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Chun-Li

Chun-Li (春麗, also チュン・リー) is a fictional character in Capcom's Street Fighter video game series. She first appeared in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior in 1991 and is the first female playable character to appear in a fighting game to gain mainstream recognition. She is an expert martial artist and Interpol officer who restlessly seeks revenge for the death of her father at the hands of the evil M. Bison, leader of the Shadaloo crime syndicate.

Since her debut, Chun-Li has become a mainstay of the franchise and one of its most popular figures. She has appeared in nearly all subsequent installments of the series and several Capcom spinoff games. She is also featured prominently in Street Fighter-related media, including two feature films, multiple anime and comic book productions, and other official series merchandise. She has earned much positive fan and critical reception for factors such as her backstory, athleticism and in-game playability, and she is considered a trailblazer for female characters in fighting titles and general video gaming.

Design

Chun-Li's design was primarily inspired by Tong Pooh, a female villain from Strider, an earlier Capcom game. Capcom designer Akira Nishitani, recounting the creation of the character, said: "Previously there were no women in fighting games. In Chun-Li's case, I wanted a woman in the game. I determined what her fighting abilities would be. Then China just came up as a possible homeland." Capcom artist and designer Akira "Akiman" Yasuda said the initial inspiration for Chun-Li came from the 1983 anime film Harmagedon: Genma Wars (featuring early character design work by Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo), which had a Chinese female character called Tao. Chun-Li was originally known as just 'Chinese Girl' among the development team. She had a backflip attack that was popular among testers but deemed too strong, and unfortunately had to be cut from the game after they ran out of time. Her name means 'beautiful spring' in Chinese as Chūn (春) means 'the season of spring', and lì (麗) means 'beautiful' in Mandarin dialects.

Yasuda recalled they only had five weeks to make Chun-Li in the game and he was deeply worried about the quality of her design and how she would be received. Chun-Li "was wearing pants right up until the very end [of the development]. When we made the sprites I thought she didn't look right, so I had them changed to tights instead." Akiman added that they "wanted Street Fighter II to be more entertaining than its predecessor. That also helps explain how Chun-Li came to be. Having a female character in the game completely changes the game's dynamic, she brightens up the entire palette. We needed a reason for her to fight, and so an evil empire [of M. Bison] came to mind." He also said: "To be honest, I spent some time worrying about putting Chun-Li, the heroine, into such a plain setting. Ordinarily, you don't see women participating in global martial arts tournaments. Just by adding her we were starting to push things to the 'fun' side. I didn't think about it at the time, but thinking about it now, from the moment we put Chun-Li into the game we were already pushing things towards the full-on entertainment side."

Chun-Li was designed with an exceptionally strong physique because she was the sole woman among a roster of powerful male characters in Street Fighter II. To overcome this perceived imbalance, she was devised as a character who had mastered Chinese kenpo and really pushed her body to the limit so that she could compete with such a cast of large and imposing men. She was nevertheless the fastest but physically weakest character in her first game. Capcom producer Yoshiki Okamoto said he wanted to also make the life bar for Chun-Li "shorter than for the other characters because women are not as strong. But Nishitani didn't want to do that. We both had legitimate reasons, but then we came to an agreement to not make it shorter."

Chun-Li is particularly well known for her very muscular legs, while depictions of the rest of her body are more variable. According to Capcom composer Yoko Shimomura, Chun-Li's big thighs originated from Akiman's personal fetish. The size of Chun-Li's thighs massively increased in Street Fighter III. Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono commented on the issue. "I witnessed as her thighs made a sudden jump into gigantism in SFIII. When we first put her in the game, her sprite was just an outline and her thighs weren't that big...but as the artists starting coloring her in, her legs got thicker and thicker." However, they all felt the larger legs increased the expressiveness of her animations. Regarding then-upcoming Street Fighter IV, Ono said the "character designer, [Daigo] Ikeno, is kind of into thick girls, so as an artist he feels that the most beautiful thighs he can give Chun-Li would be of the wide variety."

Chun-Li sprite's panty-flashing animation frames have been censored for the home console releases by Nintendo. In response to fans that were disappointed with Chun-Li's absence from Street Fighter III, Capcom added her to the 3rd Strike version of the game. Since her main designer, Akiman, was busy with other assignments she was redesigned by other members from the staff, taking the most time and effort out of all characters. Her inclusion into Street Fighter EX was deemed natural by the studio Arika, with producer Ichiro Mihara describing her as one of the three essential Street Fighter characters along with Ryu and Ken.

In the Street Fighter Alpha games, where she was redesigned by Eri "Erichan" Nakamura, Chun-Li wears a sleeveless tight outfit, her arms and upper body were visibly much stronger than those of any other female character in the franchise, however many artists choose to depict her as petite and slim, in official and unofficial artworks alike, drawing only her legs strong due to her emphasis on kicking moves. An early version of Chun-Li in Street Fighter IV was reworked following complaints from location tests that she was not "cute". Ono later announced Chun-Li's controversial face in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite would be also corrected based on a negative feedback from the fans.

Costumes
In the Street Fighter II sub-series and most of her later appearances, Chun-Li wears a usually blue qipao, an early-20th-century Chinese dress, with golden accents, puffy sleeves, and a white waistband. The dress is modified to allow a far wider range of movement than a generic qipao. In Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, Chun-Li was originally depicted wearing a red qipao instead of blue. It can be also either red or white within some games since Street Fighter II: Champion Edition and Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, respectively. In Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, the qipao has a very noticeable silky sheen. Her other ensemble includes a pair of white combat boots and brown tights. She usually wears her hair in "ox horns", with silk brocades and ribbons in her hair. Another iconic part of her design are the large spiked bracelets she wears on her wrists.

In the Street Fighter Alpha games (set during the time period before Street Fighter II), Chun-Li wears a Chinese acrobatic outfit consisting of an embroidered vest, a unitard, and sneakers; she is wearing her ox horns unadorned, but kept in place with yellow ribbons. In Street Fighter IV, Chun-Li's alternate outfit consists of black tabard with gold accents at the bottom, while her ox horns are unadorned, just like in her Alpha appearance, only this time it is held by red ropes with golden balls at the tip. This outfit is completed with red shoes, gold earrings and black and gold bracelets. Her alternative wardrobe in Super Street Fighter IV includes a costume inspired by Mai Shiranui and in Street Fighter V she has a Halloween downloadable content (DLC) appearing as Morrigan Aensland. She has by far most costumes out of all characters in Street Fighter V (a total of 17 by 2018), including some with different hairstyles.

Gameplay
Chun-Li's gameplay style changes notably from game to game, with for example Champion Edition restoring her flipping attacks that have been removed from the original version of Street Fighter II. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike marked a strong departure from previous incarnations as it featured a large number of revamped moves. Later games have looked to balance between her Street Fighter II and 3rd Strike styles.

Chun-Li started as a weak and fast close-range fighter compared to the bigger male characters from Street Fighter II with the best aerial ability in the game, but she steadily gained an array of different moves through the games, such as a projectile attack or an anti-air defensive move, which steered her towards a more balanced type with an emphasis on poking and control of neutral game thanks to a rich set of non-special moves of relatively long range. She has been noted to be one of the most powerful characters in the game, alongside Ken and Yun.

Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 feature Chun-Li's original outfit from Street Fighter II as an alternate version of the character with alternate special abilities and Super Combos. CVG opined she was "the most-improved character in Alpha 2, and possibly the #1 character in the whole game."

She was considerably weakened in Street Fighter EX, but has remained one of the fastest characters. The development team for Street Fighter EX attempted to bring Chun-Li back to her roots as an agility-oriented character by, among other things, restoring her Spinning Bird Kick and removing the fireball attack she acquired in Street Fighter II Turbo as they felt the projectile attack had too radically altered her originally agile fighting style.

Her appearances in the Marvel vs. Capcom series are reminiscent of her early gameplay, featuring her as one of the fastest characters in the games, taking advantage of the faster gameplay of the games as well as game mechanics such as multiple jumps and air dashes; her X-Factor power-up in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 features an increment in speed. Chun-Li's normal moves are balanced among punches and kicks, but most of her special moves are kicks. Her most recognizable special moves remain the Hyakuretsu Kyaku, a series of quick kicks from a one-legged stance (usually referred to as Lightning Legs/Kicks in English), and the Spinning Bird Kick, where she spins while upside down in a front split kicking all around her. Chun-Li can also use the Kiko-Ken, a ranged energy projectile similar to Ryu's Hadouken, and a concentrated static energy burst known as the Kiko-Sho.

Street Fighter
Chun-Li, canonically born on March 1, 1968, is an expert Chinese martial arts practitioner. Her profile indicates her training in several styles of Chinese kempo ("Chinese martial arts") at the age of five, especially tai chi, which she would later complement with sanda (combat wushu) and fighting styles from all around the world, such as taekwondo, full contact karate, judo and capoeira. She has been noted in-universe for her fluent English, investigating skills, penetrating eyes, beauty and acting talent for deception. Chun-Li is presented as a woman with a strong sense of justice, and her motives for fighting crime range from avenging the death of her father to protecting innocents. She especially cares for kids, showing repulse for the use of brainwashed young girls in Street Fighter Alpha 3 and the kidnap of a girl in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. In the latter game, she decides she will teach her fighting style and philosophy to children.

Chun-Li was introduced in 1991 in the original version of Street Fighter II (Street Fighter II: The World Warrior) as the franchise's first playable female character, an undercover Interpol agent seeking to avenge the death of her father at the hands of M. Bison and his criminal organization. Upon Bison's defeat, she fulfills her revenge and decides to return to her life as an ordinary girl; Super Street Fighter II allows players to choose this ending or another in which she remains a police officer. The Street Fighter Alpha prequel series built upon her backstory, while Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike shows her retired and teaching martial arts to young children, only to be forced to return to law enforcement after her student Li-Fen is abducted by Urien. Chun-Li returns in Street Fighter IV, where her in-game narrative shows her at crossroads in her life, eventually returning to both street fighting and law enforcement. She returns in Street Fighter V, where she assists in stopping Shadaloo's Black Moons and first meets Li-Fen when she rescues her from the organization; in her prologue story, Chun-Li recalls how she learned of her father's death.

