RIP Jin Yong aka Louis Cha

[GeneChing]

No single writer has had as much impact on how we view Kung Fu today as Louis Cha.


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Renowned Kung Fu Novelist Louis Cha Dead at 94 (http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1003132/renowned-kung-fu-novelist-louis-cha-dead-at-94)
The Chinese-speaking world bids a bittersweet farewell to one of its most beloved contemporary writers.

Qian Zhecheng
Oct 30, 2018 3-min read

One of China’s most beloved writers has died at the age of 94, but his tales of swashbuckling heroes and enchanting heroines will live on for generations to come.

Louis Cha — also known by his pen name, Jin Yong — died at a hospital in Hong Kong on Tuesday after battling an undisclosed illness. Sixth Tone’s sister publication The Paper confirmed the novelist’s death with Ma Ka-fai, another Hong Kong writer. “The world has lost Master Jin,” state-owned People’s Daily wrote Tuesday night in an elegiac editorial to the giant of kung fu storytelling.

Cha was born in 1924 in the eastern Chinese city of Haining to a distinguished family with a lineage dating back to high-ranking officials of the Qing Dynasty. He held several literary jobs as a young adult, donning the hats of journalist, translator, and editor. Cha moved to Hong Kong in 1948 to accept a post with Ta Kung Pao, one of Hong Kong’s most successful left-wing newspapers, and published a martial arts novel, “The Book and the Sword,” under the pen name Jin Yong in 1955. He co-founded his own newspaper, Ming Pao, in 1959, and went on to write several popular and critically acclaimed novels, many of which have been adapted to film and television.

Cha has had a profound influence on China’s younger generations. Wang Xiaolei, a well-known WeMedia blogger, weaves Cha’s characters and plots into incisive social commentaries, and billionaire Jack Ma counts himself among Cha’s biggest fans. Ma’s company, e-commerce giant Alibaba, has encouraged his employees to adopt the names of fictional characters for internal communications. Ma’s own pseudonym was inspired by Cha: He chose Feng Qingyang, a kung fu master from the novel “The Smiling, Proud Wanderer.” In 2016, Ma recorded a video in celebration of the writer’s birthday in which he called Feng Qingyang his teacher and said Jin Yong novels should be required reading for all.

Huang Qiping, a 31-year-old history teacher in Foshan, a city in southern Guangdong province, told Sixth Tone that he’s been fascinated by Cha’s writing ever since he first leafed through the pages of “The Legend of the Condor Heroes” in middle school. Almost two decades years later, Huang says he has read the novel cover to cover at least 10 times; he even teaches the book to his students.

To Huang, what sets Cha’s writing apart is its depth and nuance. He remembers eagerly devouring every tale set in Cha’s martial arts universe, where heroes and villains walk on thin air, deliver death with the touch of a finger, and use fabled techniques like the 18 palms to subdue dragons.

Gradually, Huang began to see that there was more to his beloved novels than fame and fighting. Take “Inclusiveness shall make thee a man,” Huang’s favorite line from “The Legend of the Condor Heroes,” his favorite novel. “Just like in martial arts, only people who are truly open-minded can reach the apex of their lives,” Huang explained. “Adopting this mentality has had an immeasurable impact on my life.”

Additional reporting: Fan Liya; editor: David Paulk.

(Header image: Louis Cha poses for a photo at his home in Hong Kong, Aug. 12, 2004. Cui Jun/Beijing Youth Daily/VCG)

THREADS:
RIP Louis Cha (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71043-RIP-Louis-Cha)
Jin Yong aka Louis Cha (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?52605-Jin-Yong-aka-Louis-Cha)

[GeneChing]

Tributes pour in for Chinese literary giant Louis Cha, the ‘greatest epic writer of our time who embodied the martial arts spirit’ (https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/2170910/hong-kongs-most-famous-martial-arts-writer-louis-cha-dies)
Cha died in Hong Kong, aged 94, after a long illness
His novels transcended political, geographical and ideological barriers for Chinese readers
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 30 October, 2018, 7:28pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 31 October, 2018, 1:51am
Ng Kang-chung

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Tributes have been pouring in for Hong Kong martial arts novelist Louis Cha Leung-yung, the world’s most popular Chinese writer, who died on Tuesday after a long illness. He was 94.

His son-in-law, Dr Ng Wai-cheong, said the literary giant was surrounded by family members when he died in the afternoon, while the Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper, founded by Cha, confirmed he breathed his last at the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital.

