Guangdong-Hong Kong School Martial Arts Fiction

Petr Vrána

Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

The “Guangdong-Hong Kong School Martial Arts Fiction” (Yue Gang pai jiji xiaoshuo 粵港派技擊小說) is a specific subgenre of Chinese fiction that was popular from the 1930s till the 1960s. Stories, of which the majority of protagonists are either legendary Southern Shaolin heroes or historical masters and practitioners of Chinese martial arts, were published mostly in Cantonese and Hong Kong newspapers as serialized fiction. The Guangdong-Hong Kong martial arts novels increased readers’ patriotic feelings, contributed to the promotion of Chinese martial arts styles and masters, and reinforced some Chinese martial arts stereotypes. This paper puts the discussed subgenre in its social and literary-historical context, introduces three representative authors (Jyu Yu-jaai 朱愚齋, Nim Fat-saan yan 念佛山人, and Ngo si Saan-yan 我是山人) and defines the most distinctive features of Guangdong-Hong Kong School martial arts fiction.