Yeah. His novels are some of the most popular Chinese novels in modern Chinese literature and have left a very strong mark in Chinese culture and yet is virtually unknown outside of Chinese-speaking world. You probably find more westerners who have read translated versions of Three Body Problem (also a good book though) than Jin Yong stuff.
The issue with wuxia is just that I think they are very hard to translate, plus the stories are all deeply tied with Chinese history and culture. Even if you get past the problem of translating the literal meanings to English, there are other historical and cultural contexts that could be hard to translate across. It’s not like a sci-fi book like Three Body Problem where the fundamental concepts are much more interesting to a western reader.
Yeah. His novels are some of the most popular Chinese novels in modern Chinese literature and have left a very strong mark in Chinese culture and yet is virtually unknown outside of Chinese-speaking world. You probably find more westerners who have read translated versions of Three Body Problem (also a good book though) than Jin Yong stuff.
The issue with wuxia is just that I think they are very hard to translate, plus the stories are all deeply tied with Chinese history and culture. Even if you get past the problem of translating the literal meanings to English, there are other historical and cultural contexts that could be hard to translate across. It’s not like a sci-fi book like Three Body Problem where the fundamental concepts are much more interesting to a western reader.