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Cha at his office in North Point in 1997. Photo: Martin Chan

Cha was a respected journalist, community leader, and, above all, a celebrated author whose novels in the wuxia genre – featuring chivalrous tales of kung fu masters in ancient China – made him a household name both at home and among the global Chinese diaspora.

His work transcended political, geographical and ideological barriers, with well over 100 million copies sold worldwide and countless adaptations into media ranging from films to video games.

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Cha’s martial arts novels proved hugely popular around the world. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

In 1955, he published his first martial arts novel, The Book and the Sword, in the New Evening Post, under the pen name Jin Yong. It was an instant success and he went on to write 14 hugely popular martial arts novels, ending with The Deer and the Cauldron in 1972.

He was universally regarded as the most influential Chinese martial arts novelist of the 20th century.

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As well as novels, Cha also wrote editorials. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, on a visit to Japan, issued a statement expressing “deep sorrow” over Cha’s death and calling him “a learned man and an acclaimed writer”.

“He founded [newspaper] Ming Pao in his early years and also wrote editorials with constructive comments for society, earning the respect of the sector,” the statement added.


It’s a huge loss for Chinese people around the world ... he will always be in my heart JACK MA, ALIBABA CHAIRMAN
“I was grieved to learn of [Cha’s] passing. On behalf of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to his family.”

Also among the first to react to the news was billionaire Jack Ma, a lifelong lover of martial arts and chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post.

“It’s a huge loss for Chinese people around the world, and it’s especially sad for us at Alibaba as we have embraced his writings as part of our corporate culture,” Ma said, referring to the old company practice of employees giving themselves nicknames drawn from characters in Cha’s novels.

The two met in Hangzhou in China in 2000 and remained good friends.

“The wuxia spirit promoted by Cha has become a core value of Alibaba,” Ma added. “I have long admired Cha and he has been a source of deep inspiration for me. He will always be in my heart.”

Former financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah, also a keen martial arts enthusiast and Cha fan, expressed shock at the news.

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Cha and Alibaba chairman Jack Ma met in 2000 and remained good friends. Photo: Handout

“It’s very saddening,” Tsang said. “I extend my condolences to his family. His passing is a great loss to the culture of Hong Kong, China and the world. He was probably the greatest epic writer of our time.”

Tsang said he had personally met Cha several times, and kept a scrapbook of clippings of Cha’s work published in newspapers in the early 1960s.

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Cha founded the newspaper Ming Pao.

“Cha will be remembered not just as a guru of martial arts novels but a giant comparable with William Shakespeare in his own right,” cultural critic and former Post writer Oliver Chou said.

“No other Chinese authors would appeal so much to Chinese readers, regardless of dialects and political views. The late paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, was said to have sent secret agents to get him a set of Cha’s novels in Hong Kong in the early 1980s.”

Cha’s fame later earned him a meeting in 1981 with Deng, who reportedly told him: “We’re already old friends. I’ve read your novels.”

Chou added: “In founding Ming Pao, Cha became an eminent opinion leader whose editorials were a must-read for Chinese readers, especially intellectuals, all over the world.”

continued next post

[GeneChing]

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Works by Cha (left) were the source of inspiration for film, TV and radio producers. Photo: SCMP

Cha’s novels were the source of inspiration for film, TV and radio producers, and deeply influenced the development of popular culture in Hong Kong over the past decades. Top movie stars, from Andy Lau Tak-wah to Jet Li Lianjie, starred in big-screen adaptations of his novels.

Popular actor and Cha fan Adam Cheng, who has played numerous main characters from Cha’s novels in TV dramas, said: “You can call them works of historical fiction, but they’re more than that. You will be so absorbed in his writings that you believe those kung fu adventures actually happened in history.”

Born in Hangzhou, Cha graduated from the Law School of Suzhou in 1948. To help support his studies, he began work in 1947 as a journalist and translator for the Ta Kung Pao newspaper in Shanghai. He came to Hong Kong in 1948 to work for the paper’s office in the city.

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An exhibition of Cha’s works at the Heritage Museum in Sha Tin. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

In 1955, after leaving Ta Kung Pao, he began to write novels that were steeped in three main ethical traditions of China – Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.

His novels, and the world of the Chinese martial arts heroes they portrayed, were first opened to English readers in 1994.

