The Jin Yong Phenomenon: Chinese Martial Arts Fiction and Modern ...

Oddly enough, and probably news to many Western ears, the martial arts novel has always been considered a marginal member of the Chinese literary tradition. That such a marginal, yet indelibly crucial element of Chinese culture could impress Hollywood as it did required a story centuries old to be retold. We learn of a master once satisfied with the power of detachment succumbing to his love for a woman. The xiaqi, the very essence of the xiake, the knight-errant, is obscured by a glance, the touch of a calloused hand, a final kiss. Then again, the argument might be made that the true essence of the knight-errant, of Li Mubai, lies in his willingness to remain true to one woman, above all else. Such an argument and ending criticized as “Hollywood-style” and simplistic, has raised the ire of many a seasoned wuxia reader. Why did this version of the centuries-old jianghu tale catch the attention of a Western audience steeped in kickboxing and Jackie Chan? However, why did Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon put many an audience member in Shanghai to sleep when it was shown in China?

To answer these questions, we must first step away from Li Mubai and Yu Xiulian, Lo and Jen, and engage in a closer reading of the “real” tigers and dragons of the wuxia, or martial arts world, the characters that people the pages of the martial arts novels penned by Jin Yong. It was Jin Yong’s character Wei Xiaobao, and not Ang Lee’s Li Mubai, who first captured the hearts and minds of wuxia readers across Asia and throughout the diaspora; Jin Yong’s description of jianghu in Fox Volant of Snowy Mountain and The Deer and the Cauldron —and not the bamboo forest of the Wu Dang viewers saw upon the screen—brought Chinese from politically, geographically, and culturally diverse places together to worship the telltale remnants of traditional Chinese culture. Jin Yong writes in what has been referred to by readers and critics as “the common language of Chinese around the world.” The universal circulation of his novels and their film, television, comic book, and video game versions have created a “Jin Yong phenomenon.” Not only has his popularity and the literary value of his oeuvre been affirmed by the public, but the academic world has also gradually, although begrudgingly, begun to pay attention to his achievements.