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The Killer Star translation project

After finishing my translation of Ximen Ding’s novel The Bloody Bridal Chamber, I was still in the mood to translate. So today I’m starting a new novel: The Killer Star by Murong Mei. This one is longer, 99 chapters. Two chapters are up at the time of this posting. You can read about it on the novel page:

Start reading here

This is a standalone novel, not part of a series. Here’s the back of the book copy:

Renowned and well-regarded members of the martial world are being killed off one after another. The culprit: The Killer Star, Shen Wuhai, now hated by the entire martial world. But efforts to stop him have been futile, so the Sword King Palace has put up a reward for 10,000 taels of gold to anyone who captures the Killer Star alive.

Now the scourge of the martial world has also become a nice piece of fatty meat, a gold mine for anyone who can get to him.

Easier said than done…

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How to Write Like Gu Long—Long Chengfeng and Snowblade Vagabond

When it comes to wuxia authors, there are two names that are often bandied about: Jin Yong and Gu Long. And with good reason, because it is these two authors who have received the most critical acclaim and the best reader response. Nowadays, wuxia is more or less a dead genre. There are still wuxia novels being published, but they are few and far beween. In the West, of course, it’s even worse. In the rare event you do find an article about wuxia in English, nine times out ten (and that’s a conservative estimate) it’s going to be about Jin Yong. Gu Long might get a namedrop. One article I saw not too long ago on the “history and politics” of wuxia didn’t even mention the Republican period or wuxia in Taiwan at all!1

But Gu Long had quite an influence and impact on the development of wuxia fiction as a genre. More than anyone else, Gu Long strove for change, for “breakthroughs” as he called them, trying to come up with a new way to write an old genre. Sometimes he was successful, sometimes not, but he kept trying to the end. He began writing his own wuxia novels in 1960 with Divine Sky Sword, at first imitating the major writers of his day, such as Jin Yong, Wolong Sheng, Sima Ling, and Zhuge Qingyun.

Gradually his style changed. With Cleansing Flowers, Refining the Sword in 1964, Gu Long was already experimenting with his fight scenes, moving away from the detailed descriptions of moves with flowery names that was (and remained) common in wuxia. By the 1970s, he had already found his own voice. At the same time, more and more of his novels were being adapted to film and TV, bringing him more readers. viewers, and notoriety. The rise of film and TV in Taiwan also led to more and more wuxia authors switching to screenwriting, which Gu Long dabbled in as well. And so wuxia as a genre of literature began to decline.

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How Four Wuxia Authors Planned to Spend Their New Year—in 1986

The other day I ran across an article, reported by Nangong Yan 南宮雁, from February 2, 1986 in Singapore’s Shin Min Daily News 新明日报 that reports on what eight different authors in Taiwan were planning to do for the upcoming Chinese New Year. Four of them were wuxia authors, so I translated their entries below:

Qin Hong

This Year He’s Going to Cut Back

Qin Hong—professional authors are also feeling the effect of the recession.

Those who know Qin Hong knows he has a “saying”—to collect stamps from each country.

Qin Hong is a punctucal “on the clock” wuxia author. In the morning he writes, in the afternoon he plays weiqi or goes hiking, and in the evening he watches videotapes.

Every year, Qin Hong travels overseas for the New Year. This year, Qin Hong says he won’t be taking a long trip. He lists three reasons: one is that his wife insists on taking a bus tour; two is that his oldest son just went to university; and three is that the pay for submitting manuscripts has gone down. Although he’s not struggling financially, with the economy in a slump, he’s going to cut back on spending.

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Martial Arts Manuals — A Discussion of Wuxia Fiction Tropes

The jianghu world in wuxia novels is a “martial” world. Martial arts is not only what heroes and lady xia rely on (for protection) as they roam the jianghu, the requirement for chivalrous deeds (acting as a xia), is the final standard for settling disputes and getting satisfaction through seeking vengeance. In fact, the “wu” in wuxia, referring to martial arts, supports the entire framework. Liang Yusheng once said, “‘Xia’ is the soul, ‘wu’ is the body; ‘xia’ is the goal, and ‘wu’ is the means.”1 Even so, as for the characteristics of the wuxia genre, “wu” is the key therein.2 It’s hard for us to imagine a major character in a wuxia novel with little or no martial arts ability, even though Jin Yong wrote a character in The Deer and the Cauldron, Wei Xiaobao, who relied entirely on his eloquence, quick wit, and ability to adapt to circumstances in order to freely navigate the imperial court and the jianghu, “creating a marvelous, unprecedented wuxia novel”.3 However, we’ll leave aside discussions of the desire to “subvert”,4 as that is not a conventional practice in wuxia fiction. And Jin Yong still could not escape conferring a modicum of martial arts on Wei Xiaobao, from the “Art of the Hundred Flights” and “Art of Escape” to his dagger and precious vest, all are aimed at keeping this distinguishing wuxia quality in mind. It could be said that Jin Yong is acknowledging martial arts.

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