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China Briefing | Louis Cha’s life as a Hong Kong journalist was as thrilling as his martial arts novels
- Novelist known as Jin Yong was put on an assassination list for his editorials in the newspaper he co-founded, Ming Pao
- But he found the courage to stand up to the threat, taking inspiration from the characters he created
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Louis Cha, better known by his pen name Jin Yong, is one of the most-read writers in the Chinese-speaking world. But outside it, relatively few people have heard of him, hence the English-language media’s effort to refer him as “China’s Tolkien”.
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Through his epic works, Cha, who died at the age of 94 in Hong Kong last week, perfected the literary genre of martial arts novels by creating a mythical world where heroes and heroines go against all hardships to help the weak and ensure justice prevails in the end, and where love is pure and chivalry triumphs against wickedness.
Since the 1950s, his novels, deeply rooted in Chinese history, have inspired people in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the mainland, and throughout the Chinese diaspora, regardless of ages or backgrounds.
Over 100 million copies of his works have been sold worldwide, not to mention perhaps several hundred million pirated copies, and his novels have been adapted into countless movies, TV shows, and comic books.
Ardent fans include the late paramount Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and the new breed of hi-tech tycoons including Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group, which owns the South China Morning Post.
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