In Street Fighter 6, Chun-Li continues to raise Li-Fen and train students in Metro City's Chinatown district, while also being promoted to become a director of Interpol. Li-Fen also acts as her eyes and ears during her Interpol work. Upon learning a terrorist group known as Amnesia attempts to assassinate Ken at Nayshall, Chun-Li tries to stop them from framing him for the crime he did not commit, but fails. Chun-Li then works hard on finding further evidences to clear her friend's name while hunting the terrorist group.

In non-canonical spin-off series Street Fighter EX, Chun-Li is a police officer investigating Shadaloo in search of her missing father.

Other games
Besides the core Street Fighter series, Chun-Li has also made appearances in many other Capcom-produced fighting games, including all titles of the long-running series Marvel vs. Capcom (ever since X-Men vs. Street Fighter, including Shadow Lady, a dark version of Chun-Li that underwent harsh experiments on Bison's orders and was transformed into a brainwashed cyborg ) and Capcom vs. SNK (as a rival to SNK character Mai Shiranui), and in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars and Street Fighter X Tekken. She and Ryu are the only Street Fighter characters to appear in every Capcom crossover title, including the SNK vs. Capcom fighting game series by SNK and the tactical role-playing games Namco × Capcom, Project X Zone and Project X Zone 2 by Namco (where Chun-Li is paired into a single unit with Morrigan Aensland from Darkstalkers), as well as appearing as a boss in the platform game Street Fighter X Mega Man. She was also planned to appear as a giant robot in Cyberbots. Often, Chun-Li either continues her existing story from Street Fighter II or seeks to arrest the other characters in the game that she sees as suspicious.

Chun-Li is additionally playable in other Capcom games such as versus puzzle games Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (where she can turn into Jill Valentine ) and Street Fighter: Puzzle Spirits, and social games Capcom All-Stars and Street Fighter Battle Combination. She has made guest appearances in a number of mobile games, including #Compass, Destiny Child, Granblue Fantasy, Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, and Valkyrie Connect. She makes cameo appearances in various Capcom games including Asura's Wrath, Breath of Fire, Final Fight 2, Mega Man 9, and We Love Golf!. Furthermore, her costumes can be worn by player characters in Capcom's Breath of Fire 6, Dead Rising 3 (a DLC costume for Frank West), Monster Hunter: World, Monster Hunter Explore, and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (as an alternate costume for Ohatsu), as well as in Square Enix's Gunslinger Stratos 2 (a costume for Mika Katagiri) and Sony's LittleBigPlanet (a DLC for Sackgirl). A playable Chun-Li character skin has also been added to Fortnite. Chun-Li, under the name "Blue Phoenix Ranger", appears as a playable character in Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid via downloadable content.

Live-action

Chun-Li was a central character in the 1994 Street Fighter film, played by Ming-Na Wen. Chun-Li was given a surname ("Zang Chun-Li") and posed as a television reporter working in Shadaloo in her personal quest to track down and kill Bison, who had murdered her father during a peasant uprising. Her relationship with Guile is acrimonious from the start, as he bluntly rejects her interview request and chides Chun-Li for his own inability to trace a signal broadcast by Bison. Chun-Li allies herself with E. Honda and Balrog, who work as her news crew and whose reputations were ruined by Bison's mafia connections, and later forms an initially uneasy alliance with Ryu and Ken working with Guile in attempting to locate Bison's secret fortress. After Guile's fake death during a staged prison break, Chun-Li uses a homing device to trace him to, and then infiltrate, the Allied Nations' headquarters, where she is shocked to discover that he is still alive. However, Guile does not want her vendetta against Bison interfering with his own. He orders Cammy and T. Hawk to take Chun-Li into custody, but she manages to escape. With Balrog and Honda, all posing as traveling carnival performers, she works with Ken and Ryu on a failed assassination attempt against Bison and Sagat before they are all captured and taken to Bison's fortress. Chun-Li is held prisoner in Bison's private chambers (in an approximation to her traditional game costume), and after she relays the story of her father's murder, Bison mocks her and her fighting skills in response, which provokes Chun-Li into attacking him, having planned all along for an opportunity to personally attack Bison. She actually gains the upper hand before becoming distracted by her comrades coming to her rescue, allowing Bison to escape before subduing them with knock-out gas and taking them hostage. When Guile and the Allied Nations launch an invasion on Bison's fortress during the film's climax, she and the rest of Bison's hostages are freed, and after Bison's forces are defeated, Guile promises her an exclusive interview, but only, he adds in jest, if she shows up in her costume.

As the titular character in the 2009 film Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, she was played by Kristin Kreuk, her last name was changed to "Xiang" as well as being a pianist turned fighter. Her father was named Huang Xiang and was a businessman Bison abducts and forces to work for him. While she was depicted as Chinese-American, her goal of avenging her father remained unchanged and she succeeds killing Bison with help from her mentor Gen and Charlie Nash. The film was released in Japanese theaters as a double bill with a Studio 4°C-produced anime short that starred fellow Street Fighter character Sakura Kasugano and played after the movie.

Chun-Li was played by a cross-dressing Jackie Chan in the 1993 live-action adaptation of City Hunter during the Street Fighter II spoof scene that positively surprised the original manga's author Tsukasa Hojo. Chun-Li appears in the second season of Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist titled Street Fighter: World Warrior in a significant role. In addition, she also makes cameo appearances in the 2008 Korean film My Mighty Princess (on a poster ) and in the 2018 film Ready Player One.

Gemma Nguyen portrays Chun-Li in the official crossover between the Power Rangers and Street Fighter titled Power Rangers: Legacy Wars—Street Fighter Showdown. In the short, Ryu morphs into the RyuRanger and Chun-Li teams with Tommy Oliver, Ninjor and Gia Moran to battle M. Bison and evil Power Rangers.

Nguyen reprised her role in the fan film Street Fighter: Enter the Dragon, intervening in the fight between Fei Long and Balrog near the end.

Animation
Chun-Li is a central character in the 1994 anime film Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, voiced by Miki Fujitani in the original Japanese version and by Lia Sargent (credited as Mary Briscoe) in the English dub. She is investigating M. Bison's Shadowlaw organization suspected of murdering several diplomats and requests to work with Guile; he initially balks at this as he wants to pursue Bison himself, but later they become inseparable. In a famous instance of fan service, an explicit scene showed Chun-Li showering in her apartment as a Shadowlaw assassin, Vega, arrives to kill her. The shower scene has been censored to varying degrees in versions of the English dub. After a brutal fight, Vega is kicked through a wall and sent plummeting several stories to the ground, but Chun-Li succumbs to her injuries and slips into a coma. She remains hospitalized for the rest of the movie, as a distraught Guile promises her that he will make Bison pay. After Bison is defeated by Ryu and Ken, Chun-Li pulls a prank on Guile by making it appear as if she has died while he was away.

Chun-Li is a regular character in the 1996 American animated series Street Fighter, voiced by Donna Yamamoto. The character reprises her film role as a reporter while she again seeks to avenge her father's death at the hands of Bison, which is shown in flashback in the second episode, "The Strongest Woman in the World".

In the 1997–1998 anime series Street Fighter II V, Chun-Li is voiced by Chisa Yokoyama in the original Japanese version, while Lia Sargent reprises her role in the English dub. Chun-Li is introduced as the 15-year-old daughter of Inspector Do-Rai, a Hong Kong police chief who has schooled her in the martial arts. While attempting to bring down a drug smuggling operation in the country, she works with Interpol to investigate a mysterious organization known as Shadowlaw. Chun-Li serves as the tour guide for Ryu and Ken when they pay a visit to work on their training; Ken is smitten with her and later buys her lavish gifts, including an engagement ring. Despite being underage, they enter a club in a dangerous part of town that hosts an underground fighting ring so Ryu and Ken can prove themselves as street fighters. After Ryu soundly defeats several opponents, the trio are marked for death by the ringleader as a result, and while on the run they encounter and battle various street gangs before being rescued by Chun-Li's father. Traveling with Ryu and Ken to Spain, Chun-Li is stalked by an obsessive Vega, who presents her with a severed bull's ear, intercepts her outside her hotel, sneaks into her room to kiss her while sleeping, then invites her to a masquerade ball that is actually a setup to get Ken to fight him in a cage match. The whole time, Chun-Li is under the influence of Vega's love potion, but it wears off when Vega is defeated. Bison then accosts Chun-Li and she realizes that he is the leader of Shadowlaw, who, unbeknownst to her, had also hired Cammy to garrote Chun-Li's father, an attack he barely survives. Chun-Li plays her largest role in the five-part finale, when she and Ryu are kidnapped and brainwashed by Bison via cyberchip embedded in their foreheads and like in the 1994 American film, she acquires her signature outfit while under Bison's captivity. The chip puts her into an overly aggressive state, which she displays by snapping an opponent's neck in combat, and she later manages to overpower Guile in battle before Ryu and Ken, during their victorious final fight against Bison, succeed in destroying the equipment triggering the chips (in addition to reducing the Shadowlaw base to ruins), returning Chun-Li to normal.

Chun-Li appears in the 1999 anime OVA Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation, voiced by Yumi Tōma in the original Japanese version and again by Lia Sargent in the English dub. There, she is as an Interpol agent who investigates a mad scientist called Sadler who works for Shadaloo. She believes the trail can lead her to her father, who at the time, was missing and presumed alive. She assists Ryu and Ken in finding a kidnapped boy named Shun who claims to be Ryu's younger brother. While tracking Sadler, she accompanies Ryu to where Akuma lives and witnesses as Ryu is almost overcome by the Dark Hadou. She accompanies Ryu, Ken, Birdie, Dan, Guy, Dhalsim, Sodom and Rolento to Sadler's hideout, where she sneaks into the facility with Ryu and Ken. She and Ken rescue the other fighters and end up in a tussle with Sadler's android enforcer, Rosanov, who beats them severely. Ryu ultimately manages to destroy both Rosanov and Sadler, though Shun dies in the process after making peace with Ryu. In the aftermath, Chun-Li returns to Interpol

In the season 6 (2010) Halloween special of the cartoon series American Dad!, Toshi's little sister Akiko goes trick-or-treating as Chun-Li. Chun-Li made cameo appearances in the animated films Wreck-It Ralph and Ralph Breaks the Internet alongside several fellow Street Fighter characters.

