| I suggest trying to track down online versions of Jin Yong's work as a
jump-off point. The short Sword
of the Yueh Maiden as a quick introduction followed by the much longer (and
better) story The Book and the Sword. From
there choices open up: go for a free classic with the online Romance of Three Kingdoms, search for
some Judge Dee (Van Gulik) at your local library or start building up a library of your
own: order some Jin Yong or go for the visual extravagance (one of the reasons we love
Hong Kong cinema) of manga such as Condor Heroes or Celestial Zone.
|
A famous scene from the
start of Romance of
Three Kingdoms:
three heroes swear
brotherhood in the
peach garden.
Image taken from the
Three Kingdoms site |
Links
For your browsing convenience, here is a list of all of the websites cited in the
article.
Resources
Publishers
Mail Order
- China Books: fine Melbourne bookstore,
wuxia-friendly. Mail order is available.
- China Guide: US mail order stockist has plenty
of wuxia books.
- Eastwind: US mail order firm. Carries
Jin
Yong's Fox Valant novel.
- Amazon: you can order Judge Dee books from
this US online uber-bookstore.
Article Index
- Introduction: What is wuxia?
- Classics: Three Kingdoms, Outlaws
of the Marsh and Journey to the West
- Modern Sources 1: The works of Jin Yong
- Modern Sources 2: Other authors and
comics
- Getting Started: Initial reading and further wuxia links
ABOUT SPIKE
Father of two, and academic looney, SPIKE has
carried his nickname from childhood: across state lines and into Asia and back. Lecturing
in computer science, Spike's research involves speech recognition and virtual reality. A
student of Japanese & Chinese martial arts his love of action cinema started way back
with the old black-n-white Shintaro series (a dubbed Japanese Chanbara) and has
grown from there. |
