Oh no, not another Vincent story. Bear with me on this one...
Foreword: It seems that all of the Kryptonians we saw in the New Krypton arc could speak English. That got me to thinking – most of the Kryptonians we saw look exactly like certain types of humans, namely, Caucasians. Which wasn’t actually that big of a surprise, considering that the Kryptonian that we all know and love, Clark Kent, fits right in with those humans.
After all, Jor-El and Lara made sure of this – they sent him to a planet where the people looked just like they did, to a place named “Kansas” in the land called “America”. Clearly it wouldn’t do to send him to a *random* place on Earth - after all, that would most likely just send their son to the bottom of an ocean.
It also wouldn’t do to send him to, say, Africa, or Mongolia. I mean, that would surely decrease the odds of a kindly couple finding him and successfully passing him off as their son as well.
But what if the physical appearances of humans were also representative of the physical appearances of Kryptonians? Hmm…that would greatly decrease the probability of a Kryptonian baby looking Caucasian. A far larger proportion of Kryptonians would look like other types of humans. In fact, for, let’s say, Clark Kent, you wouldn’t even have to change his hair or eye colors. Just change the shape of his eyes a little…the color of his skin a little…
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“We found a planet where the inhabitants look just like our own. And so, we sent our son, Kal-El, to a place named ‘Guangzhou’, in the land called ‘Zhong Guo’".
- Jor-El
(Note: Zhong Guo is Mandarin for “China”)
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<Guangzhou, 1966 - also known as the 19th year since the founding of the People’s Republic>
****
“Don’t give up hope, Martha. I’m sure that we’ll find a child to love as our own.” Jonathan Kent said as he comforted his wife.
The pair of western tourists walked dejectedly out of a Chinese adoption agency. Even though the United States and China did not have normalized relations yet, the Chinese government had seen fit to allow one childless couple into the country – after all, they were just common farmers, not greedy capitalist exploiters.
But alas, the Kents did not meet the adoption agency’s strict requirements for foreign couples. As they had been told through their interpreter, “Maybe you can try some of the rural villages. Times are tough during this whole Cultural Revolution thingy – I’m sure that you can find a street urchin to adopt.”
“I know, Jonathan. But we really had our heart set on a *baby*.” Martha responded as she leaned on her husband for comfort.
Suddenly, the two paused in their trek to the rural villages as a bright light streaked downwards from the sky.
“Jonathan, did you see that??” Martha exclaimed.
The couple hurried to the patch of ground where they saw the light land. It was a spaceship! And behold – inside the spaceship, was a *baby*!
“My lord.” Jonathan beamed as his wife cradled the infant in her arms.
“Who’s the most adorable baby in the *whole world*?” Martha cooed at the infant.
But where had the baby come from? Was it an alien, or was it a Chinese baby? Did the Chinese even have a space program? The Kents had more questions than answers – not least of which, who would put a baby in a spaceship?
They decided to claim that they had found the baby lying abandoned off the side of the road. After burying the spaceship, they returned with the baby to the adoption agency. The officials there said that they could keep the baby – after they checked all of the villages to make sure that they hadn’t kidnapped it from anyone, of course. But they were pretty sure that they could trust these kindly American farmers.
“So what are you going to call him? We have to write down a name to make it official.” the clerk asked the Kents.
“Uh…” Jonathan looked to Martha for guidance. Neither of them knew much Chinese.
Martha Kent was a quick thinker though. Stringing together three of the only Chinese words she knew, she said, “How about…Wang Da Zhong?"
(Note: For the name “Wang Da Zhong”, Wang is the surname, and Da Zhong is the given name. The name Wang Da Zhong is a very obscure reference that is probably only understood by overseas Chinese.)
“That’s a very unusual name. I hope you pick out something else for him when you get back to Kansas.” the clerk said through the interpreter.
“Oh, we will. When we get back to the United States, his name will be…Clark Kent.” Jonathan said as he shared a smile with his wife.
And that is the story of how Kal-El of Krypton, named Wang Da Zhong by his adoptive human parents, came to grow up as Clark Kent in the American town of Smallville, Kansas.
****
<to be continued>