Comics
In the 1990s Street Fighter II manga by Masaomi Kanzaki, Chun-Li remains in her established role of an Interpol agent investigating Bison. As the story progresses, Chun-Li participates in a tournament arranged by Shadaloo, eventually coming up against Vega, portrayed here as her father's killer. She defeats him but is so exhausted that she pulls out from the tournament and her injuries prevent her from doing much when Ryu and Bison confront one another

Chun-Li also appears in Masahiko Nakahira's 1996–1997 manga Street Fighter: Sakura Ganbaru!, in which she participates in a police raid to an illegal underground fighting circle, saving Sakura from human traffickers who operated in the place. Later on, she follows the trails that lead her to an assassin which turns out to be Gen, from whom she suffers an utter defeat. She is last seen in Russia, parting ways with Sakura and Dan, with Cammy under her care. In the manga adaptations of Street Fighter Alpha, Chun-Li is again an agent of the Interpol. She encounters Ryu, who has fallen from grace and had hired himself out as a bodyguard to drug smugglers, and winds up befriending him and Birdie as well as Ken, also rescuing Cammy from being captured by Sodom. Shadaloo is once again responsible for the death of her father, though the exact identity of the killer is not revealed.

In Malibu Comics' short-lived Street Fighter series, Chun-Li is depicted as having known Ryu and Ken since her late teens, as well as having a romantic interest in Ryu, though both make their first appearances therein fighting each other after he sneaks up on her from behind. Chun-Li is also one of several Street Fighter characters featured in Archie Comics' Worlds Unite event, which saw several Capcom and Sega franchises crossover in the Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Universe, Mega Man, and Sonic Boom comic lines.

In UDON's Street Fighter comics, Chun-Li again became a central character, involved in the hunt for Bison and Shadaloo. However, in the comic, the killer of Chun-Li's father is Cammy, prior to her being freed from Bison's control. Chun-Li battles Cammy when they meet face to face for the first time and ultimately forgives Cammy and turns her sights on Bison himself. Eventually, she receives an invitation from Shadaloo to enter a tournament being held by Bison. In 2008, UDON also released a four-issue special miniseries Street Fighter Legends: Chun-Li, which focuses on a younger Chun-Li and one of her first assignments for the Hong Kong police. She is working with her partner Po-Lin, a young policewoman who has a very personal score to settle with Shadaloo. Notably, one of the cases in which Chun-Li gets involved in the miniseries is the murder of Go Hibiki, Dan's father, by Sagat's hands. In the Street Fighter vs. Darkstalkers crossover series, she is a rival turned and uneasy ally of Morrigan.

Promotion and merchandise

There have been multiple Chun-Li lookalike contests in Japan, United States and elsewhere during the early 1990s, with valuable main prizes such as the Nissan 300ZX or the Honda CR-X. Later such contests have been performed on a much smaller scale. Chun-Li's character was used to promote the film Ready Player One in Japan. In 2018, Japanese company Onitsuka Tiger collaborated with Capcom for Chun-Li to wear their new Mexico 66 SD line of sports shoes, and the 30th anniversary of Street Fighter collaboration between Capcom and Japan's Saga Prefecture featured singer and actress Kayo Noro dressed as Chun-Li. Previously, actress Miki Mizuno also dressed as Chun-Li in another promotional event as did pop singer Maki Miyamae to perform Chun-Li's official song on the television. In 1997, actress and pop star Rie Tomosaka played Chun-Li on television as well.

A wide variety of Chun-Li figures have been produced by various manufacturers, including by Capcom itself, Ace Novelty, BigBoysToys, Funko, Kotobukiya, Pop Culture Shock Collectibles,  S.H. Figuart, SOTA Toys, Storm Collectibles, Takara Tomy, and Tsume-Art, among many others. Artworks of her were also featured on an officially licensed animated Nubytech/UDON joypad for the PlayStation 2, and a Mad Catz wireless joypad for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Other assorted merchandise included Diesel sneakers, women's lingerie, a figure-style flash drive USB stick, a postage stamp from Japanese Philatelic Association came with its own collectible figure, and a figurine that came with a DyDo drink. There are also Chun-Li themed pachinko slot games, including Chun-Li Ni Makase China!, the first game of any kind that featured her in a starring role.

Critical reception
Chun-Li is widely regarded as one of the most popular characters in the series. As she is the first playable female fighting game character she has been dubbed as the "first lady of Fighting games", the "original videogame super-babe", and such. During the 1990s, GamePro chose her as the most iconic character of Street Fighter II and years later called her "everyone's favorite feminine fighter". Mean Machines Sega noted her being "a firm favourite among Saturn Power described her as "subject of childish giggles as computer journalists everywhere try as they might to grab a screenshot of her showing her knickers". Her return in Street Fighter III: Third Strike has been called as the main and best addition to the game by IGN and GamePro;  Virgin's head of distribution Peter Jones chose the "saucy, sexy, dangerous and fast" as definitely the best character of the game. Retrospectively, Xbox 360 Official Magazine – Australia used her and Samus Aran as examples of gaming's original sex symbols prior to the advent of Lara Croft and Chilango wrote of her, Lara and Mai Shiranui as the video game women "about whom we fantasied in the 90s" and described Mai as "SNK's response to the overwhelming success of Chun-Li."

Nicholas Ware in a dissertation titled You Must Defeat Sheng Long to Stand a Chance noted that Chun-Li's journey across the Street Fighter game is consistent due to her desire to defeat Bison, she and other character wanting to take down the villain are overshadowed by Akuma. The characters remain popular as noted with Jackie Chan parodying her a in a movie as not only due to comic relief but also due to his connection with both China and Japan.

For the Street Fighter Alpha trilogy, Chun-Li was given a storyline that parallels the younger Ryu as both appear to be focused on revenge according to GamesRadar. Chun-Li was redesigned with an entire new outfit that GamesRadar found it fitting for an anime series but was disapproved by the fandom. This led to the optional Street Fighter II outfit in Alpha 2. The site praised her return in the Street Fighter III trilogy due to her more detailed sprites but found her new story about children she trains to be ridiculous. In a bigger overview of the series, Kotaku claims that Street Fighter 6 provided the best incarnation of Chun-Li over 24 years ago as she is not longer obsessed with revenge against M. Bison and is instead portrayed in a more calm lifestyle while continuing to teach young children martial arts similar to the original ending from Street Fighter II where the fighter is now looking for a more peaceful lifestyle.

In a 2018 worldwide poll by Capcom, Chun-Li was voted sixth most popular Street Fighter character. Chun-Li's fans have included the rapper Kid Ink, and female gamers such as Codemasters manager Laura Peterson and media personality Violet Berlin. The creation of Street Fighter II: Champion Edition was in fact inspired by an argument between two girls over which one of them would play as Chun-Li, which was witnessed by Capcom USA's Jeff Walker who then asked Capcom's founder Kenzo Tsujimoto to make a version allowing both players to play the same character. According to the Smithsonian Museum's Chris Mellisinos, Chun-Li "was such an anomaly. How many times did you have the chance to play as a strong female character in arcades? She was drawn attractively, just like Ken and Ryu, but in no way was she a diminished character because she was female." Video game scholar Jennifer deWinter felt it was furthermore very "interesting and surprising to have such a strong Chinese character in Chun-Li coming out of a Japanese game." Nevertheless, PSM noted by 1997 how "a vocal minority believes that [gaming's] female characters do very little to attract women. These people argue that Chun Li, Lara Croft, and most other female game characters are designed primarily for a male gamer's satisfaction, and not geared towards the needs of women garners at all."

Chun-Li has appeared in many lists of the sexiest female video game characters,    Game Revolution ranked her as the top female character in 2017, noting her popularity among cosplayers.

GamesRadar put this "first lady of fighters (as in, literally the first one ever)" at 85th place in their 2012 list of the "most memorable, influential, and badass" protagonist in games, calling her "as one of the most recognizable heroines in gaming" praising her for "her combat prowess and positive attitude" and also for "her muscular thunder thighs". while GamesRadar+'s Chris Hoffman included her thighs among Capcom's greatest contributions to gaming history. In contrast to her good appearance, Chun-Li's design in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite was the subject of negative responses by fans resulting into Capcom revising it in a patch.

Cultural impact
Many fighting game characters from the 1990s that have been directly inspired by Chun-Li in terms of both graphics and gameplay include Li Xiang Fei in Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers, Liu Feilin in Fighter's History, and Sekka in Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls. Similarities with Chun-Li were further observed in various other characters, such as the move sets of Jamm in Golden Axe: The Duel and Miyabi in Raging Fighter, or the looks of Mei Mei in unreleased Mission: Deadly Skies. Her success furthermore directly contributed to the creation of such characters (besides Street Fighter 's own Cammy ) as Mortal Kombat 's Sonya Blade, followed by Kitana and Mileena; popular fighting characters that resemble Chun-Li include Lei Fang (Dead or Alive), Ling Xiaoyu (Tekken), and Pai Chan (Virtua Fighter). In the 1992 Hong-Kong film Super Lady Cop, Cynthia Khan's character Ling is nicknamed "Chun Li" in an inspired role, including using some of Chun-Li's moves.

