Fighting togs in wuxia fiction/drama?

[Ken Cheng]

When I watched TVB's wuxia dramas with my dad while growing up, one of my dad's pet peeves was that the characters wore the same clothes when fighting as when they did...everything else. To my dad, the idea was ludicrous, especially since many of those TVB costumes, while ornate and nice-looking, did look impractical for fighting. My dad's favorite point of comparison was Japanese samurai movies and dramas; the samurai might wear elaborate robes, etc., to the site of the battle, but before the actual fight, all combatants would strip off the fancier outer garments and reveal a much more practical set of fighting togs underneath...something they wouldn't trip over and wouldn't get in their way during fights.

It's hard to argue with my dad's logic on this, but I wonder: is this a unique problem of TVB's cheapness, or do *all* wuxia dramas forego special fighting togs for the characters? Do the wuxia authors discuss characters changing from "ordinary" clothes to "fighting" clothes before a fight?

[CFT]

Don't think I have seen anything like that from the main writers. About the only thing that seems to be consistently mentioned by Gu Long is that elite swordsmen always have well manicured hands.

The main protagonist in Huang Yi's "A step into the past" is often involved in espionage/reconnaissance activities so the author does go into a bit of detail about clothing and equipment for those scenes.

[Ken Cheng]

About the only thing that seems to be consistently mentioned by Gu Long is that elite swordsmen always have well manicured hands.

TVB sort of alluded to this in its 1976 LUK SIU FUNG adaptation. When Luk Siu Fung went to 10,000 Plum Blossoms Manor to persuade Sai Mun Chui Sheut to back him up in the Golden Roc Kingdom's Treasure case, Sai Mun Chui Sheut sat calmly trimming his fingernails with a pair of scissors while listening to Luk Siu Fung's pitch.

[Son of Light]

I don't think most WuLin plp will be walking around wearing those silk awesome looking clothing in the 1st place, TV is jus TV. I think in reality most WuLin plp just wear something easy to move in from the beginning.