Your life and wuxia

[yoshi]

in a cold april morning ..............................as i watch LOCH 83 my life change i found out that it was written by JY and after watching loch83 i started to watch ROCH DOMD and so on.....................

WUXIA RULES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[yoshi]

[QUOTE=Yeung Gor]In other's perspective, you can say my life is sad. But in my perspective, my life is good. Being without my love is a blessing that has strengthen my character. There are plenty of girls that wants my love but I will wait for XLN.


AWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Trien Chieu]

In other's perspective, you can say my life is sad. But in my perspective, my life is good. Being without my love is a blessing that has strengthen my character. There are plenty of girls that wants my love but I will wait for XLN.

2nd Ed. Roch83.

It has been 8 years, did XLN return to your arm?

[AlamoRemebered]

How did wuxia fiction become a part of your life?

This is an old thread, that I'm glad someone revisited, as it was useful to read different people's personal stories. I hope that some more people who might be new to the boards might add something.

I grew up in the US in a place where the ethnic makeup of the population was almost entirely Western European by ethnicity, with little access to Asian culture of any kind. I discovered wuxia through two major venues. First, I found a large collection of Jademan comics, which were English translations of work mostly by Wong Yuk Long, and Ma Wing Shing. They only produced comics for a few years, but they totally astounded me with their beautiful artwork, including some wonderful detailed ink work and beautiful watercolors, that totally blew away things like Marvel and DC. They had very interesting stories, which were only roughly translated, particularly in their first few comics. There was a bit of a barrier for getting into the stories, but once I put in the effort, I found them fascinating and very compelling, and I definitely felt that I wasn't getting the whole story, and that there was this whole rich world and background I was only partially seeing through a small window. Indeed, I didn't know at the time, but many of the story lines I enjoyed were taken directly from wuxia fiction, mostly Jin Yong. However, I didn't know anyone else interested in these sort of comics, the closest thing being people who liked Japanese manga, so I didn't have anyone to ask about them.

At the same time I was pouring over these comics, I was able to enjoy wuxia action movies, such as Jet Li and Jackie Chan. On a visit to a large city which had a small Chinatown area, I was able to buy some DVD's which were recommended to me by the owner, including things like Swordsman II, which is based on part of Smiling Proud Wanderer. I absolutely loved it, but at the same time, it was like some mysterious artifact dropped from the heavens. It is numbered 2, which implied a first movie I should watch but which I could not find, and leaves, definitely with the feeling that there will be a sequel, again something which I couldn't find. Again, there was this constant feeling that I was only getting a tiny glimmer of a much larger universe, like being shown the middle couple of chapters of a major novel (which indeed was the case), where the intended audience already knew the characters and situations and memes. I felt a bit like I was in something of a "Cargo Cult", receiving little drips and drabs of interesting cargo, without really understanding it properly.

It was only many years later that I revisited my old childhood interests and discovered that there were actually giant, complex novels and a whole rich universe of characters and story conventions that went along with them and that a few of these novels had been translated into English that I could read. Even more importantly, I discovered that the Jin Yong novels were incredibly, painful addictive.

To what other interests has it led you?

It has given me a much greater understanding of Chinese history and culture. Now when I read things, I'm likely to pause and look things up. Now I know about the Warring States, and the difference between the Ming and Qing. It's not just the ancient history, but the modern history as well, as wuxia has lead me to look into the cultural situations in "modern" China that Louis Cha, as a journalist was thinking about and his influences and political leanings, everything from his apparently evolving ideas on a unified pan-China patriotic view, to views on the responsibility of the individual to the state and the state to the individual.

I've read things like the English translations of Shui Hu Zhuan (Water Margin), and Journey to the West, which gave me a much wider understanding of a lot of Asian popular culture, for example the tropes in Dragonball Z.

Wuxia fiction has even helped me in my work life. I have worked with a lot of Chinese scientists, and essentially all of them have great memories of Jin Yong being a big part of their childhood. It's a wonderful thing to chat about, and I've had a lot of fun trying to line up my pronunciation with the characters they remember through describing the plot lines.

Overall, I think it has enhanced my life tremendously.

[CFT]

Hi Alamo, I enjoyed reading about your experiences with wuxia.

[wkeej]

This is an interesting thread.
I have stopped watching JY wuxia series since the last 2013 DGSD. I wonder anyone is in the same boat as me now.

[Trien Chieu]

This is an interesting thread.
I have stopped watching JY wuxia series since the last 2013 DGSD. I wonder anyone is in the same boat as me now.

I haven't watch any new wuxia serial for years. I still rematch some older ones. I love the old school wuxia serials where fights are relied on hand to hand combat. I love old school wuxia of both tvb and atv.