The last two decades saw a surge of research interest in Martial Arts fiction. What was taken as “pop” has now become “literature” in every sense of the word. Jin Yong in particular has been the center of interest in the recent studies of Martial Arts fiction. A substantial body of these studies has focused on the narrative aspects of his literature, such as characterization, theme and structure. Little attention has been paid to the fact that Jin Yong was not only a novelist but also a founder and publisher of one of the most important newspapers in Hong Kong in a most turbulent phase of modern Chinese history. The purpose of my thesis is not to evaluate the literary merit of Jin Yong’s work but to conduct research into the historical, political and social conditions under which Jin Yo...[ Read more ]

The last two decades saw a surge of research interest in Martial Arts fiction. What was taken as “pop” has now become “literature” in every sense of the word. Jin Yong in particular has been the center of interest in the recent studies of Martial Arts fiction. A substantial body of these studies has focused on the narrative aspects of his literature, such as characterization, theme and structure. Little attention has been paid to the fact that Jin Yong was not only a novelist but also a founder and publisher of one of the most important newspapers in Hong Kong in a most turbulent phase of modern Chinese history. The purpose of my thesis is not to evaluate the literary merit of Jin Yong’s work but to conduct research into the historical, political and social conditions under which Jin Yong worked during the 1960s and early 1970s and to study how those conditions affected his rewriting of the traditional genre of Martial Arts fiction.

My thesis addresses the following questions: What were Jin Yong’s responses to the violence of China’s Cultural Revolution and the “1967 Riots” in Hong Kong? What was the implication of the transformation of Ming Pao Daily and Ming Pao Monthly in the 1960s? What was the relationship between Jin Yong’s Ming Pao editorials and his Martial Arts fiction? This thesis observes that 1962 was the turning point of Jin Yong’s poltical position, evidenced in his allegorical Random Thoughts on History. His satiric intent reached its climax in The Smiling, Proud Wanderer and The Deer and the Cauldron. My study attempts to devise a strategy of reading literary texts as historically conditioned cultural products, to reconstruct the responses of a Hong Kong writer and cultural critic to the turn of events in China, and to reassess Jin Yong’s Martial Arts fiction as political parables of the Cultural Revolution.

My thesis also emphasizes the importance of studying Jin Yong’s work in its original serial form as it first appeared in Ming Pao. There are significant differences between the original version of Jin Yong’s work as serial in the newpaper and the revised version in the book form. It is therefore worthwhile to look into the Ming Pao archive as a careful reading of these understudied materials will reveal much that deserves attention, not only as historical documents but also as cultural products in an important phrase of both Chinese and Hong Kong histories.