Sword of the Yue maiden

[Miss Hollow]

Hello there,

I'm a Belgian student in English-Chinese translation. I've translated this story by Jin Yong into Dutch for my graduation project but I've noticed that libraries here aren't exactly overflowing with books on the subject. I've already bought "Jin Yong phenomenon" and I'm going to buy "Paper swordsmen" and perhaps "Speaking to history: Gou Jian in twentieth century China". I was wondering if anybody here could give me any other works on Wuxia and such or if any of you could tell me anything special about the story. Also is there any publicized form of this short story except the Hong Kong newspaper?

[owbjhx]

Hello there,

I'm a Belgian student in English-Chinese translation. I've translated this story by Jin Yong into Dutch for my graduation project but I've noticed that libraries here aren't exactly overflowing with books on the subject. I've already bought "Jin Yong phenomenon" and I'm going to buy "Paper swordsmen" and perhaps "Speaking to history: Gou Jian in twentieth century China". I was wondering if anybody here could give me any other works on Wuxia and such or if any of you could tell me anything special about the story. Also is there any publicized form of this short story except the Hong Kong newspaper?

"The Jin Yong Phenomenon" is pretty poor, in my opinion. Hamm's "Paper Swordsmen" is much better, but still not quite the first-rate literary analysis of Jinyong's works that I was looking for when I read it; it takes more of a 'media studies' approach, which I find shallow. Could be worse, though. It's not a surprise that the only essay in "The Jin Yong Phenomenon" that is any good happens to be Hamm's.

You might like to try "Rethinking Chinese Popular Culture: Cannibalizations of the Canon", edited by Rojas & Chow (Routledge, 2008). I haven't read it yet, but there are a couple of essays in there on JY. One of them is by the ubiquitous Hamm.

Personally I think none of the English-language Jinology I've seen is more instructive than simply reading JY's major works in detail, and drawing your own conclusions.

My Chinese isn't quite up to reading scholar-level prose, but if yours is, there are loads of books on JY written by Chinese academics. I think Taiwanese academics are particularly keen on him. Perhaps have a peek at Amazon China. Beware that these books may amount to little more than fanboyism with big words.

Can't help you on Yue Nu Jian, unfortunately, as I haven't read it. It's not frequently discussed here or in books, as the focus tends to be on the major works.

[Miss Hollow]

thank you for your response. My thesis is 25000 words and only half can come from translation. His major works seemed interesting too but one chapter is already over 25000 words so that was too long, and I loved the uniqueness of this short story. Perhaps I can convince a publisher to let me translate his major works into Dutch

[bliss]

I'm a big fan of the novel itself, especially the heroine. I've written about her on this forum, but only analytically in regards to her martial arts as relating to Jin Yong canon itself. It might be a bit inaccessible to non-readers, but take a look:

http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=10379

[kidd]

Also is there any publicized form of this short story except the Hong Kong newspaper?

'Yue Maiden' was published together with another Jin Yong's novel, 'Ode to Gallantry' (俠客行). My copy of OTG has 'Yue Maiden' at the back. I don't know whether new publication still have it or not. Mine was OTG 2nd edition.