How Shang-Chi, master of kung fu, knocked down stereotypes

CULTURE / Film

How Shang-Chi, master of kung fu, knocked down stereotypes

'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is Marvel’s first and only superhero film starring an Asian lead (Simu Liu), with an Asian American director and writer, and based on a character who was actually Asian in the original comic. | VALERIE MACON / AFP-JIJI

By Robert Ito
The New York Times

Sep 17, 2021

In the pantheon of Marvel superheroes, there’s Spider-Man and Iron Man and Captain America and ... Shang-Chi?

Admittedly one of the lesser-known players in the comic company’s roster, Shang-Chi, aka the Master of Kung Fu, wasn’t even familiar to many of the creators hired by Disney and Marvel Studios a couple of years ago to bring the character to cinematic life.

Destin Daniel Cretton, director of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” which premiered Sept. 3, had never even heard of the character when he was growing up. Nor had Canadian actor Simu Liu (“Kim’s Convenience”), who plays Shang-Chi in the film.