Made to-TV wuxia is a nostalgic memory for my generation in my country, Indonesia. I still remember the made believe swordfight in elementary school. Last week coincidentally I stumbled in a online forum talking about Condor Trilogy the novel, and this easily interested me just realized that in the online world somebody had translated the novels.

Story about martial world

Then, why not? The result, I spent a week in my life living like a hermit reading wuxia novels

The online reference for reading wuxia in English is on wuxiapedia.com (update: now the site’s down, changed to Wuxia Society). After exploring the site, the verdict is the site is quite good, many titles and good translation, but after continuous reading of LOCH and craving more of it, I was shocked knowing that the last uploaded chapter was chapter 28. (from all 40 chapters of LOCH) (That time, I was hooked reading anywhere any time, after that chapter, OH NO!). Then, after searching online (and all the anxiousness), I found the complete version. The complete version has the same translator, why it isn’t uploaded in Wuxiapedia?

Further searching, in TV Tropes there is entry about Jin Yong and Wuxia in general. IMO, not that complete, can be added further.  It’s a pity I’m not a troper. (update: I’m a troper now, guess if I’m inspired I can update the page.)

If you’re new to this genre, or maybe want to feel nostalgic, the first to read of course Condor Trilogy (translated,  pdf-ied, and uploaded by other person.)

LOCH 1 2 3 4

ROCH 1 2 3 4

HSDS 1 2 3 4

(If the version is available in your country, please buy to support the author)

After reading the trilogy (first and foremost!), you can read the others. For other books that don’t exist in wuxiapedia, I read the Indonesian version in www.sacred-magick.com/v/cersil (update: this one is missing too)
(or, anybody knows where to download/ read wuxia english version online?)

After reading the novel, of course we continue to the live action version. Reviewing the 80-90 version of live action wuxia makes me feel so old. I think other than the computer graphic, I like the old ones better than the 21th century one.

After all the nostalgia, I think the most memorable one for me is 1983’s Return of Condor Heroes (Divine Eagle, Gallant Knight) starring Andy Lau and Idy Chan. How to say, it was like the paramount of childhood memory of my generation. That time almost every TV series soundtrack get the dub version and this one was no exception.

(Soundtrack Kembalinya Pendekar Rajawali-Yuni Shara) (original version Ho Yat Tsoi Seung Kin-Teresa Cheung ) by famous Indonesian singer (Yuni Shara, also sang Indonesian dub version of Romance in the Rain and Meteor Garden). Like the other dub songs, the rhythm and the translation were almost the same with the original. I haven’t found the transliteration of the original song. Actually I want to sing along, kidding. I have just found the translation.

Coincidentally, stmchahsinom on Youtube maybe heard my silent plea (update: All hope’s lost, the channel is now defunct. Nontonme has some Indonesian-subbed versions, hopefully they will be fine. Fortunately I understand Indonesian.). The newer series are easier to find either offline or online. The older ones are quite hard to find. This month they uploaded ROCH 83 subbed version (like a dream comes true). I straightly watched all in a row (and crushing of Simon Yam’s Yelu Qi then). Whether they did the subbing or just uploading, the most important thing was that I could watch…

After two weeks of nonsensical wuxia hermit life and no social life whatsoever, I finished all the reading-watching. OK, all is well, but my two weeks!

For anybody who stumbled to this article and starting to read wuxia/ repeating reading it, don’t blame me for living like hermit for all the sleepless nights. If I go to comic rental and find the comic version there, maybe I will borrow them for fun.

(Update: Download link for songs…)

Other sources for Jin Yong and Wuxia fix: SPC Forum, Lanny Land, Wuxia Translation Wiki, Errant Cluster