Others who have dressed as Chun-Li have included Japanese gravure idols Akina Minami, Erina Kamiya, Yuka Kuramochi and Yuri Morishita,   former Italian model Francesca Dani, Japanese model Haruna Anno, Korean MMA fighter Jenny Huang, Russian bodybuilder Julia Vins, Japanese model and media personality Kayo Satoh, Japanese singer and model Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, American actress Ming-Na Wen (aside from having portrayed the character in the 1994 film), former Japanese muscle idol Reika Saiki, Chinese doctor and bodybuilder Yuan Herong,  Chengxiao from the Korean-Chinese idol group Cosmic Girls,  and Turkish media personality Aşkım İrem Aktulga who was transformed into Chun-Li in the show Red Bull Shape Shifters. Some of them have been also male, such as Japanese wrestler Hiroshi Tanahashi or Australian stunt actor and wrestler Ladybeard.

title: Chun-Li


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Laser propulsion

Laser propulsion is a form of beam-powered propulsion where the energy source is a remote (usually ground-based) laser system and separate from the reaction mass. This form of propulsion differs from a conventional chemical rocket where both energy and reaction mass come from the solid or liquid propellants carried on board the vehicle.

There are two main approaches: off-board, where the laser source is external to the spacecraft, and onboard, where the laser is part of the spacecraft's propulsion system. Off-board laser propulsion, which includes laser-powered launches and laser light sails, eliminates the need for the spacecraft to carry its own energy source. Onboard laser propulsion involves using lasers in nuclear fusion or ionizing interstellar gas for propulsion.

History
The basic concepts underlying a photon-propelled "sail" propulsion system were developed by Eugene Sanger and the Hungarian physicist György Marx. Propulsion concepts using laser-energized rockets were developed in the 1970s by Arthur Kantrowitz and Wolfgang Moekel, with a variant using laser ablation pioneered by Leik Myrabo. An exposition of Kantrowitz's laser propulsion ideas was published in 1988.

Laser propulsion systems may transfer momentum to a spacecraft in two different ways. The first way uses photon radiation pressure to drive momentum transfer and is the principle behind solar sails and laser sails. The second method uses the laser to help expel mass from the spacecraft as in a conventional rocket. Thus, the first uses the laser for both energy and reaction mass, while the second uses the laser for energy, but carries reaction mass. Thus, the second is fundamentally limited in final spacecraft velocities by the rocket equation.

Laser-pushed lightsail
A laser-pushed lightsail is a thin reflective sail similar to a solar sail, in which the sail is being pushed by a laser, rather than the sun. The advantage of lightsail propulsion is that the vehicle does not carry either the energy source or the reaction mass for propulsion, and hence the limitations of the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation to achieving high velocities are avoided. Use of a laser-pushed lightsail was proposed initially by Marx in 1966, as a method of interstellar travel that would avoid extremely high mass ratios by not carrying fuel, and analyzed in detail by physicist Robert L. Forward in 1989. Further analysis of the concept was done by Landis, Mallove and Matloff, Andrews and others.

A large diameter beam is required so that only a small portion misses the sail due to diffraction, and the spacecraft must have strong pointing stability capabilities so it can tilt its sails fast enough to follow the center of the beam. These requirements increase in importance as mission complexity increases, such as when moving from interplanetary to interstellar missions, and when moving from flyby missions to one-way landing missions and then to return missions.

The laser may alternatively consist of a large phased array of small devices that receive their energy directly from solar radiation.

The laser-pushed sail is proposed as a method of propelling a small interstellar probe by the Breakthrough Starshot project.

Another method of moving a much larger spacecraft to high velocities is by using a laser system to propel a stream of much smaller sails. Each alternative mini sail is slowed down by a laser from the home system so that they collide at ionising velocities. The ionising collisions could then be used to interact with a powerful magnetic field on the spacecraft to provide a force to power and move it.

An extension of the idea is to utilize nuclear materials on the mini sails. These materials would undergo fission or fusion, greatly increasing the magnitude of the imparted force. However, this approach would require much higher collision velocities compared to non-nuclear implementations.

Photon recycling
Metzgar and Landis proposed a variant on the laser-pushed sail, in which the photons reflected from the sail are re-used by re-reflecting them back to the sail by a stationary mirror; a "multi-bounce laser-based sail." This amplifies the force produced by recycling the photons, resulting in considerably higher force produced from the same laser power. There is also a multi-bounce photonic sail configuration which uses a large Fresnel lens around a laser generating system. In this configuration the laser shines light on a probe sail accelerating it outwards which is then reflected back through the Fresnel lens to be reflected off a larger more massive reflector probe going in the other direction. The laser light is reflected back and forth many times improving the force transmitted but importantly allows the large lens to remain in a more stable position as it is not greatly influenced by the laser lights momentum.

An optical cavity allows greater re-use of photons, but keeping the beam in the cavity becomes much more challenging. An optical cavity can be made with two high-reflectance mirrors, forming a Fabry–Pérot optical resonance cavity in which any small movement of mirrors would destroy the resonance condition and null photonic thrust. Such optical cavities are used for gravitational wave detection as in LIGO, for their extreme sensitivity to the movement of mirror. Bae originally proposed to use photon recycling for use in a nanometer accuracy formation flight of satellites for this reason. Bae, however, discovered that in an active optical cavity formed by two high-reflectance mirrors and a laser gain medium in between, similar to the typical laser cavity, photon recycling becomes less sensitive to the movement of mirrors. Bae named the laser thruster based on the photon recycling in an active optical cavity Photonic Laser Thruster (PLT). In 2015 his team demonstrated the number of photon recycling up to 1,540 over a distance of a few meters and photonic thrusts up to 3.5 mN with the use of a 500 W laser system. In a laboratory demonstration, a Cubesat (0.75 kg in weight) was propelled with PLT.

Laser energized rocket
There are several forms of laser propulsion in which the laser is used as an energy source to provide momentum to propellant that is carried on board the rocket. The use of a laser as the energy source means that the energy provided to the propellant is not limited by the chemical energy of the propellant.

Laser thermal rocket
The laser thermal rocket (heat exchanger (HX) thruster) is a thermal rocket in which the propellant is heated by energy provided by an external laser beam. The beam heats a solid heat exchanger, which in turn heats an inert liquid propellant, converting it to hot gas which is exhausted through a conventional nozzle. This is similar in principle to nuclear thermal and solar thermal propulsion. Using a large flat heat exchanger allows the laser beam to shine directly on the heat exchanger without focusing optics on the vehicle. The HX thruster has the advantage of working equally well with any laser wavelength and both CW and pulsed lasers, and of having an efficiency approaching 100%. The HX thruster is limited by the heat exchanger material and by radiative losses to relatively low gas temperatures, typically 1000–2000 °C. For a given temperature, the specific impulse is maximized with the minimum molecular weight reaction mass, and with hydrogen propellant, that provides sufficient specific impulse as high as 600–800 seconds, high enough in principle to allow single stage vehicles to reach low Earth orbit. The HX laser thruster concept was developed by Jordin Kare in 1991; a similar microwave thermal propulsion concept was developed independently by Kevin L. Parkin at Caltech in 2001.

A variation on this concept was proposed by Prof. John Sinko and Dr. Clifford Schlecht as a redundant safety concept for assets on orbit. Packets of enclosed propellants are attached to the outside of a space suit, and exhaust channels run from each packet to the far side of the astronaut or tool. A laser beam from a space station or shuttle vaporizes the propellant inside the packs. Exhaust is directed behind the astronaut or tool, pulling the target towards the laser source. To brake the approach, a second wavelength is used to ablate the exterior of the propellant packets on the near side.

In 2022 a paper was published by researchers from McGill University proposing a laser thermal propulsion system to be used to send a spacecraft to Mars in 45 days. One of the main advantages of using the proposed laser thermal propulsion system for sending spacecraft to Mars is reducing astronaut exposure to cosmic rays by reducing the transit time outside of Earth's Magnetosphere.

Laser mirror rocket
In this design a lens and/or parabolic mirror focuses laser light into a small hole in a mirror that leads into a tube which is highly reflective inside and completely open at the other end. A phased-array laser is pulsed from Earth at the spacecraft where the laser light is focused into the tube to a waiting mobile mirror disc which will be the reaction mass. The pulse of laser light becomes trapped in the tube, bouncing back and forth and accelerating the mirror disc out at very high velocity. The mirrors are moved into position inside the tube from magazines on the side of the craft after the laser pulse has switched off. Accelerations of millions of g's are possible for these small highly reflective mirrors, and velocities over short distances can reach into the tens of kilometers per second, allowing specific impulses in the thousands. For example if a mirror disc is accelerated over 10 m at 2 million g it will reach a velocity of 20 km/s at the exit, this is over four times higher than the exhaust velocity of a hydrogen/oxygen rocket motor which is around 4.5 km/s. A comparison of specific impulses between the space shuttle's hydrogen/oxygen engines which has a specific impulse of 453 and the above cited example yields a specific impulse of 2034 for the mirror rocket which is a significant improvement. Clever control of the discs would allow much longer acceleration periods as well and therefore higher exit velocities. Jordin Kare calculated that these mirrored discs could theoretically be pushed to around 32 million g but would be at the limit of any material's strength and subject to total failure. The propulsion design can be used on spacecraft going out directly from Earth's orbit or coming towards the Earth as in a returning elliptical orbit.

Ablative laser propulsion
Ablative laser propulsion (ALP) is a form of beam-powered propulsion in which an external pulsed laser is used to burn off a plasma plume from a solid metal propellant, thus producing thrust. The measured specific impulse of small ALP setups is very high at about 5000 s (49 kN·s/kg), and unlike the lightcraft developed by Leik Myrabo which uses air as the propellant, ALP can be used in space.

Material is directly removed from a solid or liquid surface at high velocities by laser ablation by a pulsed laser. Depending on the laser flux and pulse duration, the material can be simply heated and evaporated, or converted to plasma. Ablative propulsion will work in air or vacuum. Specific impulse values from 200 seconds to several thousand seconds are possible by choosing the propellant and laser pulse characteristics. Variations of ablative propulsion include double-pulse propulsion in which one laser pulse ablates material and a second laser pulse further heats the ablated gas, laser micropropulsion in which a small laser on board a spacecraft ablates very small amounts of propellant for attitude control or maneuvering, and space debris removal, in which the laser ablates material from debris particles in low Earth orbit, changing their orbits and causing them to reenter.

