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Thread: Was LSF Book 1 villain Fok Yau an indictment of extreme capitalism?

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    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    Default Was LSF Book 1 villain Fok Yau an indictment of extreme capitalism?

    Towards the end of the first LUK SIU FUNG saga, THE GOLDEN ROC KINGDOM'S TREASURE, Fok Yau explained his rationale for murdering all those people: in Fok's perspective, people such as the heirs of the Golden Roc Kingdom not only did not deserve their wealth, but also did not even deserve to live because they only consumed and did not produce. Essentially, FY's rationale for murdering off his previous masters and former colleagues who remained loyal to those masters was because they were consumers and not producers. In other words, like extreme capitalists, FY saw individuals as commodities and resources and not as people. As long as they produced wealth, they were valuable and deserved to continue living. If they did not produce wealth, then they were useless consumers and needed to be eliminated.

    In the 1976 TVB adaptation of LUK SIU FUNG, Fa Mun Lau shook his head in dismay and disapproval as he heard FY give this rationale for the murders he committed. Fa Mun Lau's view of the value of life was completely opposite: in FML's view, ALL life had intrinsic value, which is the reason that, in spite of his excellent martial arts skills, FML refused to kill and disapproved of others (e.g. Sai Mun Chui Sheut, Fok Yau) killing, whether it be in the name of "justice" or greed.

    In this light, a part of me believes that Gu Long intended for Fok Yau to personify the excesses of capitalist thought taken to its logical extreme without the leavening influence of compassion and humanity.

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    Moderator Ren Wo Xing's Avatar
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    Not canon. In the novel, it was simply a throwaway line that while the Golden Roc Emperor liked to spend money, he wasn't very good at making it. It was pretty clear that Huo Xiu was just out-and-out greedy and loved money more than anything else, literally. He compared his wealth to his wife, and asked if Luo Xiaofeng would be willing to share his wife with someone else when the latter pointed out that he (Huo Xiu) already had far more money than he could ever spend in ten lifetimes.
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