New edition of Jin Yong's novels

[josh]

Wow, I'll have to check those out, I love Jin Yong novels... The first novel that I ever read from cover to cover in Chinese was Shu jian en chou lu, and I got hooked instantly!
But, I've since moved on to to Gu Long...
I think of Jin Yong as Dickens, Gu Long as Hemingway

[.Q.]

I've read some. Most changes feel annoying and shows that it's just a money grab attempt.

Examples?

From what I saw, those changes were mostly done to:
1. correct errors: Jin Yong's novel references just about every aspect of traditional culture. But the origin of a lot of things we have today are unknown/unclear to most people today unless they are specialists in that area. So the famous example is where he had people from one dynasty singing famous song from another dynasty founded several hundred years later.

2. improve the overall structure, flow, and logic of the plot. Remember, these novels were originally published as serials in his newspaper under daily pressure. Now in his leisure, he can look over the whole thing and make overall improvements.

3. changes to plot: since we wrote them as daily serials over decades, occasionally he would ask two friends to take over when he was on vacation. His friends, like most of us loyal readers, have strong opinion about his characters. In Tian Long Ba Bu for example, the character Ah Zi was first blinded then killed off in the middle of the novel by his friend Ni Kuang the famous sci fi writer during one of his vacations. Coming back from Europe, Ni Kong met him at the airport and just said "I killed Ah Zi". Jin Yong just smiled and said "ok, I'll fix that". In the revised editions he changed the killed off part, but let her remain blind.

My father and my uncle knows Jin Yong's older siblings pretty well. My uncle worked in the same hospital as Jin Yong's older brother for several decades. They came from a very well-known family of scholars, well known for their disdain for money and power. In fact, the story of Lian Cheng Jue was based on family history. His grandfather risked his government career to save a poor innocent peasant, and later took him into the family and took care of him until his death. In Lian Cheng Jue Jin Yong borrowed the story of that poor peasant's famous trial, and reimagined him as the martial hero set up and betrayed by people who raised him.

People call Jin Yong the richest intellectual in the history of China. He has the set of word "put it down, be natural" inscribed on stone on his nightstand. He finally did that when he sold his newspaper more than a decade ago. He's also a very serious Buddhist. I'm still waiting for his translation and annotation of Diamond Sutra.

So taken together, I tend to give him the benefit of doubt when it comes to money-grabbing. It's probably more of a perfectionist instinct.

Wuyizidi

I don't remember it too well but a few that I remember that seems to be pointlessly added were:
1) Ah Zi's master was getting a bit too 'close' to her and that's why she left. Seemed completely pointless and unnecessary, not to mention it didn't lead to any plot changes.
2) Mei Chao Feng (white bony claw woman) became a love interest of Huang Yao Shi (Eastern Evil). Took up a lot of words but seems to add nothing to the story.
I haven't read too many but it seems like old guys having feelings for really young girls is a recurring theme among the stuff he added. I mean if they lead to some significant plot twists or whatnot then fine, but they don't.
3) This I haven't read, but I heard in the Shen Diao Xiao Lu (dude w/ one arm) supposedly he added in a new 'martial' move where the guy (or the gal) sticks a sword out from between/underneath the other person's dang to strike the enemy? Come on man, that's just dumb.
Also, he added some rebuttals to reader complaints in there. WTF? Why is that in the book? I don't need to be entrenched in a historical novel and all of a sudden read something like: some reader complained that white camels don't exist, but I actually rode one.
I guess by your explanations he's trying to make things more accurate, which is good, but they're fiction anyway and there's no need to be THAT accurate if it means he won't be writing NEW stuff because of it. I mean come on, they're like Chinese Lord of the Rings. No need to be that detailed.
Maybe he's not trying to grab money, I don't personally know. but I also wouldn't assume he's not out for it just because he's already rich. Rich people usually get there by not stopping (this is just a general observation, not personally against him).
I would like to read the original edition where someone told me some crazy animals were in it. Sounds like a much more different story. Unfortunately I couldn't find those. So far the 2nd edition I feel is much better than this new one. I wouldn't get this worked up if I didn't like his books, but he seems to be ruining it (for me) instead of helping.

BTW: Ah Zi should be dead. Hated that psycho b*tch.

[edededed]

Gee, seems weird to just let a friend write part of the story for you (even weirder is how the friend does something drastic, liking killing off a major character)...

The weirdest thing of all, though, is how it seems that a majority of folks who can read Chinese (natively) reads or read Jin Yong and other wuxia novels, including women; yet, this does not lead to a natural interest in learning Chinese martial arts. Seems natural, such as how Lord of the Rings leads to AD&D, leading to LARPing, etc....

[josh]

The weirdest thing of all, though, is how it seems that a majority of folks who can read Chinese (natively) reads or read Jin Yong and other wuxia novels, including women; yet, this does not lead to a natural interest in learning Chinese martial arts. Seems natural, such as how Lord of the Rings leads to AD&D, leading to LARPing, etc....

I think to some extent it even works the other way, I've encountered people whose notion of martial arts is that it's just fantastic stuff, like they read in Jin Yong novels, and that it's kind of silly (I guess a bit the way most people view LARPing).
I was watching part of CCTV's recent documentary series on martial arts and in the episode on "quanpu" they kept talking about all of these fantastic martial arts manuals out of Jin Yong novels like "Kuihua baodian" and "Jiuyang zhenjing," as much as wuxia novels may popularize martial arts, they also contribute to making them seem a bit unrealistic.

[edededed]

Probably bad... Well, in the old days, quite a few masters started training because of the wuxia novels, but now...

(And is LARPing (or even just silliness) bad? )

Did the CCTV documentary talk about the Jin Yong martial arts manuals as if they were real manuals of real martial arts? I hope not...

[ashe]

cool...

[edededed]

Hey Fong, what's your favorite Chinese comic, anyway? Fengyun?

[chud]

No, it's by Asiapac Books in Singapore (http://www.asiapacbooks.com/)

Thanks for the link Snow.

[chud]

I just bought volume 1 of the Heaven Sword Dragon Saber graphic novel, which I found used on Amazon. I really like it, great story and great artwork. I'm going to buy the other ones soon. Highly recommended.

[Eric]

I have an English translation "Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain" bought in HK years ago, published by Chinese University Press (HK). There may be more.