University of Alabama Huntsville Propulsion Research Center has researched ALP.

Pulsed plasma propulsion
A high energy pulse focused in a gas or on a solid surface surrounded by gas produces breakdown of the gas (usually air). This causes an expanding shock wave which absorbs laser energy at the shock front (a laser sustained detonation wave or LSD wave); expansion of the hot plasma behind the shock front during and after the pulse transmits momentum to the craft. Pulsed plasma propulsion using air as the working fluid is the simplest form of air-breathing laser propulsion. The record-breaking lightcraft, developed by Leik Myrabo of RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) and Frank Mead, works on this principle.

Another concept of pulsed plasma propulsion is being investigated by Prof. Hideyuki Horisawa.

CW plasma propulsion
A continuous laser beam focused in a flowing stream of gas creates a stable laser sustained plasma which heats the gas; the hot gas is then expanded through a conventional nozzle to produce thrust. Because the plasma does not touch the walls of the engine, very high gas temperatures are possible, as in gas core nuclear thermal propulsion. However, to achieve high specific impulse, the propellant must have low molecular weight; hydrogen is usually assumed for actual use, at specific impulses around 1,000 seconds. CW plasma propulsion has the disadvantage that the laser beam must be precisely focused into the absorption chamber, either through a window or by using a specially-shaped nozzle. CW plasma thruster experiments were performed in the 1970s and 1980s, primarily by Dr. Dennis Keefer of UTSI and Prof. Herman Krier of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

Pellet-beam propulsion
This proposal would require two spacecraft: one that travels and another in Earth orbit to propel the former. The second spacecraft would fire thousands of metal pellets at the first. It would either shoot a laser at the first spacecraft or align a laser from the Earth at the first spacecraft. The laser would ablate some material from each pellet, propelling them at high speeds (>120 km/s) to provide thrust to the spacecraft. This method could allow a spacecraft to reach the outer planets in less than a year, 100 AU from the Sun in 3 years and the solar gravitational lens in 15 years. It would also be able to propel heavier spacecraft than other propulsion concepts (~1 ton in mass).

Laser electric propulsion
A general class of propulsion techniques in which the laser beam power is converted to electricity, which then powers some type of electric propulsion thruster.

A small quadcopter has flown for 12 hours and 26 minutes charged by a 2.25 kW laser (powered at less than half of its normal operating current), using 170 watt photovoltaic arrays as the power receiver, and a laser has been demonstrated to charge the batteries of an unmanned aerial vehicle in flight for 48 hours.

For spacecraft, laser electric propulsion is considered as a competitor to solar electric or nuclear electric propulsion for low-thrust propulsion in space. However, Leik Myrabo has proposed high-thrust laser electric propulsion, using magnetohydrodynamics to convert laser energy to electricity and to electrically accelerate air around a vehicle for thrust.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Laser propulsion


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Nanterre-Université station

Nanterre-Université station is a French railway station on the line from Paris-Saint-Lazare to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, located in the commune of Nanterre. It takes its name from the fact that it is located next to the campus of the Paris Nanterre University.

The station is served by trains from Line A of the Réseau Express Régional traveling on the A1 branch to, as well as by Line L of the Transilien Paris-Saint-Lazare network on the branch to.

title: Nanterre-Université station


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Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a type of degenerative joint disease that results from breakdown of joint cartilage and underlying bone. It is believed to be the fourth leading cause of disability in the world, affecting 1 in 7 adults in the United States alone. The most common symptoms are joint pain and stiffness. Usually the symptoms progress slowly over years. Other symptoms may include joint swelling, decreased range of motion, and, when the back is affected, weakness or numbness of the arms and legs. The most commonly involved joints are the two near the ends of the fingers and the joint at the base of the thumbs, the knee and hip joints, and the joints of the neck and lower back. The symptoms can interfere with work and normal daily activities. Unlike some other types of arthritis, only the joints, not internal organs, are affected.

Causes include previous joint injury, abnormal joint or limb development, and inherited factors. Risk is greater in those who are overweight, have legs of different lengths, or have jobs that result in high levels of joint stress. Osteoarthritis is believed to be caused by mechanical stress on the joint and low grade inflammatory processes. It develops as cartilage is lost and the underlying bone becomes affected. As pain may make it difficult to exercise, muscle loss may occur. Diagnosis is typically based on signs and symptoms, with medical imaging and other tests used to support or rule out other problems. In contrast to rheumatoid arthritis, in osteoarthritis the joints do not become hot or red.

Treatment includes exercise, decreasing joint stress such as by rest or use of a cane, support groups, and pain medications. Weight loss may help in those who are overweight. Pain medications may include paracetamol (acetaminophen) as well as NSAIDs such as naproxen or ibuprofen. Long-term opioid use is not recommended due to lack of information on benefits as well as risks of addiction and other side effects. Joint replacement surgery may be an option if there is ongoing disability despite other treatments. An artificial joint typically lasts 10 to 15 years.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting about 237million people or 3.3% of the world's population, as of 2015. It becomes more common as people age. Among those over 60 years old, about 10% of males and 18% of females are affected. Osteoarthritis is the cause of about 2% of years lived with disability.

Signs and symptoms
The main symptom is pain, causing loss of ability and often stiffness. The pain is typically made worse by prolonged activity and relieved by rest. Stiffness is most common in the morning, and typically lasts less than thirty minutes after beginning daily activities, but may return after periods of inactivity. Osteoarthritis can cause a crackling noise (called "crepitus") when the affected joint is moved, especially shoulder and knee joint. A person may also complain of joint locking and joint instability. These symptoms would affect their daily activities due to pain and stiffness. Some people report increased pain associated with cold temperature, high humidity, or a drop in barometric pressure, but studies have had mixed results.

Osteoarthritis commonly affects the hands, feet, spine, and the large weight-bearing joints, such as the hips and knees, although in theory, any joint in the body can be affected. As osteoarthritis progresses, movement patterns (such as gait), are typically affected. Osteoarthritis is the most common cause of a joint effusion of the knee.

In smaller joints, such as at the fingers, hard bony enlargements, called Heberden's nodes (on the distal interphalangeal joints) or Bouchard's nodes (on the proximal interphalangeal joints), may form, and though they are not necessarily painful, they do limit the movement of the fingers significantly. Osteoarthritis of the toes may be a factor causing formation of bunions, rendering them red or swollen.

Causes
Damage from mechanical stress with insufficient self repair by joints is believed to be the primary cause of osteoarthritis. Sources of this stress may include misalignments of bones caused by congenital or pathogenic causes; mechanical injury; excess body weight; loss of strength in the muscles supporting a joint; and impairment of peripheral nerves, leading to sudden or uncoordinated movements. However exercise, including running in the absence of injury, has not been found to increase the risk of knee osteoarthritis. Nor has cracking one's knuckles been found to play a role. The risk of osteoarthritis increases with aging.

Primary
The development of osteoarthritis is correlated with a history of previous joint injury and with obesity, especially with respect to knees. Changes in sex hormone levels may play a role in the development of osteoarthritis, as it is more prevalent among post-menopausal women than among men of the same age. Conflicting evidence exists for the differences in hip and knee osteoarthritis in African Americans and Caucasians.

Occupational
Increased risk of developing knee and hip osteoarthritis was found among those who work with manual handling (e.g. lifting), have physically demanding work, walk at work, and have climbing tasks at work (e.g. climb stairs or ladders). With hip osteoarthritis, in particular, increased risk of development over time was found among those who work in bent or twisted positions. For knee osteoarthritis, in particular, increased risk was found among those who work in a kneeling or squatting position, experience heavy lifting in combination with a kneeling or squatting posture, and work standing up. Women and men have similar occupational risks for the development of osteoarthritis.

Secondary
This type of osteoarthritis is caused by other factors but the resulting pathology is the same as for primary osteoarthritis:
 * Alkaptonuria
 * Congenital disorders of joints
 * Diabetes doubles the risk of having a joint replacement due to osteoarthritis and people with diabetes have joint replacements at a younger age than those without diabetes.
 * Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
 * Hemochromatosis and Wilson's disease
 * Inflammatory diseases (such as Perthes' disease), (Lyme disease), and all chronic forms of arthritis (e.g., costochondritis, gout, and rheumatoid arthritis). In gout, uric acid crystals cause the cartilage to degenerate at a faster pace.
 * Injury to joints or ligaments (such as the ACL) as a result of an accident or orthopedic operations.
 * Ligamentous deterioration or instability may be a factor.
 * Marfan syndrome
 * Obesity
 * Joint infection

Pathophysiology
While osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that may cause gross cartilage loss and morphological damage to other joint tissues, more subtle biochemical changes occur in the earliest stages of osteoarthritis progression. The water content of healthy cartilage is finely balanced by compressive force driving water out and hydrostatic and osmotic pressure drawing water in. Collagen fibres exert the compressive force, whereas the Gibbs–Donnan effect and cartilage proteoglycans create osmotic pressure which tends to draw water in.

However, during onset of osteoarthritis, the collagen matrix becomes more disorganized and there is a decrease in proteoglycan content within cartilage. The breakdown of collagen fibers results in a net increase in water content. This increase occurs because whilst there is an overall loss of proteoglycans (and thus a decreased osmotic pull), it is outweighed by a loss of collagen.

Other structures within the joint can also be affected. The ligaments within the joint become thickened and fibrotic, and the menisci can become damaged and wear away. Menisci can be completely absent by the time a person undergoes a joint replacement. New bone outgrowths, called "spurs" or osteophytes, can form on the margins of the joints, possibly in an attempt to improve the congruence of the articular cartilage surfaces in the absence of the menisci. The subchondral bone volume increases and becomes less mineralized (hypomineralization). All these changes can cause problems functioning. The pain in an osteoarthritic joint has been related to thickened synovium and to subchondral bone lesions.

Diagnosis
Diagnosis is made with reasonable certainty based on history and clinical examination. X-rays may confirm the diagnosis. The typical changes seen on X-ray include: joint space narrowing, subchondral sclerosis (increased bone formation around the joint), subchondral cyst formation, and osteophytes. Plain films may not correlate with the findings on physical examination or with the degree of pain.

