Jin Yong

(né Zha Liangyong; a.k.a Louis Cha)

b. February 1924, Haining

Writer, publisher, political commentator

Jin Yong is a Hong Kong-based novelist, publisher, and political figure whose martial arts adventures (Wuxia xiaoshuo) are perhaps the most widely read of all twentieth-century Chinese fiction (see martial arts fiction). Jin Yong serialized his first martial arts novel Book and Sword (Shujian enchou lu) in 1955. His own newspaper, Ming Pao Daily, established in 1959, succeeded on the strength of Jin Yong’s fiction, his incisive daily editorials, and the paper’s critical coverage of mainland politics during the Cultural Revolution. It became the foundation of a publishing empire that included overseas affiliates and Ming Pao Monthly, an influential digest for the diasporic intelligentsia.

After completing The Deer and the Cauldron (Luding ji) in 1972, Jin Yong spent ten years revising his 36-volume Complete Works. Though once banned in both Taiwan (for the author’s early associations with the left) and the mainland (for his criticism of the CCP), the novels circulated widely in contraband editions, and are now universally available in authorized form, as well as repeatedly adapted into television serials, martial arts films, comic books and video games. They are increasingly credited with transcending the limitations of formula fiction and comprising a significant chapter in the history of modern Chinese fiction. Jin Yong himself became a supporter of mainland policies during the reform era and a player in Hong Kong’s 1997 return to Chinese sovereignty; and through the 1990s he continued to be a prominent public figure and cultural spokesperson.

Further reading

Cha, L. (2000–02). The Deer and the Cauldron. Trans. John Minford (3 vols). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

JOHN CHRISTOPHER HAMM