Is Wuxia Fiction dorky?

[Yang Guo]

Might be amusing to read a wuxia story on a female heroine protecting a weakling guy that doesn't know martial arts... but it seems more of an anime thing

[Son of Light]

Ever read anything by Liang YuSheng?
There are quite a few stories, so should I say, most of his stories have good females characters, except for those exceptions where the hero is the lead.
He does have a few cool, and strong heroine as leads for a lot of his works.
But, I still feel there's something lacking, in the way the girls behave, and the skills they used...

[Arisa]

Originally posted by Yang Guo
Might be amusing to read a wuxia story on a female heroine protecting a weakling guy that doesn't know martial arts... but it seems more of an anime thing

shouju anime thing - yeah. LOLz. im not picky about whether the tale focuses on male or femal lead. as long as the story it good, well-crafted, and tallies logically.

[luna_rainbow]

Originally posted by Yang Guo
Might be amusing to read a wuxia story on a female heroine protecting a weakling guy that doesn't know martial arts... but it seems more of an anime thing

Hrmm....not really so sure about that. It happens, but probably with the same frequency as it does in wuxia really. The girls are rarely satisfyingly strong. There's still a lot of animes with guys protecting girls (eg. any Yuu Watase ones, most shounens, and I'd say also a majority in shoujo). Noir is a rare one with really strong girl leads...but it's yuri and...well, hardly what you'd call 'emotionally engaging' and 'realistic'.

[Yang Guo]

Did they have any male lead at all? haha
How did it end?



I think some of the girls here should start writing

[expression]

Also anyone noticed how "wuxia" movies for Hollywood are all set in the Ching dynasty?

[Son of Light]

The reason is simple.
That most Amercians idea of ancient China is from the Qing Dynasty.
You show them anything before Qing and they will think it's Japanese.

[kidd]

Might be amusing to read a wuxia story on a female heroine protecting a weakling guy that doesn't know martial arts... but it seems more of an anime thing

That's Duke of Mount Deer

I would like to read such a story too. Maybe make the hero a scholar or doctor. Then he won't be entirely useless.

[Shirley]

I love wuxia!! No, it's not dorky, everyone in my family loves it for years already. About the hero/heroine thing, I really don't see the problem. I actually like the main character to be a man, it seems out of place at the time for a woman to be any better than a man. But girls don't just like heroines and boys don't just like heros. I think it's fine the way it is.

[Yang Guo]

heh... Huang Rong would've made a great main character if she didn't meet Guo Jing

[mich]

Originally posted by expression
Also anyone noticed how "wuxia" movies for Hollywood are all set in the Ching dynasty?

cos the costumes are easier to make.

[Ken Cheng]

Qing Dynasty wuxia films are also easier to present to a Western audience because it's more conventional martial arts closer to what they recognize as martial arts . . . not the quasi-mystical inner chi stuff like in Sung Dynasty wuxia stories.

[lulla]

I like wuxia stories and I'm not even a Chinese. I don't mind those cultural things. As long as the story is good, then I'll like it.

I also don't mind the story about a hero protecting the heroine. I don't like a weak heroine, but I also don't like a story about a heroine protecting a weakling guy. Maybe it's because I don't like a weak guy in a real life, so I want to see a strong one even in movies .

[Son of Light]

Qing clothings are not as easy to make.
Just the buttons are more difficult.
The problem is, most western plp's idea of China came from Qing.
Song and Ming clothings will looked like Japanese to the westerners.
Not to mention Han and Tang.

[Ian Liew]

Regarding Wuxia roleplay and conventions..

When I joined the online community for Jin Yong Online, I had dreams of creating my own daxia from one of my favourite menpais, going out and meeting like-minded people, ridding the world of evil villains, solving great quests, learning powerful wugong etc...

What I found was a bunch of kinds, most still schooling, trying to cheat people of goods, joining (and subsequently leaving) various menpais to get that 'dream combo' of certain wugongs, using macros and trainers to build up skills, randomly pkilling, yelling rudely over channels in Chinese, English and.. would you believe it, Malay, having juvenile debates, using very broken English (and this not in China, but in Malaysia and Singapore - 'I want in bang' is not an acceptable translation of 'wo yao jin bang'). As I play the game more and more, trying to live out my wuxia fantasy, I find myself getting more and more disllusioned about JY Online's ability to let me escape into the world of Guo Jing, Linghu Chong and Xiao Feng. People manufacture characters - they don't play them. Those few who do seem to be equally disllusioned.

It's not as bad in the Taiwanese servers, where people take their roleplay much more seriously, but in Taiwanese servers you can only communicate using Chinese, and my office pcs don't have Chinese Star installed. However, once in a while, reality rears its ugly head in the form of a bad egg or two, and the dream is broken.

I think maybe we should all agree to meet up on a particular server and go forth to play wuxia the way it was meant to be played! =) All it requires is the ability to read Chinese.



Ian

[Goofy]

I think I am a feminist in my own way (not as strong as FQ though) However, I never want to change the hero protecting heroine plot in wuxia novels albeit it is also refreshing to have alternative plots too.

first of all, it would be out of mode and interesting angles will be lost.

why should we put our standards over the ancient value?

the wuxia stories reflected culture and tradition thinking of certain periods and authors' thoughts, so heroes were mostly men.
that is understatement, and I can live with that.

maybe if more females take up the pen, the style might change.

[Son of Light]

Who's FQ?

[Yon]

Originally posted by Son of Light
Ever read anything by Liang YuSheng?
There are quite a few stories, so should I say, most of his stories have good females characters, except for those exceptions where the hero is the lead.
He does have a few cool, and strong heroine as leads for a lot of his works.
But, I still feel there's something lacking, in the way the girls behave, and the skills they used...

I do and I do..

Too bad there are not many pulishded in Korean.

[expression]

Actually being the arrogant Expression as I am, I still strongly support the idea of the male protecting the female. I really don't want to see the guy hiding behind the girl's back.

What I meant by a strong female lead is this:
that the girl should have independent thoughts and know what she's doing, not just blinding following her love (which will mean if she loves a good guy, she'll do good, and if she loves a bad guy, "Oh well I still have to follow him around 'cause I love him so!!" ). She does NOT have to be a great swordsman or be extremely smart, but she should at least demonstrate that she has principles and the ability to decide what is right and wrong.

[Son of Light]

Just what's wrong with a girl with better Martial Arts then men?