Star Wars: Dinosaurs, Whiskey and Chewbacca Monkey in Full WTF Chinese Version

The Star Wars saga has never been on the Chinese box office. The thing is, the Middle Eastern society also discovered the world of George Lucas very, very late, and it is undoubtedly very codified for him. The first part, New Hope, was released only in 1978 in Hong Kong, which was a British colony at the time.

If China was very closed in the 70s and 80s, especially for Western works, this did not prevent the already thriving market of pirate versions, of a rather specific type. In 2014, Maggie Green, a research assistant who worked at Montana State University, discovered the beautiful Nagleji. In His blogHe said he had been buying Star Wars comics since the early 1980s at the book flea market in Shanghai for $ 1.

Completely in black and white, composed of drawings accompanied by little legends, this creation is executed in a spirit reminiscent of baptized illustrated booklets. Liankhuanhua ; Hand-sized small booklets that were printed in large numbers in China during the 20th century. Small booklets, moreover, were used very regularly to enhance CCP propaganda. This format was also an important vector for the spread of Western culture, even if carried out completely illegally.

authorized Xing Qiu Da Zhan, The Chinese word for Star Wars, comics occupy most of the story in the 1977 film. But visually he sometimes gets fascinating and very strange liberties. The artist, who was behind the design, was a bit free-spirited, was forced to work from ultra-limited promotional material, and the film still had not been seen.

Chubaka, for example, is depicted as a primate who leans more towards the planet of monkeys. Obi van Kenobi? Of course, the Knight of Jedi. But in the most direct sense of the term, the medieval armor, and even his motorcycle, only to better emphasize the futuristic side. Judge for yourself … We also wonder if this is not George A. Romero’s direct source of inspiration for his competitive Nanard, the Knightriders …

Here it is … Darth Vader, with a triceratope back:

There’s Luke Skywalker, who wore a Bobby Fett costume, and Princess Leia. Yes Yes !

We end with this delicious vignette showing Vader posing in front of a map of the Death Star targets, broadcast live from the Kennedy Space Center. Opportunity to see that the artistic vision is imbued with a very cold Cold War reading grid:

You can see reproductions of several other sketches Here. “I suppose that one of the defining characteristics of modern Chinese cultural production (or its perception, at least) is a fairly common violation of intellectual property.” Concluded Maggie Green on her blog. The discovery is no less fascinating.