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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