I love wuxia novels and the movies and television series they inspire. I am finally reading Jin Yong's "Smiling Proud Wanderer" in Chinese - YES! I've had the book for a week and have already read two whole pages!!
And I have been watching "Return of the Condor Heroes" (1983) based on the Jin Yong novel and starring a young, impossibly pretty Andy Lau as Yeung Gor. It's big so I just kinda watch episodes in between doing other junk. I am enjoying the shit out of it, as they say in academic circles.
In wuxia novels. the hero encounters many, many of wacky characters during his journey. Most of these are only brief encounters. The 1983 series is fun because it has a lot of sudden brief appearances by Hong Kong actors like Francis Ng and Alex Man. That's hooray! for me.
So here I am on episode 24, and this actor I love, Alan Chan Kwok Kuen, suddenly falls out of a tree on the road. The character is Ma Kwong Cho and he, like so many Jiang Hu guys, is a righteous knight with lofty ideals.
He read my mind! I guess I am at heart just your typical jianghu wanderer because I too want to kill all the rascals in the world.
I love wuxia novels!!! Carry on.
So here I am on episode 24, and this actor I love, Alan Chan Kwok Kuen, suddenly falls out of a tree on the road. The character is Ma Kwong Cho and he, like so many Jiang Hu guys, is a righteous knight with lofty ideals.
He read my mind! I guess I am at heart just your typical jianghu wanderer because I too want to kill all the rascals in the world.
I love wuxia novels!!! Carry on.
I'm jealous you can read two pages of Chinese so quickly! I recently started to try my hand at reading. It takes me a minute to look up one character. And since I only recognize the most basic and frequently used characters, two pages is as daunting as Tolstoy.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm starting off with storybooks right now, but hopefully I can someday read one of Jin Yong's novels. Or maybe I should try Gu Long. Isn't he supposed to be the Hemingway of wuxia writers?
I think the "better" writer is entirely a reader's choice. Also, based on the novels I've read in English, I think Gu Long would be much harder for a low level Chinese reader like me. I've been waiting for years to get to the point where I could even try to read a book, and to read this first one, I have a loose translation next to me as a crutch. At this point in my reading, I just let some characters go because I know I will probably pick them up later. And if they don't reappear then they aren't vital enough for me to learn right now. So don't stress, and keep walking up the mountain. :)
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