Renowned Hong Kong author Louis Cha (查良鏞), whose epic martial arts thrillers inspired numerous films and sold about 300 million copies worldwide, has died aged 94.
Known by his pen name Jin Yong (金庸), Cha is a household name in the Chinese-speaking world — while overseas his novels have drawn parallels to the Lord of the Rings series.
Packed with hard-hitting kung fu masters and intricate plotlines, his books bring to life the different dynasties of ancient China.
Photo: AFP / South China Morning Post
They have given rise to TV dramas and video games, as well as dozens of movies.
Cha died in Hong Kong on Tuesday after a long illness.
Among his most famous works are The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, The Deer and the Cauldron and Legends of the Condor Heroes, which was published in English for the first time in February.
Cha also founded a Chinese-language newspaper in Hong Kong in 1959, the Ming Pao.
He was “a learned man and an acclaimed writer,” Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) said, adding she felt “deep sorrow” over his death.
“Professor Cha’s works inherited the tradition of Chinese classics with the integration of history and culture,” she said, adding that his works were influential across the literary landscape.
Other glowing tributes were paid to the writer, with culture critic Oliver Chou telling the South China Morning Post that Cha could be compared to William Shakespeare.
Then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) “was said to have sent secret agents to get him a set of Cha’s novels in Hong Kong in the early 1980s,” Chou told the newspaper.
Hong Kong film star and singer Andy Lau (劉德華), who appeared in the TV adaptation of Legends of the Condor Heroes in the 1980s, described Cha’s death as a “huge loss,” the Straits Times newspaper reported.
Cha was born in China, but moved to Hong Kong before the Chinese Communist Party’s takeover of the country in 1949
In 2004, Cha was honored with France’s highest award for the arts, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (the Order of Arts and Letters).
After years of denials, in a 2014 interview with New Yorker magazine, Cha admitted the allegories in his stories had political references.
“Master Hong of the Mystic Dragon Sect?” he said, referring to the antagonist of The Deer and the Cauldron. “Yes, yes — that means the [Chinese] Communist Party.”
Additional reporting by the Guardian
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
The US House of Representatives yesterday unanimously passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, which aims to disincentivize Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by cutting Chinese leaders and their family members off from the US financial system if Beijing acts against Taiwan. The bipartisan bill, which would also publish the assets of top Chinese leaders, was cosponsored by Republican US Representative French Hill, Democratic US Representative Brad Sherman and seven others. If the US president determines that a threat against Taiwan exists, the bill would require the US Department of the Treasury to report to Congress on funds held by certain members of the
RSS