Anime Chinese Girl



"''"And when I get excited ''My little China girl says Oh baby, you just shut your mouth, she says...""

- David Bowie, "China Girl" (Covered Up from Iggy Pop)

In anime and manga, the Chinese are a special case to the usual But Not Too Foreign treatment of foreigners, due to the long-running animosity between China and Japan, which has historically exploded into outright war more than once. Hong Kong is in a weird place in the middle (culturally, if not geographically), usually used when the writers want to set a story in a Vice City that wouldn't work properly otherwise.

The Anime Chinese Girl is one result of the above - she's a cute Chinese girl, usually with a variable accent, who is nearly guaranteed to dress at some point in a qipao and put her hair up in a pair of odango. A very high proportion of these characters (even for anime) will know martial arts, always in a Chinese style. As a subtrope of Stereotypes of Chinese People, and due to the... strained relations between the countries touched on above, this can slip into worrying territory at times.

Evil Chinese girls grow up to be Dragon Ladies. Or they might have a change of heart after years of helping their evil mad scientist fathers.

Not to be confused with a China Girl.

Anime and Manga

 * The prototypical Anime Chinese Girl is possibly Lynn Minmay from Macross (Lin Minmei in Robotech), although her this is only emphasized in certain episodes. Technically, Minmay's half-Japanese.
 * Shampoo, from Ranma ½.
 * Kulong in Happy Lesson
 * Ling-Pha from Battle Athletes Victory
 * The Li family in Cardcaptor Sakura, most prominently Meiling.
 * Princess Aska from Magic Knight Rayearth had elements of Chinese Girl. One of the Magic Knights even comments on how she and her entourage seem to be a weird mix of Chinese and Japanese stereotypes.
 * The Xing have this going on in Fullmetal Alchemist, specifically Lan Fan and May Chang
 * Ku Fei and Chao Lingshen from Mahou Sensei Negima seemed unusual in sharing the same trait, until Chao's more specific gimmick was revealed to be . They both know Kung Fu, but Chao cheats.
 * Tao Jun from Shaman King.
 * Lady Meow from Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran. Yes, she also knows kung fu.
 * Possibly Tenten from Naruto, who definitely invokes the design, despite the fact that her world doesn't seem to have a China. In the databooks, her favorite food is Chinese food. Team Guy as a whole seems to have a Chinese theme going on, from Rock Lee and Guy-sensei being Bruce Lee Clones to Neji Hyuuga's fighting style coming from baguazhang, a Chinese form of martial arts.
 * Ranpha Framboise from Galaxy Angel has many aspects of the Anime Chinese Girl, including a taste for steamed meat buns, and a Leitmotif that sounds very Chinese.
 * Shenhua from Black Lagoon, who is often at odds with Chinese-American gunslinger Revy.
 * "You got that, chinglish?"
 * Bu-ling Huang of Tokyo Mew Mew, and her little sister Heicha.
 * Fei from Gate Keepers is a particularly noxious example of this trope. She seems hard pressed to have thirty seconds of screen time without squealing "Ayiyi!".
 * Mei Mei from Nagasarete Airantou.
 * Yui Li the Religious Bruiser from Vampire Princess Miyu the TV series.
 * Sha Chi from Penguin Musume, complete with the qipao and martial arts thing. Also adds "-dachi" to the end of every sentence.
 * Kagura from Gintama, despite being an alien, dresses in Chinese outfits and is occasionally referred to by strangers as Chinese.
 * Ruri and Hari, cute Chinese minions of moth demon Menōmaru from the first Inuyasha movie.
 * Soifon from Bleach, though technically there is no mention of her being Chinese.
 * Same goes to Cyan Sung-Sun, the Deadpan Snarker from Harribel's Amazon Brigade.
