The Passing of a Master

Today, at the age of 94, one of the Father's  of the Wuxia genre, Louis Cha, who wrote under the pen name of Jin Yong passed away. The author of over 14 novels and countless short stories his prolific pen gave life to characters that are famous in Asia and are now becoming popular in the West.

I stumbled across the 2017 drama adaption of Legend of Condor Heroes purely by chance on Youtube.  It was my first true dive into the world of Wuxia and while at first the special effects made me the laugh and the drama felt a bit campy, I was completely entranced.

The sweeping epic scale of Jin Yong's storytelling transferred to the screen and I found myself eagerly binge watching episode after episode. A world of noble heroes, smart heroines and truly evil villains all in a back drop of Song Dynasty China. Soon I was digging into Chinese history and culture beyond just the Song Dynasty. I found a welcoming community of fans from all over the world who shared their love to Wuxia and Xianxia .

When I found out that his Condor Heroes novels were officially being translated into English I immediately ordered the first book off Amazon. While the translation has many issues (And I'm still not done reading it but I may post a review one day), at heart it captures the complex world of heroes and villains.

His writing introduced to me my favorite character, Huang Rong (Li Yitong)

She checks all my "This woman is my favorite character boxes". She's confident, spunky, cunning and down right fun! It was characters like her and Mu Nianci (Meng Ziyi)  who is another amazing character, that got me searching for more heroines.

Villainous women like the terrifying and powerful Mei Chaofeng (Mi Lu) kept me glued to my computer screen.

I have issues with how he handles his female characters, especially how most of their goals are focused on men, but there is no denying that they are great. So, to honor the memory of a true master of the genre, whose tales are modern legends, give Condor Heroes a read. Here's the Amazon link for the English translation of the 1st novel.
A Hero Born:Legend of Condor Heroes vol 1
 Or if you want to explore other Wuxia writers both classic, such as Jin Yong's friend and fellow Founding Father of Wuxia, Gu Long check out WuxiaWorld, which is were you can read free and legal translations of Chinese and Korean novels.
WuxiaWorld

What would you like me to write about next? While I enjoy Wuxia, I love fantasy novels, anime, comics and pretty much most nerdy things. So tell me in the comments what my next post should be about and I may just write it!