70 Years of Jin Yong’s Novels – 2024.10.09

The Rui Cunha Foundation presents on Wednesday, October 9th at 6:30pm, a seminar on the theme “70 Years of Jin Yong’s Novels”, celebrating Hong Kong’s most famous writers of Wuxia – literally, “martial arts and chivalry” –, who is considered one of the greatest and most popular authors of the genre of all time. The guest speaker will be Dr. Calvin Yau, PhD Professor of Chinese Literature, and an expert on Jin Yong’s work.

According to the proposal, «Jin Yong’s novels have entered its 70th year since first publication in 1955. In the past seventy years, the books have been constantly revised in the form of “self-reincarnation”, and he has used the characters created by him to present his different understandings of human relationships and thoughts, at different stages of life».

«This lecture analyzes how Jin Yong’s novels have gradually developed over the decades, into cultural intellectual property in Hong Kong Martial Arts genre, that everyone knows about in today’s Chinese society and beyond», the organization also states.

Jin Yong, born a century ago in 1924 and deceased in 2018, was one of the most famous writers of Wuxia books in Hong Kong, a worldwide popular genre of Chinese fiction about the adventures of warriors in ancient China, mixing martial arts and fantasy elements. The author wrote 15 novels between 1955 and 1972, considered to be of «very high quality and able to appeal to both highbrow and lowbrow tastes», according to The Oxford Guide to Contemporary World Literature.

The guest speaker, Dr. Calvin Yau, holds a BA in Chinese Literature from National Taiwan University, an MA in Philosophy from Hong Kong Baptist University, and a PhD in Literature from Soochow University. He currently is Assistant Professor and Director of the Master of Arts Program at Chu Hai College of Hong Kong. He has been appointed as special researcher by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum to conduct theme research for the “Jin Yong Museum”. He has also authored several studies and essays, and curated exhibitions dedicated to the great master of Wuxia.

The seminar will be introduced by Alan Yung, a business development and digital content specialist at M Plus Sports Media Company, and will be conducted exclusively in Cantonese.

Admission is free.

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