Cha admitted in an interview the same year that Western readers might find his novels hard to appreciate.

“The reader may need some training in Chinese thinking to understand,” he said, describing his books as “traditional Chinese novels in their themes, morals, or philosophies”.

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Actor Andy Lau (left) in a TVB adaptation of Louis Cha’s “The Return of the Condor Heroes”. Photo: TVB

“Martial arts for me are just an instrument, a sugar coating. They can be used as a way of expressing my artistic ideas,” Cha said.

Those ideas, according to Cha, were distinctly anti-feudal and liberal.

Man at centre of Nobel Literature scandal jailed for rape

In 1957, the early success of his novels encouraged him to set up a small newspaper, reportedly with a staff of four, including himself. That was the birth of Ming Pao, now a leading Chinese-language daily. At the time, the main selling point of the paper was the serialisation of his novels.

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Cha (left) signing an autograph for Ma and others. Photo: Handout.

In 1966, his editorials were critical of the country’s Cultural Revolution – he wrote that it threatened the destruction of Chinese culture and tradition.

Cha was said to be on a list of prominent people being targeted for assassination that was published in left-wing newspapers during the 1967 riots in Hong Kong because of his critical stance against Beijing.

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Cha at the University of Hong Kong. Photo: SCMP

After China and Britain struck a deal on Hong Kong’s 1997 handover, Cha was appointed by Beijing in 1985 as a member of the Basic Law Drafting Committee, with the weighty task of drawing up Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.

Observers at the time believed he was probably hand-picked for his ability to balance conflicting views.

But the widely admired writer stepped into controversy after he co-presented a conservative proposal for the city’s post-1997 political reforms.

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Cha (second from left) received many honours for his contributions to society, including an honorary degree from HKU. Photo: SCMP

The proposal, which was eventually adopted partially by Beijing, suggested the first three Hong Kong chief executives should be elected by a “broadly representative” committee. Critics said that approach would greatly delay the timetable for universal suffrage.

Former chairman of the Democratic Party, Albert Ho Chun-yan, said Cha had made a “big mistake”.

“We see that he was willing to be used by Beijing to present that unpopular scheme which was widely believed to be from Beijing and not from himself – at the expense of his reputation,” Ho recalled. “He was a disappointment.”

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Cha wrote these words to Jack Ma. They read: “I would rather leave a treasure trove empty handed than forsake my integrity. Treasures can be left aside but honesty cannot be abandoned.” Photo: Handout

Martin Lee Chu-ming, a veteran democrat who also sat on the Basic Law Drafting Committee, recalled that Cha was willing to listen to divergent views. “Mr Cha and I had discussed democracy before and he liked to talk about that,” Lee said.

In recognition of his contributions to society, Cha was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1981 and awarded the city’s highest honour, the Grand Bauhinia Medal, in 2000.

Additional reporting by Alvin Lum, Joyce Ng, Danny Mok, Su Xinqi, Gary Cheung, and Tony Cheung

Such a loss. I'm in mourning today.

[GeneChing]

Funeral of Hong Kong martial arts novelist Louis Cha ‘Jin Yong’ to be private affair (https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2171113/fans-flock-gallery-mourn-hong-kong-martial-arts-novelist-louis-cha)
Condolence book will be opened at Jin Yong Gallery at Heritage Museum in Sha Tin for public to pay their last respects
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 31 October, 2018, 11:46pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 01 November, 2018, 9:18am
Joyce Ng
Shirley Zhao

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Chinese literary giant Louis Cha Leung-yung’s funeral will be a private event, as he had wanted, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday night.

Citing an obituary on behalf of Cha’s family by Ming Ho Publications Corporation, which was founded by the late martial arts novelist, Xinhua said a condolence book would be opened at the Jin Yong Gallery at the Heritage Museum in Sha Tin for the public to pay their last respects from November 12 to 30.

Hongkongers have been flocking to the gallery, which bears the writer’s pen name, as admirers and critics debate his legacy in arts and politics.

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A visitor at the Jin Yong Gallery takes a selfie beside a picture of Louis Cha. Photo: Nora Tam

Hundreds of visitors, including groups of students and adults of all ages, have paid tribute to the world’s most popular Chinese novelist, whose work in the wuxia genre – featuring chivalrous tales of kung fu masters in ancient China – was read by everyone from teenagers to world leaders.

