Hong Kong's wuxia novelist Huang Yi dies at 65

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Hong Kong’s martial arts novelist Huang Yi died of a heart attack at the age of 65 on Wednesday, local media reported.

Huang, whose real name was Wong Cho-keung, is well-known for wuxia, a series of works featuring Chinese martial artist and fantasy elements. Xun Qin Ji, or A Step into the Past, is one of his most widely-read works.

The novel was adapted into a TV drama starring Louis Koo Tin-lok in 2001, and became an instant hit as well as part of the collective memory for the Chinese of both Hong Kong and the mainland.

Screen grab from TV drama A Step into the Past adapted from Xun Qin Ji, a novel by Huang Yi. ‍

Wuxia novels are a special genre in the Chinese popular literature, which could find their origins in late Qing Dynasty (1636-1912). They usually depict the legends of masters of martial arts or swordsmen, and are dubbed by some as “fairy tales for adults”.

Wuxia novels are characterized by a profound Chinese cultural and historical background, with their figures depicted as idealized freedom hunters or heroes with defiant personalities and upright virtues.

Huang used to be an assistant curator at Hong Kong Museum of Art for about 10 years after graduating from university. During the time, he was in charge of promoting cultural exchanges with foreign countries.

He quit his job in 1989 to live a hermit-style life in Lantau Island, and focused since on his writing career.

Huang is considered to have started a new trend of the wuxia novel by adding science fiction elements into the traditional wuxia novels. In several of his works, the heroes travel to past dynasties. He is therefore considered by many as the founder of Chinese time-travel novels.

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