When JY heroes meet their girls, those girls are dressed as *guys*

[Ken Cheng]

Ever notice a trend among Jin Yong wuxia heroes?

Half of the guys met their girls when their girls were dressed as guys.

1. Kiu Fung first officially met Ah Chu when she was dressed as a Shaolin monk (he'd encountered her earlier at the Beggar's Union Conference, but they didn't really meet until this occassion).

2. When Gwok Jing first encountered Wong Yung, she was dressed as a beggar boy.

3. When Cheung Chui San first met Yan So So, she was dressed in an outfit identical to the one he was wearing at the time.

4. Twenty years later, their son Cheung Mo Gei met Chiu Mun when she was dressed as a young man (and, like Mo Gei's mother before her, impersonated her man).

I wonder if Jin Yong had some kind of fetish for girls dressed up as guys.

[Da Bao]

I noticed this too, but I never thought of it as that unusual.

I think it's sweet that the characters get to know the girls as their friends and don't think of them any different from themselves, until later on learning they're actually girls.

[Ken Cheng]

I noticed this too, but I never thought of it as that unusual.

It wouldn't be conspicuously unusual, except it was a pattern. It was a recurring theme in the Jin Yong stories.

[HuangYushi]

Ever notice a trend among Jin Yong wuxia heroes?
Half of the guys met their girls when their girls were dressed as guys.

Xiao Feng, Guo Jing, Zhang Cuishan and Zhang Wuji are only 4 of the many lead male characters that Jin Yong created.

1. Chen Jialuo first met Huo Qingtong and later Fragrance as themselves, girls.
2. Yang Guo met Xiaolongnu, Lu Wushuang, Gongsun Lu'E, Guo Fu, Cheng Ying and Wanyan Ping as girls.
3. Hu Fei met Yuan Zhiyi as a pretty long-haired girl, only to discover she's a bald-headed nun (but still female) in the end. He also met Cheng Lingsu and Miao Ruolan as girls.
4. Duan Yu met Zhong Ling, Mu Wanqing and Wang Yuyan as girls.
5. Xuzhu met his princess as a girl.
6. Linghu Chong knew Yue Lingshan as a girl, and Ren Yingying as an old woman, but female nevertheless.
7. Wei Xiaobao met his harem as girls!
8. Yuan Guannan met Xiao Zhonghui as a girl.
9. Su Lu'ke knew from Day 1 that Li Wenxiu was a girl.
10. Di Yun knew from Day 1 that Qi Fang and Shui Sheng were girls.
11. The king of "blur" Shi Potian also knew that Bai A'Xiu was a girl even when it was pitch-dark when he first met her.

The only JY wuxia hero that I can add to your list is Yuan Chengzhi, who first met Wen Qingqing when she was dressed as a guy, but he later met A'Jiu (Changping / One-armed Nun) as a girl. And I'll throw in Yu Yutong (14th master of the Red Flower Society) who met Li Yuanzhi when she was dressed as a guy.

So the stats stand at: "31 meetings with obvious girls" against "6 meetings with disguised girls".

6 is definitely not "half", and the presence of 31 other meetings with girls who are dressed as girls isn't really a "worrisome" pattern, is it?

[Ken Cheng]

Math was never my strong subject. I majored in English. That's why I speak figuratively .

Nevertheless, it's a trick that Jin Yong went to conspicuously often.

[kidd]

I think it's a recurring theme in wuxia stories, not just Jin Yong stories. Tie Xin Lan dressed as a man when she first met Xiao Yu-er and Hua Wuque (Jue Dai Shuang Jiao). In Wo Long Sheng's New Mythical Crane Magic Needle, Bai Yun Fei dressed as a man in nearly the whole story. So, I've always thought female cross-dressing is a common thing in wuxia.

[Ken Cheng]

Qwai Fa Bo Deen aside, guys getting in drag is not so common in wuxia. There aren't too many instances of manly wulin fighters going undercover as women.

[MysteriouX]

ROFL JY had that fetish and GL had the fetish of undressing girls.

[sheraldine]

GL had the fetish of undressing girls.

i agree on that to a degree...

[sarakoth]

ROFL JY had that fetish and GL had the fetish of undressing girls.

A good number of people have that fetish.

[ChanceEncounter]

A good number of people have that fetish.

I'm not so sure it's a fetish.

[Suet Seung]

Math was never my strong subject. I majored in English. That's why I speak figuratively .

Nevertheless, it's a trick that Jin Yong went to conspicuously often.

Still, English majors are suppose to have high critical and analytical skills to have insight into the text they read or watch, so surely, Ken should not have been blind to think six is half of all the heroes in JY universe.

Haha! Yes, there's a reason YuShi is one of my favorite SPC members.

[sarakoth]

I'm not so sure it's a fetish.

It's not. A true fetish has to be an object, not just an idea.

[shortsight]

Maybe it's easier to do their things in disguise as male, so that there's little disturbance due to their beauty, ... since they were all described as the most beautiful.

Ren Yingying can't disguise as a man as it would infuriate DFBB, so she ended up as an old lady

[flamer]

Yuan Chengzhi also met Wen Qingqing as a guy.

[Shi-Potian]

there girls... . .. . . .taking into account the social structure and value norms in place at that time the only way a girl could really travel without the supervision of their parent/guardian was to dress as a man. [i always noticed that innately i masy be wrong though?]

[Suet Seung]

there girls... . .. . . .taking into account the social structure and value norms in place at that time the only way a girl could really travel without the supervision of their parent/guardian was to dress as a man. [i always noticed that innately i masy be wrong though?]

That's right. It's for traveling convenience. Plus the girls are always beautiful maidens, so they have to disguise themselves as "men" for their own safety and be less noticeable. Though, if they disguise themselves as guys and still look like a handsome men, they will attract women who don't know better.

I guess it does serve a purpose -- when the girl reveals herself or change back into a her regular self, the guys always have their jaw dropping to the floor as they see a beautiful girl who they thought was just a good friend or something. That suprise factor is why most include it.

[Dennis Chen]

Is Huang Rong a Rosalind or Viola?

[Suet Seung]

Is Huang Rong a Rosalind or Viola?

Um, Viola was a twin. She only disguised herself as her twin brother. Huang Rong doesn't have a twin bro.

[Ren Ying Ying]

ROFL JY had that fetish and GL had the fetish of undressing girls.

GL also had the fetish of men in drag