 * Empress Tianzi from Code Geass, despite not having traditional Chinese Girl traits, as she does not know martial arts and does not dress in a modern qipao. She is actually named Jiang Lihua. Tianzi means 'Son (or, in this case, Daughter) of Heaven' and is a conventional title for emperors.
 * Wang Liu Mei from the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 series, although she only wears a qipao in the first episode and it is her Battle Butler  Hong Long that knows kung fu.
 * Ixpellia of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's StrikerS Sound Stage X was likely meant to evoke this image, what with her qipao and all (in the illustrations to them, do not get any weird ideas).
 * Maria Wong in the first three episodes of Yami no Matsuei.
 * In the Cowboy Bebop manga, Faye refers to herself as "an Asian beauty". In her flashbacks, it's shown that she originally lived in Singapore. Though not directly stated in the anime, it's implied that she's Chinese.
 * Melissa Mao from Full Metal Panic! is of Chinese descent but she doesn't follow any of the stereotypes. This is because she's lived most of her life in New York, although she also spent some time in Hong Kong.
 * The two that do follow this trope's stereotypes, however, are the Creepy Twins Yu Fang and Yu Lan. One of them wore their hair in the Odango hairstyle at one point, and was even wearing a Qipao. And they both know martial arts (a whole lot better than Mao).
 * Mei Chan from Fullmetal Alchemist. Although there are other "Chinese" characters (it's called Xing, but it's basically China), Mei is the only one with the clothes and the hair (and a panda).
 * Taiwan and Vietnam from Axis Powers Hetalia, at least in looks. Also, the originally male China in the Gender Flipped art (whether fanart or the doodles done by Himaruya himself).
 * China's gender does not have to be flipped.
 * I-Pin from Katekyo Hitman Reborn is a good example of this,
 * Chyna from ''Afghanis-tan, as she is a Anthropomorphic Personification of China.
 * Vivian Wong from Yu-Gi-Oh!. Aside from having her hair up in Odango, she goes around waving fans and a duel disk, wears a yellow qipao and apparently knows enough kung-fu to fix Grandpa's back.. or break it, as the case may be. She also has an anime-only Monster Card called Kung-Fu Nyan-Nyan that fits the Trope too. At some point, she and Mai Kujaku duel the Paradox brothers on the Great Wall of China.
 * Li-en in Gash Bell.
 * Ma Renka in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple.
 * Yun Yun and Liang-Qi from Canaan.
 * Darker than Black has an interesting subversion in Alice, Misaki's childhood friend, who invites her to her birthday party slash mob gathering, which she herself attends in a western-style ballgown, while stuffing a rather embarrassed Misaki into a qipao, complete with odango. Lampshaded by Alice's crimeboss father, who grumbles about her displaying her xenophilic tendencies so blatantly at such an important event.
 * Chi-Chi from Dragon Ball.
 * Lum Cheng from Silent Moebius.
 * Karna from NieA 7, despite actually being an alien.
 * Fuu Lan from Senko no Night Raid.
 * Ming Chao from Et Cetera. She's a really bright brunette and has the biggest eyes of the whole cast, but hey, she carries a wok on her back!
 * Chan Lee from Bakugan, and it really shows through her clothing, esspecially in the New Vestroia arc.
 * Ling Yunque (Suzu) from Amuri in Star Ocean. Except for the martial arts part, but she's got some crazy super powers with Chinese motifs instead, so it all evens out.
 * Huang Lingyin from Infinite Stratos, though she is only depicted in a qipao in fanart.
 * Shunrei in Saint Seiya.
 * Niang-Niang from Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei (though she's a spy).
 * Kou Shuurei and all the other female characters in Saiunkoku Monogatari, which is a fictional version of China after all. However, they all wear Han period costumes and not the traditional qipao of the Manchu period.