In 1990, the American College of Rheumatology, using data from a multi-center study, developed a set of criteria for the diagnosis of hand osteoarthritis based on hard tissue enlargement and swelling of certain joints. These criteria were found to be 92% sensitive and 98% specific for hand osteoarthritis versus other entities such as rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthropathies.

Classification
A number of classification systems are used for gradation of osteoarthritis:
 * WOMAC scale, taking into account pain, stiffness and functional limitation.
 * Kellgren-Lawrence grading scale for osteoarthritis of the knee. It uses only projectional radiography features.
 * Tönnis classification for osteoarthritis of the hip joint, also using only projectional radiography features.

Both primary generalized nodal osteoarthritis and erosive osteoarthritis (EOA, also called inflammatory osteoarthritis) are sub-sets of primary osteoarthritis. EOA is a much less common, and more aggressive inflammatory form of osteoarthritis which often affects the distal interphalangeal joints of the hand and has characteristic articular erosive changes on X-ray.

Management
Lifestyle modification (such as weight loss and exercise) and pain medications are the mainstays of treatment. Acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol) is recommended first line, with NSAIDs being used as add-on therapy only if pain relief is not sufficient. Medications that alter the course of the disease have not been found as of 2018. For overweight people, weight loss may help relieve hip arthritis. Recommendations include modification of risk factors through targeted interventions including 1) obesity and overweight, 2) physical activity, 3) dietary exposures, 4) comorbidity, 5) biomechanical factors, 6) occupational factors.

Successful management of the condition is often made more difficult by differing priorities and poor communication between clinicians and people with osteoarthritis. Realistic treatment goals can be achieved by developing a shared understanding of the condition, actively listening to patient concerns, avoiding medical jargon and tailoring treatment plans to the patient's needs.

Exercise
Weight loss and exercise provide long-term treatment and are advocated in people with osteoarthritis. Weight loss and exercise are the most safe and effective long-term treatments, in contrast to short-term treatments which usually have risk of long-term harm.

High impact exercise can increase the risk of joint injury, whereas low or moderate impact exercise, such as walking or swimming, is safer for people with osteoarthritis. A study has suggested that an increase in blood calcium levels had a positive impact on osteoarthritis. An adequate dietary calcium intake and regular weight-bearing exercise can increase calcium levels and is helpful in preventing osteoarthritis in the general population. There is also a weak protective effect factor of LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol. However, this is not recommended since an increase in LDL has an increased chance of cardiovascular comorbidities.

Moderate exercise may be beneficial with respect to pain and function in those with osteoarthritis of the knee and hip. These exercises should occur at least three times per week, under supervision, and focused on specific forms of exercise found to be most beneficial for this form of osteoarthritis.

While some evidence supports certain physical therapies, evidence for a combined program is limited. Providing clear advice, making exercises enjoyable, and reassuring people about the importance of doing exercises may lead to greater benefit and more participation. Some evidence suggests that supervised exercise therapy may improve exercise adherence, although for knee osteoarthritis supervised exercise has shown the best results.

Physical measures
There is not enough evidence to determine the effectiveness of massage therapy. The evidence for manual therapy is inconclusive. A 2015 review indicated that aquatic therapy is safe, effective, and can be an adjunct therapy for knee osteoarthritis.

Functional, gait, and balance training have been recommended to address impairments of position sense, balance, and strength in individuals with lower extremity arthritis, as these can contribute to a higher rate of falls in older individuals. For people with hand osteoarthritis, exercises may provide small benefits for improving hand function, reducing pain, and relieving finger joint stiffness.

A study showed that there is low quality evidence that weak knee extensor muscle increased the chances of knee osteoarthritis. Strengthening of the knee extensors could possibly prevent knee osteoarthritis.

Lateral wedge insoles and neutral insoles do not appear to be useful in osteoarthritis of the knee. Knee braces may help but their usefulness has also been disputed. For pain management heat can be used to relieve stiffness, and cold can relieve muscle spasms and pain. Among people with hip and knee osteoarthritis, exercise in water may reduce pain and disability, and increase quality of life in the short term. Also therapeutic exercise programs such as aerobics and walking reduce pain and improve physical functioning for up to 6 months after the end of the program for people with knee osteoarthritis. In a study conducted over a period of 2 years on a group of individuals, a research team found that for every additional 1,000 steps per day, there was a 16% reduction in functional limitations in cases of knee osteoarthritis. Hydrotherapy might also be an advantage on the management of pain, disability and quality of life reported by people with osteoarthritis.

Thermotherapy
A 2003 Cochrane review of 7 studies between 1969 and 1999 found ice massage to be of significant benefit in improving range of motion and function, though not necessarily relief of pain. Cold packs could decrease swelling, but hot packs had no effect on swelling. Heat therapy could increase circulation, thereby reducing pain and stiffness, but with risk of inflammation and edema.

By mouth
The pain medication paracetamol (acetaminophen) is the first line treatment for osteoarthritis. Pain relief does not differ according to dosage. However, a 2015 review found acetaminophen to have only a small short-term benefit with some laboratory concerns of liver inflammation. For mild to moderate symptoms effectiveness of acetaminophen is similar to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as naproxen, though for more severe symptoms NSAIDs may be more effective. NSAIDs are associated with greater side effects such as gastrointestinal bleeding.

Another class of NSAIDs, COX-2 selective inhibitors (such as celecoxib) are equally effective when compared to nonselective NSAIDs, and have lower rates of adverse gastrointestinal effects, but higher rates of cardiovascular disease such as myocardial infarction. They are also more expensive than non-specific NSAIDs. Benefits and risks vary in individuals and need consideration when making treatment decisions, and further unbiased research comparing NSAIDS and COX-2 selective inhibitors is needed. NSAIDS applied topically are effective for a small number of people. The COX-2 selective inhibitor rofecoxib was removed from the market in 2004, as cardiovascular events were associated with long term use.

Education is helpful in self-management of arthritis, and can provide coping methods leading to about 20% more pain relief when compared to NSAIDs alone.

Failure to achieve desired pain relief in osteoarthritis after two weeks should trigger reassessment of dosage and pain medication. Opioids by mouth, including both weak opioids such as tramadol and stronger opioids, are also often prescribed. Their appropriateness is uncertain, and opioids are often recommended only when first line therapies have failed or are contraindicated. This is due to their small benefit and relatively large risk of side effects. The use of tramadol likely does not improve pain or physical function and likely increases the incidence of adverse side effects. Oral steroids are not recommended in the treatment of osteoarthritis.

Use of the antibiotic doxycycline orally for treating osteoarthritis is not associated with clinical improvements in function or joint pain. Any small benefit related to the potential for doxycycline therapy to address the narrowing of the joint space is not clear, and any benefit is outweighed by the potential harm from side effects.

A 2018 meta-analysis found that oral collagen supplementation for the treatment of osteoarthritis reduces stiffness but does not improve pain and functional limitation.

Topical
There are several NSAIDs available for topical use, including diclofenac. A Cochrane review from 2016 concluded that reasonably reliable evidence is available only for use of topical diclofenac and ketoprofen in people aged over 40 years with painful knee arthritis. Transdermal opioid pain medications are not typically recommended in the treatment of osteoarthritis. The use of topical capsaicin to treat osteoarthritis is controversial, as some reviews found benefit while others did not.

Joint injections
Use of analgesia, intra-articular cortisone injection and consideration of hyaluronic acids and platelet-rich plasma are recommended for pain relief in people with knee osteoarthritis.

Local drug delivery by intra-articular injection may be more effective and safer in terms of increased bioavailability, less systemic exposure and reduced adverse events. Several intra-articular medications for symptomatic treatment are available on the market as follows.

Steroids
Joint injection of glucocorticoids (such as hydrocortisone) leads to short-term pain relief that may last between a few weeks and a few months.

A 2015 Cochrane review found that intra-articular corticosteroid injections of the knee did not benefit quality of life and had no effect on knee joint space; clinical effects one to six weeks after injection could not be determined clearly due to poor study quality. Another 2015 study reported negative effects of intra-articular corticosteroid injections at higher doses, and a 2017 trial showed reduction in cartilage thickness with intra-articular triamcinolone every 12 weeks for 2 years compared to placebo. A 2018 study found that intra-articular triamcinolone is associated with an increase in intraocular pressure.

Hyaluronic acid
Injections of hyaluronic acid have not produced improvement compared to placebo for knee arthritis, but did increase risk of further pain. In ankle osteoarthritis, evidence is unclear.

Radiosynoviorthesis
Injection of beta particle-emitting radioisotopes (called radiosynoviorthesis) is used for the local treatment of inflammatory joint conditions.

Platelet-rich plasma
The effectiveness of injections of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is unclear; there are suggestions that such injections improve function but not pain, and are associated with increased risk. A 2014 Cochrane review of studies involving PRP found the evidence to be insufficient.

Bone fusion
Arthrodesis (fusion) of the bones may be an option in some types of osteoarthritis. An example is ankle osteoarthritis, in which ankle fusion is considered to be the gold standard treatment in end-stage cases.

Joint replacement
If the impact of symptoms of osteoarthritis on quality of life is significant and more conservative management is ineffective, joint replacement surgery or resurfacing may be recommended. Evidence supports joint replacement for both knees and hips as it is both clinically effective and cost-effective. People who underwent total knee replacement had improved SF-12 quality of life scores, were feeling better compared to those who did not have surgery, and may have short- and long-term benefits for quality of life in terms of pain and function. The beneficial effects of these surgeries may be time-limited due to various environmental factors, comorbidities, and pain in other regions of the body.

For people who have shoulder osteoarthritis and do not respond to medications, surgical options include a shoulder hemiarthroplasty (replacing a part of the joint), and total shoulder arthroplasty (replacing the joint).

