Chai Xianghua

As a character introduced in Soulcalibur, Xianghua's weaponry, a Chinese sword designed to be unique amongst the other weapons in the game, was selected before other elements of the character. Her design and concept were then built to revolve around it, starting with gender, then physical measurements, and lastly background details.[5] During development, an idea was considered to instead change directions and have her fight with martial arts, utilizing kicks and creating "vacuum wave" attacks with her arms, before returning to the original concept.[6] After her appearance and movement were fleshed out by a concept artist, her character was rendered as a 3D model by a design team that worked solely on her,[5] and then animated by Tomoe Yamashita using motion capture to create her in-game movements.[7]

Xianghua was designed around a theme of a traveling entertainer's flexibility, as well as a Chinese motif. Many different designs were considered during development, such as a girl in an apron dress or another in horse riding attire, with the development team noting despite the variety the hairstyle was kept consistently "reminiscent of Xianghua."[8] Emphasis was done to make her feel 'light' in terms of movement, based off Chinese martial arts, and finding that balance in the design was an active concern for her design process.[6] Different styles of her sword were also considered before settling on a jian, which was meant to compliment her martial arts movements and give a sense of speed to help portray her as a dynamic woman. An idea was jokingly suggested for a "soul bug" to live in the hilt that would have acted as a medium to draw the wielder's energy into liquid within the sword. Developer notes on the concept stated "It was a disgusting weapon."[9]

Xianghua is the daughter of a seasoned female warrior and a monk. Her mother eventually abandoned her father, and taught her how to fight using a battered tai chi jian, in reality a stolen holy weapon called the Krita-Yuga from her father's temple in disguise. Eventually Xianghua became a member of the Chinese Imperial Guards, and was sent after the "Hero's Sword", which in reality was Soul Edge. Encountering Kilik and Maxi, they joined forces and defeated first Nightmare, then Inferno in its own realm. With her weapon revealing its true form as Soul Calibur, Soul Edge's antithesis, they defeated Inferno and escaped, though at the loss of the sword. Four years later, though falling out of favor with the Chinese royalty, she continued along Kilik to hunt down and destroy Soul Edge when it resurfaced. While she and Kilik was trying to purge a corrupted city, they met with Zasalamel who knocked Kilik unconscious while Xianghua was unable to do anything. She carried Kilik to Edge Master's home and spent the next month honing her skills. She joined with Kilik again to find Soul Edge, where she realized she had feelings for him, but cannot confess it. The two parted ways after Soul Edge is destroyed, but reunited a year later where they had an intimate meeting, but Kilik left Xianghua shortly thereafter. She realized that she was pregnant with Kilik's child and was ordered by her grandfather to kill the child, considering it as a heresy. The Chinese general Yan Wujin however, negotiated to allow the child to live as a condition for marrying Xianghua. She then named the child Xiba and left him to live with her father Kong Xiuqiang, after which she had two children with Wujin, Leixia and Leixin.

In the Soulcalibur manga adaptation, Xianghua meets Edge Master in the middle of her journey.[10] Later, Xianghua and Li Long's sister Meimei are forced to fight through a Lizardmen invasion of an Indian town and Meimei is killed in battle. Xianghua is rescued by Kilik and Maxi in their first meeting, and her Krita-Yuga suddenly transforms into the Soul Calibur, destroying the Lizardmen.[11][12]

To promote the character, Namco has released Xianghua figures in Japan by a variety of manufacturers, including Duck Tail, Epoch, Wave, and Yujin.[18] As a tribute for the acclaimed Soulcalibur player Kayane, whose favourite character was Xianghua,[19][20] Namco created a tribute AI named "Kayane" in Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny, imitating her playing style.[21][22]

Former Fanbyte editor-in-chief John Warren described her as a series mainstay and extremely popular for beginners to the series, adding "Her small stature and relatively mundane (for a Soulcalibur game) Chinese sword belie her deadliness."[23] Dreamcast Magazine ranked her as the seventh top "girl on the Dreamcast" in 2000, stating "With an oriental flavour to her moves and style, Xianghua is a bit of a minx even though she looks sweet and innocent. Behind that charming smile is a fearsome warrior."[24] PSW added that she "moves with a lovely grace that makes characters from other Fighters seem like they’ve taken dancing lessons from Astaroth."[25] In 2014, Julia Cook of Paste described her as one of the best dressed women in video games, describing her outfits as having "flowy, feminine accoutrements" from "brightly colored capris under dresses or robes, sometimes with a sleek tiara" in early games to "a more masculine blazer and shorts combination for Soul Calibur IV."[26] Matt Sainsbury of Digital Download described her as having a "more natural body shape" that looks beautiful, as well as praising her for "having the most amazing legs". However they criticized her outfit in Soulcalibur IV, describing it as "a mini-dress that you wouldn’t try and walk around in."[27] IGN's Jesse Schedeen additionally praised her attire in Soulcalibur IV, stating "Xianghua may be traditional in some ways, but she certainly doesn't dress like it. She has one of the more unique costumes [...] a hodgepodge of different Oriental fashions that come together in one sexy look. Never before has a kung fu hero been such a babe."[28]

University of Delaware professor Rachel Hutchinson cited Xianghua as an example of stereotypical designs in Japanese media, noting unlike the male asian characters she was designed to be smaller and less threatening, describing her as representative of bishōjo design. She also noted that as the series progressed her appearance invoked less Chinese imagery and became more feminized, drawing a parallel to how other prominent female characters in the franchise became more sexualized, adding that the action poses and open mouth as if shouting in her later artwork were meant to invoke "shōnen manga" imagery and enhance the sexual nature of her design. She additionally noted as the series progressed her hair progressively became more red in color, an aspect meant to further differentiate her as non-Japanese, an aspect described as the "other" in the eyes of Japanese viewers.[29] The book A Vindication of the Redhead agreed with the last statement, adding her hair color coupled with her large breasts was a typical correlation in Japanese media meant to entice western audiences while invoking the idea of the "other" in Japanese audiences.[30]