is difficult to imagine redeeming such a character from the bigotry that birthed him, and if it is possible, it will not be because his white creator’s racism was countered by subsequent white writers’ good intentions. Already a problem to readers paying attention in the 1970s, in the twenty-first century Fu Manchu is positively radioactive.
Unfortunately, the racial blindspots are not limited to Fu Manchu. The coloring process used by comics at the time provided a limited range of hues; by the late 1970s, newly-introduced Asian and Asian American characters in the book were depicted with skin tones that did not differ so starkly from those used for caucasians. Unfortunately, this was too late for characters who had been around longer, such as the occasional antagonist Shadow Stalker, whose skin was colored banana-yellow, or, worst of all, the title character. For the duration of the series, Shang-Chi was as orange as the Fantastic Four’s Ben Grimm. Bad as this was when he was first introduced, it became ludicrous as time went on. Other Asians had skin of more recognizably human hue, but Shang-Chi’s color visually defined him as though he were a member of an alien race. The Skrulls were green, the Kree pink or blue, and Shang-Chi was orange.
NOTHING RHYMES WITH “ORANGE.” ALSO, NO ONE’S SKIN IS THAT COLOR
Moench was not responsible for the coloring, but, when it comes to the book’s Orientalism, he was not blameless, either. Many of the problems are related to the construction of Shang-Chi’s antagonists: the huge, barely human sumo-wrester whose only dialogue consists of repeating Shang-Chi’s girlfriend name by sounding it out syllable by syllable ("Lei-ko-wu!” Issue 46); the endless supply of faceless, fanatical, and expendable Asian cultists whom Fu Manchu dispatches as casually as one might order a pizza; and the simplistic contrasts between Shang-Chi’s upbringings and “the West.” Even worse, Shang-Chi’s (white) British comrade Black Jack Tarr “affectionally” calls him “Chinaman” for years, despite periodic reader complaints. [2]
Finally, there is the matter of Shang Chi’s name, which was given to him by co-creator Steve Englehart. Most likely cobbled together from a dictionary rather than created with the help of an actual Chinese speaker, “Shang Chi” is said to mean “the rising and advancing of a spirit.” Depending on the tones, “chi” does refer to vital energy, while “shang” has multiple meanings connected to the concept of “above” or “superior.” In anticipation of the 2021 Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which appears to swap out Fu Manchu for the no less offensive Marvel yellow peril villain The Mandarin, many Chinese speakers have been quick to denounce the film not only for its racist pedigree, but for the unlikely name “Shang-Chi.” Quora users have pointed out that, in addition to being a nickname for the Shanghai Automobile Company, “Shang-Chi” sounds like "a nasty disease,” a “zombie,” or a “depressed corpse.” [3]
In other words, Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu has a great deal working against it. But without apologizing for its flaws, I would argue for its centrality to Marvel comics development of interiority, depth, and artistry in the 1970s. So let us take a closer look.
Notes
[1] Shang Chi was introduced in Special Marvel Edition 15 (December 1973). WIth issue 17 (April 1974), the comic’s title changed to The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. It is conventionally referred to as Master of Kung Fu, and casually as MOKF.
[2] In the pre-Internet days of the 1970s, the letters pages of Marvel comics were often the site of polemics and analysis that outstripped the actual contents of the books. The Fu Manchu problem, as well as the deficiencies in the book’s treatment of Asians and Asian Americans, were a frequent topic on the letters pages of Master of Kung Fu, particularly thanks to one Asian American reader, Bill Wu.
[3] Though Moench cannot be blamed for Shang-Chi’s name, he was notorious for naming characters after random objects and phenomena that caught his fancy. Hence Shang-Chi’s battle against a villain named “Carlton Velcro,” his friendship with Rufus Carter in an issue named after a package of carbon paper (“Carter’s Super Midnight”, issue 96), and his team’s struggle with a cult leader named “Samizdat,” which Moench explained was a “Slavic” word meaning “passing from hand to hand, growing with each passing (when it is actually a Russian word whose literal meaning is “self-publishing”). To be fair to Moench, the Russian language comes into far greater ongoing abuse in the X-Men, starting with the introduction of Colossus (“Lenin’s Beard!”; “By the White Wolf!”).