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.

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.

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.

[19][20] In the Street Fighter Alpha games, where she was redesigned by Eri "Erichan" Nakamura,[10] 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,[21] 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.

[23] 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.

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.

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.

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.

[51] She has made guest appearances in a number of mobile games, including #Compass,[52] Destiny Child,[53] Granblue Fantasy,[54] Power Rangers: Legacy Wars,[55] and Valkyrie Connect.

[56] She makes cameo appearances in various Capcom games including Asura's Wrath,[31] Breath of Fire,[57][58] Final Fight 2,[59] Mega Man 9,[60] and We Love Golf!.

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.

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.

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.

[74] 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.

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.

[81] 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

[97] A wide variety of Chun-Li figures have been produced by various manufacturers,[98] including by Capcom itself,[99] Ace Novelty,[100] BigBoysToys,[101] Funko,[102] Kotobukiya,[103][104] Pop Culture Shock Collectibles,[105][106] S.H.

[113] Other assorted merchandise included Diesel sneakers,[114] women's lingerie,[115] a figure-style flash drive USB stick,[116] a postage stamp from Japanese Philatelic Association came with its own collectible figure,[117] and a figurine that came with a DyDo drink.

[132] 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.

[134] Chun-Li's fans have included the rapper Kid Ink,[135] and female gamers such as Codemasters manager Laura Peterson[136] and media personality Violet Berlin.

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.

[140] 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,[141] Liu Feilin in Fighter's History,[142] and Sekka in Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls.

[149] 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.