The Dude to Change Origin of Mulan and Liu Sah

SOMEWHERE: THE DUDE'S SECRET HIDEOUT; NEAR IHOP - After 6 years of being foreign exchange students from China, the dude is expected to change the origin of his two main characters from being foreigners to being Asian Americans.

Some concern from the Sudd City camp explored how the change would affect the current storyline. "Wasn't being all foreign exchange student kinda important to their backstory?" questioned Goddess UltraRat. "I don't have a problem with it," she adds, "whatever makes the story good."

The Dude's reasons for the change is said to be related to the evolution of his characters and character identification. "It was fun at first playing with foreign characters and their interactions with the Americanized and often liberal Sudd City regulars. Even I would get a huge kick of cultural differences which untranslated made great comedy," says The Dude. "But I think many of those cultural differences such as how Asians and Americans deal with love, honorifics, responsibility, and open speech can still be preserved in Asian American culture."

"Liu's mannerisms will largely remain the same -formal, spacey, out of the loop, etc. I don't think that today's audience would relate to Liu as strongly if kept as a Chinese foreigner and I don't think I know enough about the experiences of Chinese exchange students to characterize Liu properly from here on out. The Asian American experience is something more familiar to me and I think the same issues Liu deals with as a foreigner will still translate with him as an Asian American."

When asked about the specifics of the changes, The Dude provided a number of viable storyline changes:

• Liu Sah Chen will have his roots in a San Fransisco-like town in California. He will often visit his grandparents who live in a smaller town where he learns of his destiny as an artifact hunter.
• Liu could face some further changes such as being Chinese/Vietnamese or some mix that would explore aspects of Asian culture.
  
• Mulan will still be Liu's childhood crush and will be built with a stronger background and more defined ambitions. Her last name may be changed in the process as well.
• Liu and Mulan will still make the move to Sudd City as teenagers. Liu will take his grandfather's job with Silver McFish and Mulan will still enroll at the DooLot Veterinarian Center internship program.
• Liu will still live with his Uncle Otugo until hired by Kaeldra Sudd.

All these changes are expected to be made as The Dude revisits Liu Sah Adventures. With the revival of the Sudd City comic book concept, The Dude is considering revisiting many of his writings as well as new projects.