Zhen Qiang in the “Stories from the Undersea World of Mermaid Princess Amelia, Vol. 2”
In Huang Yan’s Story
Zhen Qiang is the old, revered master of the Typhoon Fist Monastery, a highly respected martial art in the South China Sea. His disappearance is a central mystery of the story. He is a figure of such stature that one cannot simply demand a meeting with him. The fact that he left voluntarily with the mysterious warrior Wu Shen, after Wu Shen defeated twenty-eight of the monastery’s adepts, suggests that Wu Shen’s mission or message was of immense importance. Master Zhen’s departure, taking only his travel bag and cane, implies a personal quest or a duty that compelled the elderly master to abandon his post, leaving the community in shock and labeling the event a “misfortune.”
In Greene’s Story
Master Zhen Qiang is a martial arts master from Huangcheng, representing the noble and duty-bound side of the martial world. He is the former teacher of Wu Shen and is associated with the Typhoon Fist Monastery. When his former student, shaken and desperate, fights his way through the temple guards to see him during the forbidden ghost month, Master Zhen Qiang’s sense of justice overrides protocol. Upon hearing the horrific tale of the Triggerfish Showdowns, he is “terrified” and immediately “threw caution out of the sea.” He accompanies Wu Shen to seek help, first at the monastery headquarters and then from his acquaintance in Lucheng, demonstrating a leader who is willing to take risks and mobilize his resources to confront a grave social injustice, even if it inadvertently plays into the bank robbers’ hands.
Trivia about this character
- His name sounds like “zhen qiang” in Chinese which means “really strong.”
