When it comes to wuxia in the English-language community, film and TV are definitely more popular media than novels. No surprise given that there are relatively very few wuxia novels translated to English. But there are more and more people trying their hand at writing wuxia in novel form, or short stories, etc. So then how are they learning how to write wuxia novels?

Unfortunately, it seems for the most part that wuxia film and TV are the teachers. You can easily watch Shaw Bros. movies or wuxia TV (or now online) dramas, and many people grew up watching some Jin Yong adaptation or another. But after all, a Jin Yong adaptation is just an adaptation—it’s not Jin Yong. If you’ve only seen Jin Yong dramas and movies then you have never experienced what in my opinion is the best thing about Jin Yong: his fight scenes.

On the screen you see the actors swing a sabre or thrust a sword, but you don’t get the details about the martial art being used and how it stacks up against the martial art it is being wielded against. You see characters touch each other rapidly and then someone can’t move, but you don’t get the details of which acupoints are being sealed and what’s going on internally in the body. With Jin Yong, and any other wuxia author, you do. These details, along with the detailed descriptions of characters’ appearances, thoughts, etc., are the essence of wuxia novels, in my opinion.