The gallery is home to more than 300 exhibits featuring the creative process behind Cha’s wuxia novels and the impact his works have had on Hong Kong culture. It also displays excerpts from the many films and television series adapted from his novels.

Wuxia legend Louis Cha battled liver cancer and dementia in twilight years

Fans left farewell messages on the gallery’s bulletin board, including one which said: “Mr Jin Yong, you are my childhood memory!”

One visitor said Cha’s novels taught him to be a person of integrity. Another said he appreciated Cha’s unconventional heroes.

Cha, 94, died at the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital in Happy Valley on Tuesday with friends and family at his bedside. He had liver cancer and dementia, according to friend and fellow writer Chip Tsao.

Cha’s novels in the wuxia genre made him a household name both at home and among the global Chinese diaspora. He was also a community leader and co-founder of the Ming Pao newspaper group.

The writer’s son, Andrew Cha, expressed thanks for the tributes and condolences that have poured in. He posted a collage of his father’s photos on WeChat, accompanied by a couplet describing Cha as someone who was inclusive, open to all ideas and full of “chivalrous passion”.

Wang Zhimin, director of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, said Cha was a patriot who loved Hong Kong, helped promote the development of the “one country, two systems” principle by which the city is governed, and made significant contributions to promote Chinese culture.

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Condolence notes are left on a message board at the Jin Yong Gallery in the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Photo: Nora Tam

With his passing, Cha’s literary accomplishments as well as his role in Hong Kong’s democratic development were subjects of debate.

Leonard Chan Kwok-kou, chair professor of Chinese literature at Education University, said Cha’s martial arts novels had been recognised by academia as deserving a place in history, but no consensus had been reached on how he should be regarded.

Chan said Cha’s novels had traditional Chinese cultural elements such as patriotism, loyalty and chivalry, but were mostly written to a formula featuring a male protagonist, popular with women, who managed to perfect his martial arts skills towards the end of the story.

“To me, his concepts are conventional,” Chan said. “I don’t see an immensely profound portrayal of humanity in the books.”

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The Jin Yong Gallery gallery is home to exhibits featuring the creative process behind Louis Cha’s wuxia novels. Photo: Nora Tam

But associate professor Howard Choy Yuen-fung of Baptist University’s Chinese language and literature department disagreed, arguing Cha’s works were “Hong Kong cultural icons” and reflected the confusion felt by Hongkongers in the run-up to the city’s handover to China in 1997.

The theme of love in his novels, between father and son, between brothers, between man and woman and between master and student, were also remarkable, Choy added.

Writer Tsao, who worked for Ming Pao Daily News, said Cha contributed greatly to Hong Kong by making his newspaper a forum for intellectuals to express their ideas freely.

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The gallery also explains the impact Louis Cha’s works have had on Hong Kong culture. Photo: Nora Tam

His political role was also being assessed, since Cha, as a drafter of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution for the 1997 handover, presented a conservative proposal for universal suffrage in 1988, which was eventually adopted by Beijing.

Martin Lee Chu-ming, a fellow drafter of the Basic Law, said while he understood Cha might have had a good understanding of Beijing’s bottom line and the need to compromise, the democratic camp felt he had delayed the city’s quest for democracy.

Additional reporting by Gary Cheung

Such a profound impact on Kung Fu. If you don't know Cha, you just don't know. :(

[GeneChing]

Jin Yong, 94, Lionized Author of Chinese Martial Arts Epics, Dies (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/obituaries/jin-yong-dead.html)

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The novelist Jin Yong in 2002 with his book “Book and Sword, Gratitude and Revenge” at his office in Hong Kong. He was broadly popular with generations of Chinese readers.Credit Bobby Yip/Reuters
By Amy Qin
Nov. 2, 2018

阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版
HONG KONG — Jin Yong, a literary giant of the Chinese-speaking world whose fantastical epic novels inspired countless film, television and video game adaptations and were read by generations of ethnic Chinese, died on Oct. 30 in Hong Kong. He was 94.

His death, at the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, was confirmed by Ming Pao, the prominent Hong Kong newspaper that Jin Yong helped establish and ran for decades. Chip Tsao, a writer and friend, said the cause of death was organ failure.

Jin Yong, the pen name of Louis Cha, was one of the most widely read 20th-century writers in the Chinese language. The panoramic breadth and depth of the fictional universes he created have been compared to J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” and have been studied as a topic known as “Jinology.”

