Wan Li in 1935.
Wan Li (1926-2005) known as Short Round was a Chinese archeologist and apprentice of Dr. Henry Jones Jr.
Biography[]
Early years[]
Wan Li was born on February 8, 1926. The oldest child of a steel plant foreman in Shanghai, Wan Li was orphaned when a Japanese bombing raid killed his family in January 1932. He was taken in by a Christian mission, where he picked up basic English and mathematics. However, he soon turned to the seedy streets of the Shanghai underbelly, acquiring survival instincts while working as a guide, pickpocket, and cutpurse.
Working with Dr. Jones[]
At the Gung Ho Bar in 1935, Short Round attempted to pickpocket a tall North American man in a fedora, only to find himself trapped by Henry Jones' bullwhip. Rather than turn Wan Li over to the authorities, Dr. Jones introduced Wan Li to his friend Wu Han with Wan Li becoming one of Henry's contacts in Shanghai.
During their time together, Jones introduced Wan Li to American baseball—and the New York Yankees—and taught him additional survival skills like how to drive despite his young age.
The Thugghee temple[]
That year Dr. Jones was in Shanghai doing a mission trying to exchange Nurhachi's ashes for the Peacock's Eye from gangster Lao Che. Jones escaped in an Auburn driven by Wan Li with American actress and singer Willie Scot. At the Airport they took a trimotor plane but it was Lao Che's property so the gangster ordered the pilots to crash the plane in the Himalayas. Jones, Wan Li and Willie survived the crash and they ended in Mayapore, a small village in India. The local shaman told them that people from the Royal Palace stole them their sacred Sankara Stone and they kidnapped their children. Jones decided to help them to give them back their treasure and their children, Willie objetcted but Jones didn't listen to her.
In the Palace they joined dinner with Chattar Lal, the Maharajah and British Captain Phillip Blumburtt but that night they discovered the thuth about the new Thugghee cult and the enslaved children. The trio was captured by the guards and Jones was drugged while Wan Li was enslaved and Willie was elected as the next sacrifice. Wan Li escaped and he helped Jones to get back and save Willie from High Priest Mola Ram. Then Jones freed the slave children and they left the palace.
Jones, Scott and Wan Li were ambushed in a Rope Bridge, but Jones managed to cut the ropes and the bridge collapsed killing many guards and Mola Ram itself who fell down after fight Jones and after that he was eaten by the alligators in the river. The British went there, guided by the young Maharajah and then they shot, captured and killed the rest of the Thugghee. With the escaped children, the trio returned to Mayapore as heroes.
Last years[]
Wan Li returned to America with Jones and Scott, where he attended boarding school. In 1936, he assisted the archaeologist off the coast of Bimini where Jones was diving in search of evidence that confirmed the existence of a lost continent named Atlantis.
Wan Li eventually took up the search for the Peacock's Eye like his hero and managed to track the diamond to Hawaii in 1957.
Death[]
Wan Li died in Chicago in 2005 at the age of 79 years.