Biological joint replacement involves replacing the diseased tissues with new ones. This can either be from the person (autograft) or from a donor (allograft). People undergoing a joint transplant (osteochondral allograft) do not need to take immunosuppressants as bone and cartilage tissues have limited immune responses. Autologous articular cartilage transfer from a non-weight-bearing area to the damaged area, called osteochondral autograft transfer system, is one possible procedure that is being studied. When the missing cartilage is a focal defect, autologous chondrocyte implantation is also an option.

Shoulder replacement
For those with osteoarthritis in the shoulder, a complete shoulder replacement is sometimes suggested to improve pain and function. Demand for this treatment is expected to increase by 750% by the year 2030. There are different options for shoulder replacement surgeries, however, there is a lack of evidence in the form of high-quality randomized controlled trials, to determine which type of shoulder replacement surgery is most effective in different situations, what are the risks involved with different approaches, or how the procedure compares to other treatment options. There is some low-quality evidence that indicates that when comparing total shoulder arthroplasty over hemiarthroplasty, no large clinical benefit was detected in the short term. It is not clear if the risk of harm differs between total shoulder arthroplasty or a hemiarthroplasty approach.

Other surgical options
Osteotomy may be useful in people with knee osteoarthritis, but has not been well studied and it is unclear whether it is more effective than non-surgical treatments or other types of surgery. Arthroscopic surgery is largely not recommended, as it does not improve outcomes in knee osteoarthritis, and may result in harm. It is unclear whether surgery is beneficial in people with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis.

Glucosamine and chondroitin
The effectiveness of glucosamine is controversial. Reviews have found it to be equal to or slightly better than placebo. A difference may exist between glucosamine sulfate and glucosamine hydrochloride, with glucosamine sulfate showing a benefit and glucosamine hydrochloride not. The evidence for glucosamine sulfate having an effect on osteoarthritis progression is somewhat unclear and if present likely modest. The Osteoarthritis Research Society International recommends that glucosamine be discontinued if no effect is observed after six months and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence no longer recommends its use. Despite the difficulty in determining the efficacy of glucosamine, it remains a treatment option. The European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ESCEO) recommends glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate for knee osteoarthritis. Its use as a therapy for osteoarthritis is usually safe.

A 2015 Cochrane review of clinical trials of chondroitin found that most were of low quality, but that there was some evidence of short-term improvement in pain and few side effects; it does not appear to improve or maintain the health of affected joints.

Supplements
Avocado–soybean unsaponifiables (ASU) is an extract made from avocado oil and soybean oil sold under many brand names worldwide as a dietary supplement and as a prescription drug in France. A 2014 Cochrane review found that while ASU might help relieve pain in the short term for some people with osteoarthritis, it does not appear to improve or maintain the health of affected joints. The review noted a high-quality, two-year clinical trial comparing ASU to chondroitin – which has uncertain efficacy in osteoarthritis – with no difference between the two agents. The review also found there is insufficient evidence of ASU safety.

A few high-quality studies of Boswellia serrata show consistent, but small, improvements in pain and function. Curcumin, phytodolor, and s-adenosyl methionine (SAMe) may be effective in improving pain. A 2009 Cochrane review recommended against the routine use of SAMe, as there has not been sufficient high-quality clinical research to prove its effect. A 2021 review found that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) had no benefit in reducing pain and improving physical function in hand or knee osteoarthritis, and the off-label use of HCQ for people with osteoarthritis should be discouraged. There is no evidence for the use of colchicine for treating the pain of hand or knee arthritis.

There is limited evidence to support the use of hyaluronan, methylsulfonylmethane, rose hip, capsaicin, or vitamin D.

Acupuncture and other interventions
While acupuncture leads to improvements in pain relief, this improvement is small and may be of questionable importance. Waiting list–controlled trials for peripheral joint osteoarthritis do show clinically relevant benefits, but these may be due to placebo effects. Acupuncture does not seem to produce long-term benefits.

Electrostimulation techniques such as TENS have been used for twenty years to treat osteoarthritis in the knee. However, there is no conclusive evidence to show that it reduces pain or disability. A Cochrane review of low-level laser therapy found unclear evidence of benefit, whereas another review found short-term pain relief for osteoarthritic knees.

Further research is needed to determine if balnotherapy for osteoarthritis (mineral baths or spa treatments) improves a person's quality of life or ability to function. The use of ice or cold packs may be beneficial; however, further research is needed. There is no evidence of benefit from placing hot packs on joints.

There is low quality evidence that therapeutic ultrasound may be beneficial for people with osteoarthritis of the knee; however, further research is needed to confirm and determine the degree and significance of this potential benefit.

Therapeutic ultrasound may relieve pain compared to conventional non-drug ultrasound however phonopheresis does not produce additional benefits to functional improvement. It is safe treatment to relieve pain and improve physical function in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Continuous and pulsed ultrasound modes (especially 1 MHz, 2.5 W/cm2, 15min/ session, 3 session/ week, during 8 weeks protocol) may be effective in improving patients physical function and pain.

There is weak evidence suggesting that electromagnetic field treatment may result in moderate pain relief; however, further research is necessary and it is not known if electromagnetic field treatment can improve quality of life or function.

Viscosupplementation for osteoarthritis of the knee may have positive effects on pain and function at 5 to 13 weeks post-injection.

Epidemiology
Osteoarthritis world map - DALY - WHO2004.svg for osteoarthritis per 100,000 inhabitants in 2004

{{legend|#b3b3b3|no data}} {{legend|#ffff65|≤ 200}} {{legend|#fff200|200–220}} {{legend|#ffdc00|220–240}} {{legend|#ffc600|240–260}} {{legend|#ffb000|260–280}} {{legend|#ff9a00|280–300}}

{{legend|#ff8400|300–320}} {{legend|#ff6e00|320–340}} {{legend|#ff5800|340–360}} {{legend|#ff4200|360–380}} {{legend|#ff2c00|380–400}} {{legend|#cb0000|≥ 400}} ]] Globally,, approximately 250million people had osteoarthritis of the knee (3.6% of the population).  Hip osteoarthritis affects about 0.85% of the population.

, osteoarthritis globally causes moderate to severe disability in 43.4 million people. Together, knee and hip osteoarthritis had a ranking for disability globally of 11th among 291 disease conditions assessed.

Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
In the Middle East and North Africa from 1990 to 2019, the prevalence of people with hip osteoarthritis increased three–fold over the three decades, a total of 1.28 million cases. It increased 2.88-fold, from 6.16 million cases to 17.75 million, between 1990 and 2019 for knee osteoarthritis. Hand osteoarthritis in MENA also increased 2.7-fold, from 1.6 million cases to 4.3 million from 1990 to 2019.

United States
, osteoarthritis affected 52.5 million people in the United States, approximately 50% of whom were 65 years or older. It is estimated that 80% of the population have radiographic evidence of osteoarthritis by age 65, although only 60% of those will have symptoms. The rate of osteoarthritis in the United States is forecast to be 78 million (26%) adults by 2040.

In the United States, there were approximately 964,000 hospitalizations for osteoarthritis in 2011, a rate of 31 stays per 10,000 population. With an aggregate cost of $14.8 billion ($15,400 per stay), it was the second-most expensive condition seen in US hospital stays in 2011. By payer, it was the second-most costly condition billed to Medicare and private insurance.

Europe
In Europe, the number of individuals affected by osteoarthritis has increased from 27.9 million in 1990 to 50.8 million in 2019. Hand osteoarthritis was the second most prevalent type, affecting an estimated 12.5 million people. In 2019, Knee osteoarthritis was the 18th most common cause of years lived with disability (YLDs) in Europe, accounting for 1.28% of all YLDs. This has increased from 1.12% in 1990.

India
In India, the number of individuals affected by osteoarthritis has increased from 23.46 million in 1990 to 62.35 million in 2019. Knee osteoarthritis was the most prevalent type of osteoarthritis, followed by hand osteoarthritis. In 2019, osteoarthritis was the 20th most common cause of years lived with disability (YLDs) in India, accounting for 1.48% of all YLDs, which increased from 1.25% and 23rd most common cause in 1990.

Etymology
Osteoarthritis is derived from the prefix osteo- (from ὀστέον) combined with arthritis (from ἀρθρῖτῐς,, lit. of or in the joint), which is itself derived from arthr- (from ἄρθρον, , lit. joint, limb) and -itis (from -ῖτις, , lit. pertaining to), the latter suffix having come to be associated with inflammation. The -itis of osteoarthritis could be considered misleading as inflammation is not a conspicuous feature. Some clinicians refer to this condition as osteoarthrosis to signify the lack of inflammatory response, the suffix -osis (from -ωσις,, lit. (abnormal) state, condition, or action) simply referring to the pathosis itself.

Other animals
Osteoarthritis has been reported in several species of animals all over the world, including marine animals and even some fossils; including but not limited to: cats, many rodents, cattle, deer, rabbits, sheep, camels, elephants, buffalo, hyena, lions, mules, pigs, tigers, kangaroos, dolphins, dugong, and horses.

Osteoarthritis has been reported in fossils of the large carnivorous dinosaur Allosaurus fragilis.

Therapies
Pharmaceutical agents that will alter the natural history of disease progression by arresting joint structural change and ameliorating symptoms are termed as disease modifying therapy (DMOAD). Therapies under investigation include the following:
 * Strontium ranelate – may decrease degeneration in osteoarthritis and improve outcomes
 * Gene therapy – Gene transfer strategies aim to target the disease process rather than the symptoms. Cell-mediated gene therapy is also being studied. One version was approved in South Korea for the treatment of moderate knee osteoarthritis, but later revoked for the mislabeling and the false reporting of an ingredient used. The drug was administered intra-articularly.

Cause
As well as attempting to find disease-modifying agents for osteoarthritis, there is emerging evidence that a system-based approach is necessary to find the causes of osteoarthritis. A study conducted by scientists at the University of Twente found that osmolarity induced intracellular molecular crowding might drive the disease pathology.

Diagnostic biomarkers
Guidelines outlining requirements for inclusion of soluble biomarkers in osteoarthritis clinical trials were published in 2015, but there are no validated biomarkers used clinically to detect osteoarthritis, as of 2021.

