Oriental Heroes

Oriental Heroes (Chinese 龍虎門, Cantonese Lùhng Fú Mùhn) is a Hong Kong manhua, that is, a Chinese comic, created by Tony Wong Yuk-long. He first published it in 1970 under the title Little Rascals (小流氓, Cantonese Síu Làuh Màhn); later it appeared under the title 龍虎門, in English Oriental Heroes. We have not been able to document in sources when the renaming took place. The main characters are three young fighters: the eighteen-year-old Tiger Wong (王小虎), the twenty-year-old Little Dragon (王小龍) and the eighteen-year-old Gold Dragon (石黑龍), whom Wikipedia gives as being of Chinese-Russian origin. We did not find in sources which martial arts the characters use in the story. The journalist Andrea Chen of the South China Morning Post called Tiger "the most popular cartoon character of the eighties". The 2006 film Dragon Tiger Gate, directed by Wilson Yip, was made after the manhua. Its fight scenes were choreographed by Donnie Yen, who also stars in it alongside Nicholas Tse and Shawn Yue. The film bears the same Chinese title as the comic source.

Editions and translations

According to Wikipedia, the depiction of violence in the series is linked to the adoption of the 1975 Hong Kong law on indecent publications. According to the same source, Tony Wong Yuk-long responded by founding the daily Sàng Bou (生報), which let him get around the manhua restrictions; Oriental Heroes appeared on its back page before he returned to a purely comic format. We have not been able to document a direct ban on the series itself. Wikipedia names Jade Dynasty as the publisher, yet says Tony Wong founded Jademan Holdings only in 1971, a year after the first publication. We did not find the relationship between the two companies or the magazine in which the series first appeared.

People and martial arts

• Tony Wong Yuk-longAuthor