| Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword | |
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Cover of Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword vol. 1 (1980). Art by Ma Wing-shing. |
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| 中華英雄 (Zhonghua Yingxiong) |
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| Genre | Wuxia |
| Author | Ma Wing-shing |
| Publisher | Jademan, Culturecom Holdings |
| English publisher | Jademan DrMaster |
| Magazine | Golden Daily |
| Original run | 1980 |
| Collected volumes | 8 |
Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword (Chinese: 中華英雄) is a wuxia manhua series created by Hong Kong artist Ma Wing-shing. It is also referred to as Blood Sword, Blood Sword Dynasty, A Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword and A Man Called Hero.
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The artwork and drawing style of Chinese Hero is responsible for the modern day characteristics of manhua. It was a breakthrough in terms of using high levels of details, realistic style, clear cut action scenes and skillful use of color in combination with an engrossing plot. The manhua turned the artist from rags to riches. Ma Wing-shing became Hong Kong's most popular artist at that time.[1] The story was an immediate hit selling 45,000 copies when first released. At the peak of its popularity, sales hit peaks of 200,000 copies.[1] It is famous for having characters that are physically imperfect, such as missing an eye or limb for the sake to express the realism that real life people are not perfect.
After seeking vengeance on the Westerners who murdered his family, Wah Ying-hung (aka Hero Hua) flees to America to start a new life. Throughout his adventures in America, he meets new friends such Ghostserver and Gold Dragon and gradually becomes a powerful martial arts master. Once in Chicago, Wah is up against gang wars, murder, treachery and racial discrimination.
Chinese Hero was first published in Golden Daily in 1980 and was a supplement to Wong Yuk-long's Drunken Master It then later became its own separate manhua. The first issue of the Chinese Hero periodical was published in 1982
In late 1988, Jademan started publishing Chinese Hero in English under the title The Blood Sword, which was criticised for its poor translation. Jademan later published a second series entitled Blood Sword Dynasty which followed the adventures of the Hero's son, Kim-hung (aka Sword). By 1989, Ma Wing-shing left Jademan.
The Chinese manhua Blood Sword Dynasty is part of the same series as Chinese Hero and not a spin-off. Despite its popularity, the series was eventually canceled in 1993.
In October 2006, publishers DrMaster announced that they were planning to release a new English translation of Chinese Hero. These new releases included an all new English translation as well as new digital re-coloration. The re-release started from the beginning of the second series, with the plot alteration of Hero's parents being murdered by a "rival martial arts clan" instead of Westerners in the original version, due to the first series use of anti-Western sentiments. The reprints at the point of volume 8 do not extend beyond the original plot of the original Jademan comics.
The collections are:
| Year | Region | Wah Ying-hung | Title | No. of episodes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Hong Kong | Kenny Ho | The Blood Sword | 25 |
| 2005 | Taiwan | Peter Ho | The Legend of Hero | 40 |
Ekin Cheng starred as Wah Ying-hung in a 1999 Hong Kong film called A Man Called Hero (Chinese: 中華英雄) that was directed by Andrew Lau. Although the plot differed largely from the original story, the film was popular and became the highest grossing Hong Kong film up to that time.
A video game based on the manhua was produced by Acebrock. The game was initially scheduled to be released in both Chinese and English on the PC platform. Although the game shared the same English title as the film, it remained faithful to the original story as opposed to the changes introduced in the film. As of 2007, Acebrock fell through and the game existed in either scrap or beta form only.