Profile
- Name: Louis Cha / Jin Yong (pen name)
- Chinese: 金庸
- Birthdate: February 1924
- Birthplace: Haining, Zhejiang, China
- Height:
- Blood Type:
Bio
Louis Cha published twelve martial-arts novels between 1955 and 1972 under the penname
Jin Yong. The novels first appeared as serials in newspapers and were later
published as books, in some cases running to five volumes. Unlike some other writers in
the genre, Cha always anchors his fictions in specified historical periods. His novels have
been adapted many, many times – as films, as TV serials, as comic-strip graphic novels,
and latterly as computer games. The third of them was The Eagle-Shooting Heroes
(1957-59), collected in four volumes, which contains the characters Dongxie (Malignant
Lord of the East) and Xidu (Malicious Lord of the West). In ASHES OF TIME, Wong
Kar Wai has extrapolated these two characters from Cha’s narrative – with one or two
others, such as Hong Qi – and has imagined what they might have been like as younger
men.
Louis Cha was born in 1924 in Zhejiang Province, China. He came to prominence in
Hong Kong after the war as the founder and publisher of the Chinese-language
newspaper Ming Pao Daily News – still the territory’s most respected and authoritative
independent broadsheet. He later also founded and published the Shin Ming Daily News
in Singapore. Aside from his fiction under the name Jin Yong, he has written political
commentaries, journalism and historical essays; he has also served on various public
bodies and played an active role in Hong Kong’s intellectual life. He retired from his
publishing empire shortly before Hong Kong reverted to China’s sovereignty.
An exceptionally cultured man, steeped in Chinese history, he is also a scholar of
Buddhism. He is Wynflete Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and an Honorary
Fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford. He holds an honorary degree as Doctor of Social
Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, and an honorary degree as Doctor of Literature
at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Queen Elizabeth II conferred on him the
O.B.E. and France has made him a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur.
Despite these many honors, his fiction still goes unmentioned in most western synoptic
accounts of Asian literature. This is partly because English translations have begun to
appear only since 1993, and partly, no doubt, because of snobbish prejudices against
genre literature. But the ‘Jin Yong’ novels, revered in Chinese communities throughout
the world, develop a very ancient Chinese oral and literary tradition. Beyond their value
as entertainment, they are refined and sophisticated commentaries on the philosophical
traditions of Buddhism and Taoism, and analyses of the on-going struggle for a mature
Chinese cultural identity.
Bibliography
- The Book and the Sword - T: 書劍恩仇錄 S: 书剑恩仇录 (first published on The New Evening Post in 1955)
- Sword Stained with Royal Blood - T: 碧血劍 S: 碧血剑 (first published on Hong Kong Commercial Daily in 1956)
- The Legend of the Condor Heroes - T: 射鵰英雄傳 S: 射雕英雄传 (first published on Hong Kong Commercial Daily in 1957)
- Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain - T: 雪山飛狐 S: 雪山飞狐 (first installment appeared on the first issue of Ming Pao in 1959)
- The Return of the Condor Heroes - T: 神鵰俠侶 S: 神雕侠侣 (1959)
- Other Tales of the Flying Fox - T: 飛狐外傳 S: 飞狐外传 (1960)
- Swordswoman Riding West on White Horse T: 白馬嘯西風 S: 白马啸西风 (first published on Ming Pao in 1961)
- Blade-dance of the Two Lovers T: 鴛鴦刀 S: 鸳鸯刀 (first published on Ming Pao in 1961)
- Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre - T: 倚天屠龍記 S: 倚天屠龙记 (first published on Ming Pao in 1961)
- A Deadly Secret - T: 連城訣 S: 连城诀 (first published on Southeast Asia Weekly 《東南亞周刊》in 1963)
- Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils - T: 天龍八部 S: 天龙八部 (1963)
- Ode to Gallantry - T: 俠客行 S: 侠客行 (1965)
- The Smiling, Proud Wanderer - 笑傲江湖 (first published on Ming Pao in 1967)
- The Deer and the Cauldron - T: 鹿鼎記 S: 鹿鼎记 (1969-1972)
- Sword of the Yue Maiden - T: 越女劍 S: 越女剑 (1970)