Jin Yong received his start as a novelist in the mid-1950s while working as a film critic and editor for The New Evening Post in Hong Kong, which was then a British crown colony. He had moved there in 1948 and lived there for most of his life.

From 1955 to 1972, Jin Yong wrote 14 novels and novellas and one short story in the popular genre known as wuxia, which consisted mainly of swashbuckling martial arts adventures.

His first wuxia novel, “The Book and the Sword” (1955), drew its inspiration from a legend that held that the Manchu emperor Qianlong was in fact a Han Chinese who had been switched at birth. The novel was serialized in The New Evening Post and became an instant hit.

By the time he began writing, the Chinese Communist Party had banned wuxia literature, calling it “decadent” and “feudal.” The ban reflected a centuries-old view of wuxia as a marginal genre within the Chinese literary tradition.

But in Hong Kong and other parts of the Chinese diaspora, Jin Yong’s novels helped spearhead a new wave of martial arts fiction in the 1950s and ‘60s.

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“Legends of the Condor Heroes 1: A Hero Born,” by Jin Yong.

Jin Yong elevated what had been a rather formulaic genre by blending in poetry, history and fantasy to create hundreds of vivid characters who travel through a mirror underworld that operates according to its own laws and code of ethics.

In tales of love, chivalry, friendship and filial piety, his characters are flawed, with complex emotional histories, making them all the more appealing.

“Writing about heroes was very easy,” Jin Yong said in a 2012 interview. “But as I got older I learned that these big heroes actually had another, more contemptible side to them, a side that was not shown to others.”

Translated into many languages, his books have sold tens of millions of copies, fueling a sprawling industry of film, television and video game adaptations.

Jin Yong used martial arts fiction as a vehicle to talk about Chinese history and traditional culture, forging his own fictional vernacular that drew heavily on classical expressions. His stories were often set at pivotal moments in Chinese history, like the rise and fall of dynasties. They made reference to Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist ideas, and positioned martial arts as an integral part of Chinese culture, alongside traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture and calligraphy.

Jin Yong took a “marginal, even disreputable, form of popular fiction and made it both a vehicle for serious literary expression and something that appealed to Chinese readers around the globe,” John Christopher Hamm, an associate professor of Asian languages and literature at the University of Washington, said in a telephone interview.

Following the early success of his novels, Jin Yong established his own newspaper, Ming Pao Daily News, in Hong Kong in 1959. Soon he was publishing installments of his novels while writing daily social commentaries about the horrors of Mao Zedong’s China.

It was a subject he was intimately familiar with: In 1951, his father had been labeled a “class enemy” and was executed by the Communists.

In 1981, as China was beginning to open up economically and politically, Jin Yong traveled to Beijing to meet with Deng Xiaoping, Mao’s successor. Deng confessed that he was an avid fan of Jin Yong’s books.

Not long afterward, China lifted its ban on Jin Yong’s novels. At the time, many young Chinese were eager to read something other than the socialist propaganda they had become accustomed to under Mao.

“Reading his novels opened our vision,” Liu Jianmei, a professor of contemporary Chinese literature at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said in a telephone interview. “His way of thinking was so different from what was being cultivated in mainland China at the time. He helped us think beyond right and wrong, good and bad.”

In 1985, Jin Yong was appointed to a political committee charged with drafting Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the mini-constitution that would govern that semiautonomous city once Britain handed it over, ending colonial rule. He drew criticism for backing a conservative proposal to select the city’s leader without universal suffrage.

Jin Yong’s initial optimism about China’s political opening was dashed by the government’s bloody crackdown on the student-led democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

He resigned from the committee in protest. In a tearful interview, he said, “Students’ peaceful petitions should never be suppressed by military force.”

Cha Leung-yung was born the second of seven children on March 10, 1924, in Haining, in the central coastal province of Zhejiang. His father, Zha Shuqing, was an educated landlord. His mother, Xu Lu, was from a wealthy business family.

Jin Yong graduated from Soochow University’s law school in 1948. By then he had begun working as a journalist and translator for the newspaper Ta Kung Pao in Shanghai. In 1948 he moved with the newspaper to Hong Kong, which would become his home for the next seven decades.

He retired from writing novels in 1972. He stepped down as chairman of the Ming Pao Enterprise Corporation in 1993.

