Oriental Heroes

Oriental Heroes is a popular Hong Kong-based manhua created by Wong Yuk Long, a writer/artist responsible for also creating a number of other popular manhua titles. It was created in 1970, and it continues to be published today. The book was the first Hong Kong manhua title based on action and fighting, often borrowing from the wuxia literary world. It established a new action genre of Hong Kong manhua and spawned many imitators. The theme of its stories often revolve around brotherhood and the fight for justice. The 2006 movie Dragon Tiger Gate was based on this manhua. Oriental Heroes is the book's official English name. Its Chinese name is pronounced in Cantonese, Lùhng Fú Mùhn (simplified Chinese: 龙虎门; traditional Chinese: 龍虎門; pinyin: Lóng Hǔ Mén). This name translates as "Dragon Tiger Gate" in English, and is in reference to the name of the fictional kungfu school and organization that is a major subject matter in the book. Oriental Heroes was first published in 1970 under the title Little Rascals (traditional Chinese: 小流氓; Cantonese Yale: Síu Làuh Màhn). It featured stories about young people living in public housing estates in Hong Kong fighting gangsters and criminals. The heroes of the stories exhibited antisocial behaviours, but routinely fought for justice. In the early years of the book's run, the fighting was very graphically illustrated. Various weapons were used, where spilled blood, internal organs, guts, and bones were shown in the injuries that the characters sustained. People criticised the graphic violence depicted in Oriental Heroes and other similar action genre manhua, eventually leading to the enactment of the Indecent Publication Law in 1975, banning explicit violence in manhua.