science

Sheng Long

Sheng Long is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sheng Long rather than just read about it. In short: Sheng Long is a character hoax related to the Street Fighter series, created by Electronic Gaming Monthly as an April Fools' prank in 1992. Conceived by editor Ken Williams due to a mistranslation suggesting the existence of a character named Sheng Long in Capcom's fighting game, Street Fighter II, the publication released an article describing a method to fight the character in the game.

Key takeaways

Sheng Long belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sheng Long to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sheng Long from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sheng Long is a character hoax related to the Street Fighter series, created by Electronic Gaming Monthly as an April Fools' prank in 1992. Conceived by editor Ken Williams due to a mistranslation suggesting the existence of a character named Sheng Long in Capcom's fighting game, Street Fighter II, the publication released an article describing a method to fight the character in the game. Despite intending it to be an obvious joke, many players took it seriously, and other publications reprinted the details as fact without verifying its legitimacy, causing the Sheng Long hoax to spread worldwide. As a result, the magazine later acknowledged it was indeed a hoax, though it revisited the concept for a similar joke in 1997. Claiming Sheng Long would appear in Street Fighter III, they provided a backstory for the character and an appearance designed by editor Mike Vallas. Despite the article trailing off and being incomplete, it resulted in confusion between the North American and Japanese branches of Capcom, with the former calling the latter to ask why they had not been informed about the character. As a character and a hoax, Sheng Long has been described as one of the most famous and well-known legends related to video gaming by publications such as UGO.com and GameSpot. Several publications have attributed the hoax with the creation of Street Fighter character Akuma, who was added to Super Street Fighter II Turbo as a secret boss with several similarities to the original joke. Fan appeal for the character affected later Capcom titles, with public requests for the inclusion of Sheng Long in an actual video game leading to the consideration of his inclusion in the Street Fighter: The Movie video game and the appearance of the character Gouken as both a secret boss and playable character in Street Fighter IV. Capcom has also added in-game achievements referencing Sheng Long in Street Fighter II re-releases, and for the 25th anniversary of the hoax temporarily posted artwork and a profile for the character on their website, this time designed by Shigenori "Kiki" Kiwata. This version of the character was later reused for his appearance as a non-player character in the World Tour mode of Street Fighter 6, acting as a high-difficulty optional boss.

Origin The name Sheng Long comes from a mistranslated portion of the name of a special move performed by the series' main character, Ryu; the characters shō ryū (昇龍, rising dragon) from Shōryūken (昇龍拳), Ryu's flying uppercut, are shēng lóng in Chinese pinyin. This was carried into one of Ryu's quotes to defeated opponents in the English localization of the 1991 arcade game Street Fighter II, changing the Japanese quote "If you cannot overcome the Shoryuken, you cannot win!" (昇龍拳を破らぬ限り、お前に勝ち目はない！, Shōryūken o yaburanu kagiri, omae ni kachime wa nai!) to "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance." As a result, players were given the impression that Ryu was referring to a person instead of the attack. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) port of Street Fighter II, released shortly after the April Fools' prank, changed the translation to "You must defeat my Dragon Punch to stand a chance." However, the English instruction manual for the SNES Street Fighter II referred to "Master Sheng Long" as Ryu and Ken's teacher. Instruction manuals for later ports to the SNES and Sega Mega Drive consoles replaced all references to Sheng Long by referring to Ryu and Ken as disciples of the "Shotokan school of karate". A character named Gouken was later introduced in Masaomi Kanzaki's 1993 Street Fighter II manga as Ryu and Ken's sensei and was adapted into the series' backstory in Super Street Fighter II Turbo.

Original April Fools' article

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Sheng Long: Coupled with edited screenshots, the hoax inspired many to try and fight Sheng Long in Street Fighter II. — Coupled with edited screenshots, the hoax inspired many to try and fight Sheng Long in Street Fighter II.

2017 artwork of Sheng Long by Capcom. "USO" is Japanese for lying, used to imply the profile is fake

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sheng Long

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sheng Long claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sheng Long before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sheng Long ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sheng Long

In research: Sheng Long appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sheng Long in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sheng Long is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics April Fools' Day jokes, Fictional Chinese people, Fictional karateka, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sheng Long outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sheng Long in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sheng Long means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sheng Long out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sheng Long in simple terms?

Why does Sheng Long matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sheng Long?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sheng Long.