Jin Yong is survived by his third wife, Lam Lok Yi, and his children from his second marriage: a son, Andrew, and two daughters, Grace and Edna.

This year, the first installment of Jin Yong’s popular trilogy, “Legends of the Condor Heroes,” was translated into English, by Anna Holmwood.

Among readers of original Chinese versions, Jin Yong had no shortage of prominent fans. They include Jack Ma, the chairman of Alibaba, who at one point gave employees nicknames drawn from characters in the novels.

Claire Fu contributed research from Beijing.

Follow Amy Qin on Twitter: @amyyqin

Our publisher Gigi Oh said she read all of Jin Yong's works when she was growing up. They were illegal in Taiwan at that time, but she had a source. She credits some of her literacy to exposure to his writings as a youth.

[GeneChing]

First Jin Yong (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71043-RIP-Jin-Yong-aka-Louis-Cha), now Xiao Yi (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71085-RIP-Xiao-Yi-aka-Shiao-Ching-jen)


Chinese martial arts novelist Shiao Ching-jen dies at 83 (http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201811/21/WS5bf4bd5aa310eff30328a153.html)
CGTN | Updated: 2018-11-21 10:05

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Shiao Ching-jen, more widely known by his pen name Xiao Yi. [Photo/CGTN]

Chinese Wuxia (martial arts) novelist Shiao Ching-jen, more widely known by his pen name Xiao Yi, died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, the U.S. on Monday, according to the Chinese Writers Association of North America. He was 83.

His death is only 20 days after the Chinese literary world lost another guru in wuxia novels, Cha Leung-yung (known by his pen name as Jin Yong) on October 30.

For many Chinese wuxia novel readers, Shiao, who was born in Beijing, enjoyed equivalent fame with Jin Yong. He was often mentioned with Cha as the "Nan Jin Bei Xiao" (Jin of the south and Shiao of the north).

During the past decades, Shiao wrote at least 55 wuxia novels, including several novellas. Many of them have been adopted into TV series and films, with their influences spreading across the country.

His novel "Gan Shijiu Mei" ("Sister Gan 19") depicting the love tragedy of chivalrous hero Yin Jianping and heroine Sister Gan 19, was adapted into a TV series by Shandong Television in 1995, earning him nationwide popularity. The TV series remains a part of the collective memory of a generation.

Shiao was the good friend of wuxia novelist Xiong Yaohua (known by his pen name Gu Long), and the two started to write at about the same time. However, compared with the wuxia novelists who tended to imitate Gu Long's writing style, Shiao maintained his own style.

He put a lot of focus on creating the atmosphere while at the same time depicting conflicts in humanity.

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A poster of the 1995 TV series Sister Gan 19. [Photo/The Paper]

"I came to realize that the breakthrough lies in the depiction of the human nature. As long as you observe carefully enough, breakthrough in writing is at hand," Shiao once said in an interview.

Shiao once said that the so-called wuxia spirit, or chivalrous spirit of the wuxia world, is the great sympathy towards the world and all the creatures, as well as the fairness and the courage to guarantee the fairness of the world. He emphasized that it is the spirit that could never be omitted in wuxia novels.

Shiao's death has triggered another round of deep mourning in the Chinese literary world, especially among enthusiastic wuxia novel readers.

"I was amazed by one of his novel while reading it in high school. It depicted a different wuxia world to me. Rest in peace," a Weibo user wrote.

"It's like they've discussed their departure date, without any signs beforehand…They left us with a bunch of classical works, and yet what we love more is them being there, not just their works," a reader took to his Sina Weibo account, in deep mourning.

For many Chinese readers, the mourning is not only for the death of the writer, but also for the memories of reading wuxia novels, the wuxia world that is retreating from its golden era, as well as their own youths.

"All the wuxia novel masters have gone. We are getting old, so does our dreams of the wuxia world," said another Sina Weibo user.

[GeneChing]

Martial arts novelist Louis Cha. Photo: Xinhua
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LOUIS CHA’S LIFE AS A HONG KONG JOURNALIST WAS AS THRILLING AS HIS MARTIAL ARTS NOVELS (https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2171478/louis-chas-life-hong-kong-journalist-was-thrilling-his-martial?fbclid=IwAR2Hc9stzQqUyxl7E1PtYalJjL_E4HYqB ec_iuyaLtHqu-C9t2odMiICq74)
Novelist known as Jin Yong was put on an assassination list for his editorials in the newspaper he co-founded, Ming Pao
But he found the courage to stand up to the threat, taking inspiration from the characters he created
BY WANG XIANGWEI
3 NOV 2018

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Louis Cha, better known by his pen name Jin Yong, is one of the most-read writers in the Chinese-speaking world. But outside it, relatively few people have heard of him, hence the English-language media’s effort to refer him as “China’s Tolkien”.