A 2015 systematic review of biomarkers for osteoarthritis looking for molecules that could be used for risk assessments found 37 different biochemical markers of bone and cartilage turnover in 25 publications. The strongest evidence was for urinary C-terminal telopeptide of type II collagen (uCTX-II) as a prognostic marker for knee osteoarthritis progression, and serum cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) levels as a prognostic marker for incidence of both knee and hip osteoarthritis. A review of biomarkers in hip osteoarthritis also found associations with uCTX-II. Procollagen type II C-terminal propeptide (PIICP) levels reflect type II collagen synthesis in body and within joint fluid PIICP levels can be used as a prognostic marker for early osteoarthritis.

title: Osteoarthritis


text:
Monkey Kung Fu

Monkey kung fu or Hóu Quán (猴拳, "monkey fist") is a Chinese martial art which utilizes ape or monkey-like movements as part of its technique.

Northern Chinese martial arts such as Northern Praying Mantis and Wuzuquan incorporate some of the techniques from monkey kung fu.

Origins
It first originated from the Southern Shaolin Temple as Hou Quan (猴拳), monkey kung fu, or way of the mythical Sasquatch, as well as the better-known Dà Shèng Pī Guà Mén (大聖劈掛門) style. There are a number of independently developed systems of monkey kung fu. Some are integrated in Five Animal Kung Fu, Ng Ying Kung Fu systems. On its own standing examples include Xíng-Zhě-Mén (行者門) named after the protagonist Sun Wukong of the popular Ming dynasty novel Journey to the West, and Nán-Hóu-Quán (南猴拳) or Southern Monkey Fist.

Hou Quan
The Hou Quan style from the Emei region, taught by the famous "Monkey King" Xiao Yingpeng and others, was also used as the basis for the modern wushu variant of monkey style (and monkey staff) that is often seen in demonstrations and competitions today. Each independent style has its own unique approach to the expression of how to incorporate a monkey's movements into fighting.

Da Sheng Men
Da Sheng Men, or "Great Sage" Kung Fu, was developed near the end of the Qing dynasty (1911) by a fighter named Kou Si (Kau Sei) from a small village in Northern China. Legend states that while serving a sentence in prison, he observed a group of monkeys from his cell. As he studied their movements and mannerisms, he found that they combined well with his own Di Tang style. While exact circumstances of Kou Si's inspiration remain legend, upon his release he developed his new style of fighting and dubbed it 'Da Sheng Men' (Great Sage Style) in honor of the Monkey King Sun Wukong in the Buddhist tale Journey to the West.

Da Sheng Pi Gua
Da Sheng Pi Gua Kung Fu 大聖劈掛門 (also known as Tai Sing Pek Kwar) was developed by Kou Si's(寇四) student Geng De Hai (耿德海) who started learning Pi Gua kung fu from his father Kan Wing Kwai(耿榮貴) from as early as 8 years of age. Gan Wing Gwai was a master of Pi Gua kung fu and after his death, Kou Si decided to train Geng De Hai in Da Sheng Kung Fu. After mastering Da Sheng Kung Fu and combining it with Pi Gua Kung Fu, out of respect for Kou Si's friendship, i.e. attacks are aimed at the knees, groin area, throat or eyes of the opponent and hand strikes are normally either open handed slaps or clawing with a semi-closed fist called the monkey claw. A wide array of facial monkey expressions are also practiced, inclusive of happiness, anger, fear, fright, confusion and bewilderment etc. Except for very brief periods, most movements inclusive of running are executed from either a squatting or semi-squatting position and are normally accompanied by very swift and 'jerky' head movements as the practitioner nervously looks around. The monkey staff, or hou gun (猴棍), is one of this style's specialty weapons. Monkey boxing is an imitative technique and so execution of the movements and facial expressions must be so convincing that it looks exactly like a monkey and not simply like a human imitating a monkey hence the very high degree of difficulty associated with this technique.

Tai Shing
There are five variations of monkey kung fu developed an naming the new technique Geng De Hai placed Da Sheng at the beginning followed by Pi Gua hence the name Da Sheng Pi Gua Kung Fu.

Hou Quan
Traditional hou quan as taught in Mainland China includes running on all fours (i.e. the hands and feet), various difficult acrobatic movements such as flipping sideways in the air, front flips, back flips, back handsprings, hand stands, walking on the hands, forward lunges/dives, backward lunges, spinning on the butt, spinning on the back and many kicks and strikes. Most of this part of the Tai Shing system:

 * 1) Drunken Monkey focuses on throat, eye, and groin strikes, as well as tumbling and falling techniques. It incorporates false steps to affect defenselessness and off-balance strikes. The practitioner waddles, takes very faltering steps, and sometimes falls to the ground and lies prone while waiting for the opponent to approach, at which time a devastating attack is launched at the knees or groin. Drunken monkey uses more internal energy than any other variations, and is one of the more difficult monkey styles to master, but also extremely effective against a standard, attack-oriented enemy. Countering this style involves shifting body position often to ensure that the Drunken Monkey user's techniques strike more solid, tougher areas of the body.
 * 2) Stone Monkey is a more physically focused style. The practitioner trains up his body to exchange blows with the opponent - a kind of iron body method. A practitioner often leaves an area exposed, inviting an opponent to attack, then attacks a more vital spot on their body. It is important not to attack reflexively at open spots, and try to hammer away
 * 3) Standing Monkey or Tall Monkey is a relatively conventional monkey variation that maintains an upright position. This style is better suited for tall people. Tall monkey likes to climb body limbs to make attacks at pressure points. It is a long range style.
 * 4) Wooden Monkey mimics a serious, angry monkey that attacks and defends with ferocity. This variation is more serious, and its movements are noticeably less light than the other monkeys. Wood monkey involves grappling opponents to the ground at their weak spots until they give in.
 * 5) Lost Monkey heavily incorporates feints. Practitioners of Lost Monkey give the appearance of being lost and confused to deceive their opponents into underestimating their abilities, then retaliate when it is least expected. The hands and footwork change and flow from each other at will. Monkeys are sociable animals that live in troupes or family groups, but are also very territorial by nature. So when they wander into the territory of another troupe, there is normally a fight, which could possibly result in the death of the trespassers. This technique incorporates the fear, nervousness and mischief of a monkey who has wandered into a neighboring territory, in that it attempts to pick and eat as many fruits and insects as quickly as possible, while nervously looking around before scurrying back to its own home range.

Movies and television programs
The following films and television programs showcase Monkey Kung Fu either throughout the movie or in major scenes:
 * Hou quan kou si, English title Monkey's Fist (1974), features real-life Monkey Kung Fu specialist Chan Sau Chung.
 * Tie ma liu, English title Iron Monkey (1977), starring Chen Kuan Tai.
 * In the movie Knockabout, (1979) the lead protagonist Yipao used monkey fist technique (which he learned from a cop pretending to be a beggar) against The Fox, which happens to be his former master and the one who killed his friend Taipao.
 * Feng hou, English title Mad Monkey Kung-Fu (1979), although the technique displayed in this movie is really the 'monkey' variation of the Lau Family Hung Gar system and not genuine Da Sheng Pi Gua Kung Fu.
 * Chu long ma liu, English title Monkey Fist Floating Snake (1979), starring Simon Chan.
 * Zui hou nu, English title Lady Iron Monkey (1979), starring Fung Ling Kam.
 * Liu he qian shou, English title Return of the Scorpion, (1979) features 7 Kung Fu masters, one (i.e. Chan Sau Chung) is a practitioner of Monkey Kung Fu. In the first fight scene, Chan Sau Chung does a few movements of the Drunken Monkey technique in that he take a few faltering steps (i.e. Monkey Staggering Steps) then he lies prone and waits for his opponent to approach at which time he does a massive wheel kick and immediately launches an attack at his opponents groin (i.e. angry monkey steals the peaches).
 * The English dub of Jackie Chan's Drunken Master II (1994) (AKA The Legend of Drunken Master (2000) (U.S.)) incorrectly references the Drunken Monkey style whenever Wong Fei-hung is about to perform some acrobatic kicks. The original dialogue actually references the immortals Li Tieguai and Zhang Gualao of the Daoist style of Drunken Fist. The former is a cripple with a powerful right leg and the latter is known for his swift double-kicks. All eight immortals are also referenced in the original Drunken Master (1978).
 * Chui ma lau, English title Drunken Monkey (2002), uses the Monkey fist variant Drunken Monkey, although the technique displayed in this movie is really the 'monkey' variation of the Lau Family Hung Gar system and not genuine Tai Shing Pak Kwar Kung Fu.
 * In the Disney cartoon Kim Possible, Kim's sidekick, Ron Stoppable, is imbued with the abilities of a Monkey Kung Fu master by four ancient statues. Also in the show, the character Lord Monty Fiske is a known practitioner of Da Sheng Pi Gua. He was so obsessed with the martial arts style that he mutated his hands and feet to resemble those of monkeys and then adopted the name "Monkey Fist".
 * In the film "Extreme Fighter," Monkey Kung Fu master Michael Matsuda co-stars in the role of the "monkey man."
 * In the film Bloodsport a Monkey Kung Fu user participates in an underground fighting tournament.
 * In Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Ray Park can be seen using an adapted form of Monkey Kung Fu as Sith Lord Darth Maul.
 * Eileen from the video game Virtua Fighter series uses "Kou-Ken" known as Monkey Kung Fu.
 * In the Mortal Kombat series, the ninja wraith character Noob Saibot fights with Monkey Kung Fu.
 * In Kung Fu Panda there was a monkey master, also named Monkey, that attacked obviously with the monkey style of kung fu. He was voiced by Jackie Chan in the film, and James Sie in the accompanying television series, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.
 * In the movie The Quest, the representative from China uses an obvious monkey style for his second match.
 * In the movie Ip Man 2, Master Law (Lo Mang) is the first master that Ip Man fights on the tabletop, and is a master of Monkey-Style Kung Fu.

title: Monkey Kung Fu