The Legend of Mando part 2: the Way of Jianghu
In the first of this two-parter, I’ve explored how Din Djarin is the very model of a Xia, and how his quests mirror so many wuxia tales, but there’s much more to the series, and the universe of Star Wars that aligns with the Chinese genre.
Posted in Articles and tagged Chinese, fantasy, fiction, film, novel, Star Wars, The Mandalorian, Wuxia
Love and Sword: A Dream of Jianghu
Love and Sword (directed by Cha Zhuanyi, starring Xuan Lu, Gao Weiguang), is a Tencent wuxia romance series released earlier this year. Loosely a chuanyue (Chinese for isekai) story, its protagonist Fang Yi, a young woman in contemporary China, gets transported into a dream world after being in a road accident. The woman with whom she shares her name, whose body she ends up in, is one of the greatest fighters of the land. She is being held to ransom within an inch of her life, and rescued by the dashing swordsman Yanshao (literally “dashing youth”), on a white horse. They make a hazardous journey back to her clan. At first, our heroine is anxious to get home, but as she recovers fragments of traumatic memory of her world and bonds with the people of this one, she begins to like it here, rather a lot.
Sound like a typical wuxia story? Well, it’s meant to be. The show doesn’t hide the fact it’s a dynastic world of the wuxia imagination, adopting an only slightly more sophisticated title of “A Mere Dream of Jianghu” than the novel it’s based on “Sleeping with Yanshao”. And it delivers all the romance, excitement and mystery that we typically find in wuxia novels. This is precisely why I am writing about it, from its archetypal trappings, characterisation and tropey plot developments, we can see much of what makes wuxia storytelling popular, and learn about the genre in contemporary times. As an enthusiast who grew up with wuxia TV, went on the read the novels, and now write about it as an author, I’ll be tapping into my considerable research (recently more focussed and academic). Heads up that because I’m taking the story apart, there will be spoilers.
Posted in Articles and tagged chinese drama, fiction, jianghu, martial arts fantasy, novel, TV, Wuxia
Ni Kuang: An Orbituary
On July the 3rd 2022, renowned writer Ni Kuang, passed away, aged 87. He was one of the most popular modern classic Sinophone writers.
Posted in Articles, Events and tagged books, Chinese, culture, fiction, Ni Kuang, novel, orbituary, science fiction, Sinophone, Wisely, writer, writing, Wuxia
Ye Yonglie: An Obituary
On the 15thof May 2020, one of the forefathers of Chinese science fiction, Ye Yonglie, passed away.
Born in 1940 in Wenzhou (Zhejiang), Ye was a literary prodigy who published his first work at the age of 11, and his first book at the age of 19. After graduating in chemistry from Peking University, he continued his love of writing, and went on to create a wide range of short stories, journals and longer fictional works.
Posted in Events and tagged children's fiction, china, Chinese, culture, fiction, novel, orbituary, science fiction, SFF, Ye Yonglie
Jin Yong: An Orbituary
Jin Yong, one of the greatest Chinese writers of the twentieth century, passed away earlier this week on Tuesday the 30th of October. Aged 94, he died of organ failure after battling long-term illness, at the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital.
Posted in Events and tagged china, Chinese, culture, Jin Yong, literature, novel, Wuxia
Condors and Falcons
When I heard that Jin Yong’s Wuxia classic “The Condor Heroes” was being published in English, (translated by Anna Holmwood, and first volume released earlier this year), I was delighted. As a Chinese cultural commentator, I was happy to read the articles that this publication had generated, even by the old white academics who seem to have recently discovered the existence of Wuxia. One article however, did leave me mulling the content. In its use of journalistic shorthand, Vanessa Thorpe’s article in The Guardian a few weeks ago, described Jin Yong as being “China’s Tolkien”. Whilst I understand the reasoning for this, I feel that she’s missed the mark. In terms of story, character, genre, not to mention cultural significance, the world of “Condor Heroes” can be more appropriately described as China’s Star Wars.
Posted in Articles and tagged china, Chinese, culture, literature, novel, wuxi
Raiding China’s Tomb Adventures
Our penultimate post is about popular Chinese fiction of the ghostly, grave-robbing kind. We are thrilled to post this piece by writer and translator Xueting Christine Ni, who is currently working with the fantasy and science fiction author Tang Fei, and writing a book on Chinese deities. Having studied English literature in London, and Chinese literature in Beijing, she is now based mainly in the UK.
As a writer on Chinese culture, specialising in pop culture, I’m often asked about genre fiction. “Do the Chinese do science fiction?” or “Does China have Horror?” Over the last two decades or so, Chinese pop culture has grown exponentially. Economic growth and relative political stability have allowed writers and artists the space to let their imagination run free and to create in readers a taste for such entertainment and variety.
Posted in Articles and tagged books, china, Chinese, comic, culture, film, ghost story, horror, literature, novel, tomb raiding, translation
The Fresh Perspective of Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons
2013’s Chinese New Year movie, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons is a kungfu fantasy film directed by Chi-kin Kwok and Stephen Chow. It’s based on one of the four cornerstones of Chinese classical literature, Xi You Ji or Journey to the West. Set in the Tang Dynasty, the novel tells the story of the monk Tripitaka and his perilous journey to India in search for Buddhist sutras, accompanied by his disciples and bodyguards, three reformed demons – a mischievous but super powerful monkey spirit, a fallen god turned pig demon and a fish demon.
Posted in Articles, Events and tagged china, Chinese, classic, demons, film, Journey to the West, kungfu, literature, Monkey King, movie, novel, Stephen Chow, wuxi a
On the Representation of Chinese Arts in Western Media
Recently numerous friends on social media have pointed out to me the shockingly underinformed or dubious ways in which the Chinese arts have been represented in the Western media. I have been impressed by your astuteness and I thank you for your kindness.
Posted in Articles and tagged animation, arts, china, Chinese culture, comics, commentary, film, literature, novel, representation, science fiction