Fan Works

 * Aki Chung-Feng and Shenhua "The Dragon Lady" Jiang from One Piece: Parallel Works. While Aki is The Ingenue who is usually dressed in a Qipao, the Dragon Lady... Is a Dragon Lady.

Literature

 * Ling Yu of the web-novel Domina, to the hilt. Probably intentional, given her interest in anime.

Live Action TV

 * Mele from Juken Sentai Gekiranger is an example, though seeing as how Gekiranger is essentially Super Sentai meets Wuxia, she's hardly the only Japanese person in the show to practice Chinese-style martial arts.
 * Then, there's the android assistant Colon from Choujuu Sentai Liveman. A Chinese robot girl... who moonwalks. And won't hesitate to hop into one of the vehicles and make some People in Rubber Suits eat missiles when the Rangers are in trouble. And her (removable) Odangos do stuff, too.
 * Lin from Gosei Sentai Dairanger.
 * "Snow White" in Magnum, P.I. is one of the biggest and scariest drug princesses in the Pacific. At age 19. She is pictured as an underworld contact when Magnum wants information about an unusually expensive hit that few would have the resources for.

Theatre

 * Leeann, the hippie half-Chinese nurse from Shirley Lauro's play A Piece of My Heart.

Video Game

 * Chun-Li from Street Fighter is one of the first and most famous.
 * Li Xiangfei from Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters
 * Pai Chan (pictured above) and Eileen from Virtua Fighter.
 * Li Kohran from Sakura Taisen serves both as the Anime Chinese Girl and the Wrench Wench/Gadgeteer Genius for the series.
 * Given the setting, Jade Empire obviously has a lot of them.
 * Jam Kuradoberi in Guilty Gear.
 * And her Spiritual Successor from BlazBlue: Litchi Faye Ling.
 * Ada Wong, from the Resident Evil games in which Leon appears.
 * Also Wong Ling from Resident Evil: Dead Aim.
 * Rio Mei Long in Super Robot Wars Original Generation. Also, Ring Mao.
 * The former is actually a sort of subversion because according to the data books, she's Korean.
 * It's at least heavily implied in the OGverse, whenever she cooks (for some reason they make a big deal of everyone sharing a big meal before the final battle) she makes unspecified Korean food and she is a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and ... has a Korean name.
 * Mei Ling from Metal Gear Solid.
 * Probably only for the first game. After that she loses her accent and is pretty much indistinguishable from anybody else, except physically.
 * Hong Meiling from Touhou, whose name is difficult to remember because it can be read as "Kurenai Misuzu" thanks to ZUN not specifying on how it's supposed to be pronounced... When people even bother to remember her name rather than just calling her China. What started as a fan nickname has become all but canon for the girl.
 * Chen as well, but she's known more as a Catgirl than this.
 * Both Meiling and Chen were preceded by Orange in Lotus Land Story, one of the PC-98 Touhou games. Some fans are even convinced that Orange was the prototype for Meiling, since they are both redheaded Chinese youkai who wear predominantly green.
 * Not to mention Meiling's title in most of the games is just "Chinese Girl".
 * Chai Xianghua from Soul Calibur, and as an added bonus, she is was the chosen wielder of the titular weapon and she's top of top tier.
 * Ling Xiaoyu from Tekken
 * Which is funny, because she is otherwise the most stereotypical Japanese character ever. Her dreams, along with her conversations with her Chinese grandfather and her inner monologues are in Japanese.
 * Lei Fang from the Dead or Alive series.
 * Feizhi in Golden Sun has some strange syntax (but not overly so), comes from an obvious Fantasy Counterpart China, and practices kung-fu.
 * Fantasy Counterpart China got an expansion in Dark Dawn, but Feizhi was nowhere to be seen. Much to the fans' dismay.
 * Mei-Fang of Arcana Heart is a Chinese Robot Girl.
 * Rin Rin from MadWorld she has dual fan blades and the stereotypical Chinese dress. She returns in Anarchy Reigns, this time with her sisters Ai Rin (who uses nunchucks) and Fei Rin (who uses an ice spear).
 * Kohaku briefly cosplays as one in Kagetsu Tohya, complete with dress and accent (and Triad bodyguard persona). This is sent up in Melty Blood, where her Arc Drive attack also has her acquire the martial arts.
 * Lily, the treasure hunter, from Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands
 * Hsien-Ko/Lei Lei from Darkstalkers.
 * Li Mei from Mortal Kombat could also count. Although she is stated to be from Outworld, her name, dress, and appearance all fit the traditional Chinese stereotype.
 * The Pooh sisters {Ton, Bei, and Sai} from Strider.
 * Lynn/Lin/Rin, from SaGa 2 / Final Fantasy Legend II is one of the earlier examples of the trope, a fact which is made even more noticeable in the 2009 remake.
 * Hotel receptionist/Secret Agent Xian Mei in Dead Island.
 * Leinyan from the Do Don Pachi series wears a stereotypical chinese dress, and one piece of artwork for DoDonPachi DaiOuJou Black Label EXTRA shows her serving dim sum at the mess hall.

Western Animation

 * Aja Leith from Jem shares a few characteristics with the trope, although she leans toward the Token Minority aspect (it was The Eighties, after all).
 * Hay Lin in WITCH.
 * Amy Wong from Futurama. She's of Chinese descent, but she's from Mars. (Her parents own half of Mars. "The good half," so they claim.)
 * Li from The Lebrons.
 * Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender fits this trope. Azula, Ty Lee and Mai may also, although the Fire Nation seems to be based more on Japanese and Thai culture, while the Earth Kingdom is definitely more Chinese in nature. Justified, since almost everyone in the Avatar-verse is based off of Asians.
 * Fa Mulan.

Web Comics

 * Ultra-Peanut, Philippe's Distaff Counterpart from Achewood.
 * Missi from Misfile. Who is Chinese in appearance only, since she's adopted.
 * Song from Tales of a Gay Asian is technically korean but to the world she is a chinese girl.
 * Elf Blood has Mara, who is half Elf and half Chinese, but being raised by is culturally very Chinese.

Web Original

 * Whateley Universe examples:
 * Laurel Hua (Silver Serpent), daughter of the Iron Dragon (the WU Expy for Fu Manchu). She is one of the Bad Seeds (the children of supervillains) at Whateley Academy.
 * Chou Lee (Bladedancer), has had Chinese-ness forced upon her by her Upgrade Artifact, the magic sword Destiny's Wave. Not only was she physically transformed into a Chinese hottie, but also given a language imprint so deep that she now speaks English with a Chinese accent.