Gu Long
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| Xiong Yaohua | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | 1937 Hong Kong |
| Died | 21 September 1985 |
| Pen name | Gu Long (Chinese: 古龙) |
| Occupation | novelist |
| Genres | wuxia |
Xiong Yaohua (Chinese: 熊耀华) (1937 – September 21, 1985), who wrote under the pen name Gu Long (traditional Chinese: 古龍; simplified Chinese: 古龙; pinyin: Gǔ Lóng), was a Taiwanese writer of wuxia novels. He was born in Hong Kong and moved to Taiwan in 1950. Several of his novels were adapted to film or television, most notably The Eleventh Son which was adapted several times, including a 1978 film adaptation as the Shaw Brothers' Swordsman and Enchantress. He began his own movie studio, Bao Sian, [1] to further the adaptation of his novels.
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[edit] Life
It is not known when and where Xiong Yaohua was exactly born. Some say he was born in 1936 in Hong Kong, while other claimed that he was born in 1937 in Jiangxi, China.[2] In 1952, he moved to Taiwan with his parents who later divorced in 1956. After that, his life lost stability. With much help from his friends and also money earned from part-time work, he graduated from the Foreign Language Department of Tamkang University (淡江大学) in Taiwan. He later found a job in the United States Army Advisory in Taipei.
It was a well-known fact that he was an alcoholic. In the early days of his career, he would buy several bottles of good alcohol and a big stack of new books whenever he received payment for a manuscript.
In 1960, he published his first wuxia novel, The Vault of Heaven and the Sword of Divinity (苍穹神剑) under the pen-name of Gu Long. From 1960 to 1961, he published a flurry of eight novels, but it did not achieve the result that he desired. He then retreated in solitude to the town of Ruifang (瑞芳镇) for three years, after which he changed his perspective in writing and that gained him prominence and reputation. Between 1967 and the end of the 1970s, his novels finally secured him a place in the annals of modern wuxia fiction. As the sole representative of excellence in the genre from Taiwan for an entire decade, he was named along with Jinyong and Liang Yusheng as the three legs of the tripod of wuxia.
During his university days, he lived together with a dance hostess named Zheng Lili (郑莉莉), and they even had a son, Zheng Xiaolong (郑小龙). Then, Gu Long had another relationship with a second dance hostess, Ye Xue (叶雪), who also bore him a son. Shortly after that, he met an elegant and simple senior middle-school (equivalent to high school in most of the western world) graduate named Mei Baozhu (梅宝珠), whom he married as his first legal wife. Together, they had Gu Long's third son, Xiong Zhengda. Later, his extramarital affairs involving Jhao Zihcing and Jhang Siaolan caused him to break up with his second wife, Mei Baozhu.
Towards the end of his life, he suffered depression and felt dejected. His quality of works also declined rapidly. On 21 September 1985, Gu Long died of illness wrought by alcoholism, namely cirrhosis and esophageal hemorrhage at around 6 PM [3]. During the funeral, his friends brought him 48 bottles of his beloved XO (a superior type of brandy), one for each year of his life. After his death, fellow author Ni Kuang was moved to remarked, "There is no longer Gu Long in the human world, but Gu Long lives on in our hearts!"
[edit] Style of writing
It was said that Gu Long was not only influenced by Chinese wuxia fiction, but also by Western works such as those by Ernest Hemingway, Jack London and John Steinbeck, as well as philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche.
Well-known modern wuxia writers like Jinyong and Liang Yusheng took the "orthodox route" to writing wuxia fiction, using history, culture and philosophy to create winning works. Initially, Gu Long wanted to go down the same path, but his directions changed after being exposed to Western works like the James Bond series and The Godfather novels. The influence of these works, which relied on the idiosyncrasies of human life, razor-sharp wit, poetic philosophies, mysterious plots and spine-tingling thrills to achieve success, enabled Gu Long to come up with a unique way of writing.
[edit] List of works
Some of these works were co-written with other authors.
[edit] Translations of Works
Translations of his work have been published in languages such as French and English:
- The Eleventh Son, English translation of Xiao Shiyi Lang, ISBN 1-931907-16-1.
- Les quatre brigands du Huabei, French translation of Huanle Yingxiong, ISBN 2-87730-371-3
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Gu Long Reading Room - A webpage of fan translations.
- Wuxia Translations Forum - Wuxia translations forum by fans.
- Wuxiapedia - English translations of Gu Long novels, collection of excerpts, and information about his life.
- WuxiaSociety - The only English wuxia portal with focus on discussion forum, dedicated to Gu Long, society of wuxia fans around the world, formerly known as wuxiamania forum
- Qiqi.com - Gu Long's works in Chinese
