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
BALLPARKS TARGETED: To further reduce the use of plastic cups, the ministry is considering subsidizing the use of reusable cups at professional baseball games Beverage shops are to be banned from serving drinks in single-use plastic cups in September, the Ministry of Environment said yesterday, adding that it is also considering subsidizing the use of reusable cups at professional baseball games and other enclosed venues. Beverage shops in 21 cities and counties have already stopped using single-use takeaway plastic cups since the Parties Subject to and Means for Single-use Takeaway Beverage Cups Restrictions (一次用飲料杯限制使用對象及實施方式) were implemented on July 1, 2022, the ministry said in a statement. Aside from banning single-use plastic cups, the rules also require shops to provide reusable cups for customers to borrow and
Taiwanese athletes yesterday and on Saturday edged closer to winning a medal in a strong showing in the first two days of the Paris Olympics. Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) defeated Belgium’s Lianne Tan in the group stage of the women’s singles yesterday. Although Tai has not played in any professional competitions in the past three months due to injuries and Olympic preparations, the Taiwanese dispatched Tan in a swift 38 minutes, winning 21-15, 21-14. It was Tai’s third consecutive career victory over Tan. The 30-year-old Taiwanese was next to play longtime friend and rival, Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, in the group stage. Per Olympic
GOING SUPER: The government granted four Taiwanese teams free access to use Taipei-1, a supercomputer built by Nvidia, to help develop AI technologies and products Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) is to set up a research and development (R&D) center in Taiwan with research teams targeting several advanced technologies, including silicon photonics, artificial intelligence (AI) and heterogeneous integration, a Ministry of Economic Affairs official said on Saturday. An AMD application for the ministry’s A+ global R&D and innovation partnership program was approved this month, granting a more than 30 percent subsidy, or NT$3.31 billion (US$100.82 million), of the company’s total NT$8.64 billion investment, the ministry’s Web site showed. AMD, a US-based central processing unit (CPU) producer and AI chip giant, would invest NT$5.33 billion, while 50 percent
NOT INTIMIDATED: A Bosnia and Herzegovina lawmaker said Beijing contacted her party president to stop her from going, but that only made her more determined Chinese diplomats are pressuring lawmakers from at least six countries not to attend a China-focused summit in Taiwan, participants said. Politicians in Bolivia, Colombia, Slovakia, North Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one other Asian country that declined to be named, say they are receiving texts, calls and urgent requests for meetings that would conflict with their plans to travel to Taipei, in what they describe as efforts to isolate Taiwan. The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) summit officially begins tomorrow. The alliance is a group of hundreds of lawmakers from 35 countries concerned about how democracies approach Beijing. The Associated Press spoke