While in the west, it’s most common for people to interact with this genre through movies ( Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, Kung Fu Panda, Disney’s Mulan), the genre has its origin in books and oral stories and has been around for more than 2000 YEARS. What kind of medium are wuxia stories told in? I’m writing these stories in English for the kids of the diaspora, for kids like me that wanted to experience these adventures but couldn’t get through the language barrier. My Chinese reading wasn’t great as a kid, and I couldn’t read these stories in Chinese. There might also be a bit of cultural unfamiliarity here at play-when something is too foreign it’s easier to reject it than to try to understand it.īecause there isn’t a ton of wuxia stories in English, I’ve chosen to write in this genre. Somehow martial artists fighting in the air over a lake is less believable than a superhero that can fly with a hammer. My theory is that there’s a suspension of disbelief that might feel a bit far for western audiences. Because the genre often takes places in well-defined historical settings, the tropes and conventions of the genre can make it hard to accept. In fact, one of the most popular series of the 20th century, The Legend of the Condor Heroes, is considered to have the same kind of cultural impact in Asia that Lord of the Rings and Star Wars had in the west.īut funny enough, this genre hasn’t really translated that well into English- Condor Heroes was only recently translated into English.
They travel around righting wrongs, helping people, and being good guys.Īs a genre, wuxia is a major part of pop culture in Chinese speaking communities around the world-kind of like the way superhero stories are in western countries. We’re talking people that can fly through the trees, cross vast distances in a single leap, reverse the flow of blood in the body with internal qi, and other amazing, superhuman feats. Wuxia is a genre of Chinese fiction that features itinerant warriors of extreme (almost supernatural) martial arts skill in ancient China.
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