Has it ever been stated anywhere that Tang Shen is Chinese?

[neatoman]

People often say Tang Shen is Chinese, which would make sense since Tang Shen dosen't really sound like Japanese name, but has it ever been stated anywhere within official fiction that she is Chinese or do we just assume it?

[ToTheNines]

Her nationality has never been explicitly revealed. But yeah, her name is just a product of Eastman and Laird not being the most knowledgeable about Japanese. I mean, they gave Shredder a girl name lol.

[Candy Kappa]

Shen is three different common Chinese surnames, so she Is is most likely Chinese, but it isn't unlikely she could be another nationality. Tang is also a Chinese surname.

[plastroncafe]

I don't know that the Good Natured Orientalism that went into the TMNT's creation can be counted upon to provide water tight world building.

[Candy Kappa]

It's a bit interesting that the names hasn't been fixed since its first incarnation. Shredder have a girl's name, Yoshi's name is rather odd, Shen isn't Japanese and Karai doesn't seen to be an actual name, the closest I've found was a poet who called himself Karai.

The Japnese dub of the Fred Wolf cartoon fixed both Saki and Yoshi's names to proper names

[Cryomancer]

And Leonardo's weapons are really probably ninjato instead of katana. There's a lot of inaccurate stuff with pretty much anything Asian in TMNT. It was made back before the internet made research far easier, after all.

I suppose you could make an argument for Splinter not remembering things correctly since he was a rat at the time, if you really wanted to.

[Candy Kappa]

Well, Ninjato isnt a real thing. But, yeah his Daisho is often (as in since recently, always) portrayed as a pair of katana, and then the katana is straight bladed instead of curved, which is easier to draw sure (if you're a lazy bum) but highly inaccurate and less interesting.

But, I'd chalk that up as the similar issues with the Sai being depicted as Stilettos instead of the actual truncheon weapon it is.

I really like it that the Nick cartoon have Leo using Daisho, and it kinda pisses me off that the later toys of Leo have reverted to the katana pair. I think the only time leonardo have been properly depicted with daisho officially before, was in TMNT and Other Strangeness, where its stand on his character sheet that he carries a daisho combination.