Shang Tsung

Shang Tsung
Mortal Kombat character
Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008)
First game	Mortal Kombat (1992)
Created by	Ed Boon and John Tobias
Designed by	John Tobias (early games)
Voiced by	Jim Cummings (animated film) Neil Ross (DotR) James Kyson Lee (MKvsDCU) Andrew Kishino (MK2011)
Motion capture	Chris Bashen (MKvsDCU)
Portrayed by	Ho Sung Pak (MK) Phillip Ahn (MKII) John Turk (MK3) James Kim, Simon Kim, Sidney S. Liufau, Michael Li, Drew MacIver, Jimin Kim (Live Tour) Richard Divizio (MKM: Sub-Zero) Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (film and Legacy) Bruce Locke (Konquest) James Lew (Rebirth) Johnson Phan (Legacy)
Fictional profile
Origin	China, Earthrealm/Outworld
Fighting styles	Snake (MK:DA, MK:A) Crane (MK:DA) Mantis (MK:D)
Weapon	Jian (MK:DA, MK:A)

Shang Tsung is a fictional boss and player character from the Mortal Kombat series. A powerful evil warlock, he is a demonic shapeshifter who absorbs the living souls of those he defeats in order to maintain his youth and power and is able to change his appearance, including by morphing into other characters while retaining their abilities and movesets in-game. Shang Tsung is usually portrayed as the right-hand man of series archvillain Shao Kahn and the main rival and archenemy of the series' early protagonist, Liu Kang.

Shang Tsung debuted as the main villain of the original Mortal Kombat, serving as the in-game tournament's grandmaster and the game's boss. He has since appeared in several games and other media spawned from the franchise, and was received positively by game critics.

Shang Tsung (originally named "Shang Lao") was based on the Chinese sorcerer Lo Pan from the film Big Trouble in Little China. A character named "Kitsune", which was later developed into Kitana, "was going to fit into the story as Shang Lao’s (Tsung) princess daughter - the spoil of victory for winning the tournament", who would betray her father after she fell for Liu Kang.Mortal Kombat art director Herman Sanchez said that as the series progressed he decided to emphasize Tsung's air of "sinister regality."

Shang Tsung's design varies throughout the series. The initial history of the character was explained in the 1992 Midway-produced comic book based on the original MK game, in which he was the first-ever Mortal Kombat (then the Shaolin Tournament) champion over 500 years ago from the date of the then-current tournament depicted in the actual game, yet he was stricken with a curse that forced him to consume the souls of his defeated opponents in order to keep his youth. The book cited his "failure to appease the gods" as the reason for his premature aging to a withered old man, but he was noticeably younger in Mortal Kombat II, in which Shao Kahn had restored Shang Tsung's youth and powers as part of his plan to take over Earthrealm by luring Liu Kang and his fellow Earth warriors into Outworld for the next MK tournament.