Through his epic works, Cha, who died at the age of 94 in Hong Kong last week, perfected the literary genre of martial arts novels by creating a mythical world where heroes and heroines go against all hardships to help the weak and ensure justice prevails in the end, and where love is pure and chivalry triumphs against wickedness.

Since the 1950s, his novels, deeply rooted in Chinese history, have inspired people in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the mainland, and throughout the Chinese diaspora, regardless of ages or backgrounds.

Over 100 million copies of his works have been sold worldwide, not to mention perhaps several hundred million pirated copies, and his novels have been adapted into countless movies, TV shows, and comic books.

Literary giant Louis Cha ever ready to voice unpopular opinions

Ardent fans include the late paramount Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and the new breed of hi-tech tycoons including Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group, which owns the South China Morning Post.

Of the millions of fans paying their tributes, most could fondly relate to the main characters in Cha’s novels and recall which of his 15 novels had the most impact on specific stages of their lives.

Cha himself also displayed and shared many of the chivalrous qualities found in the characters so endeared to the readers.


In the early 1980s, he was willing to bury the hatchet and make peace with the Chinese government, a true act of chivalry considering that his father was arrested on trumped up charges of being a counter-revolutionary and executed by the communist authorities in the 1950s. He was posthumously rehabilitated in the 1980s.

While tributes have been pouring in focusing on Cha’s literary achievements, as a fellow journalist, I would like to pay tribute to his journalistic endeavours, which are equally outstanding.

After all, Cha started out as a reporter and co-founded the respected Chinese-language daily newspaper Ming Pao in 1959 and served as its editor-in-chief for years.

His literary passion greatly helped his journalistic work as he started to serialise his novels in his own newspaper and developed a devoted following of readers.

Wuxia legend Louis Cha battled liver cancer and dementia in twilight years

Legend has it that as the chief editor, he managed to work on editorials and novels at the same time, writing up to 10,000 Chinese characters a day.

While his literary talent and imagination were unrivalled, he also had sharp and penetrating insights into political developments in China from the 1950s to the 1970s, when the country’s politics were wrapped in utmost secrecy.

For instance, in 1976 when Deng was politically exiled once again, Cha’s editorials predicted Deng would soon make a comeback. He was proved right a little more than one year later.

Moreover, his life as a journalist was no less thrilling than the characters depicted in his novels.

In 1966, just seven years after Ming Pao was established, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution and plunged the country into a decade of darkness and chaos.

Because of its proximity, Hong Kong, then a British colony, was also seriously affected and went through a period of great turbulence.

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Louis Cha, who writes under the name Jin Yong, with his novel ‘Book and Sword, Gratitude and Revenge’. Photo: Reuters

In 1967, when riots broke out between the ultra-left elements and Hong Kong’s colonial authorities, Cha’s sharp editorials blasting rioters and their lawlessness earned him the No 2 spot on an assassination list. The first one, a radio host, was already dead, burned alive.

As Cha recalled in an interview decades later, a parcel containing a bomb was also sent to his newspaper’s office building.

Asked if he was afraid, he replied “of course”. But as he was writing a martial arts novel at the time, he wanted to stand up to the threat just like the heroes in his novel.

“How can I be a man if I quit just because I am afraid?” he said.

He also said that in the face of the death threat, he had also received generous offers of money to tone down his criticisms at a time when his budget was tight and he sometimes ran out of money to buy newsprint. Although he did not say who offered the money, it was obviously from pro-Beijing elements.

Of course, he declined all the offers. As he humbly put it, “although I do not possess much in terms of chivalrous qualities … at least I would not accede to other people’s commands because of difficulties”.

A truly chivalrous journalist. May he rest in peace. ■


Wang Xiangwei is the former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post. He is now based in Beijing as editorial adviser to the paper

Chivalrous journalism. What does that mean in the era of 'fake news'?

[GeneChing]

SPRING 2019 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=1472)

Jin Yong (a.k.a. Louis Cha) 1924–2018
By Gary W. Shockley

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