Another novelist, Chen Wen-tong, better known by his pen name Liang Yusheng, also celebrates his 100th birthday this year.
Born in 1924 to a family of scholars in Haining, Zhejiang province, China, Cha was always an avid reader and is said to have first encountered martial arts novels at the age of eight, when he read a martial arts novel, a genre that was still new at the time. Huangjiang Heroine “The Swordswoman of the Yellow River” by Chinese novelist Gu Mingdao (1897-1944).
In 1948, at the age of 24, Cha graduated from Soochow University in Shanghai with a degree in international law, then moved to Hong Kong to join the Chinese-language newspaper Ta Kung Pao.
Two years later, he became editor of Ta Kung Pao's evening paper, the New Evening Post, where he met Chen.
Like Cha, Chan was born into a family of scholars and grew up in a village in Mengshan county, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. He also moved to Hong Kong in 1949 and quickly found work at the Ta Kung Pao newspaper.
As colleagues, Cha and Liang ushered in a new era of interest in martial arts fiction with their collaborative column, “The Hall of the Three Swords,” in the New Evening Post in the mid-1950s. Even after the column was discontinued in 1957, the two continued to write, collaborating with each other to publish their stories as novels.
Chen's Lu Pingzong Xia Ying (1959-60) was said to be the pioneer of the new school of martial arts novels at the time. His other famous works include: Qijian Xia Tianshan (1956-57) is a film by Hong Kong director Tsui Hark. Seven Swords (2005); and Baihua Monu Juan (1957-58) White-haired bride (1993) is a classic Hong Kong film, directed by Ronny Yu and starring Bridget Lin Ching-hsia and Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing.
But it was Cha who reigned supreme not only over the Chinese literary scene but also over Hong Kong pop culture with his beautiful writing and captivating stories.
The Legend of the Wild Geese (1957-59) was directed by Wong Kar-wai. Ashes of Time (1994), his last and longest novel. Deer and cauldron (1969-72) has been adapted into a number of television series over the years, with the lead character, Wei Xiaobao, played by various actors including Tony Leung Chiu-wai.
Chen's works often draw on elements of history and traditional Chinese poetry and literature, and his protagonists tend to be talented and knowledgeable. Also influenced by Chinese history and culture, Cha portrays chivalrous yet lonely protagonists who dedicate their lives to the art and philosophy of Chinese martial arts.
Perhaps the difference has to do with the lives of the great masters of wuxia literature: Chen spent much of his career writing novels, columns, critiques and essays before moving to Australia with his family in 1987 and converting to Christianity in 1994, aged 70.
Cha, on the other hand, was a rebellious and entrepreneurial figure who co-founded the Hong Kong-based Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao in 1959 and began criticizing Communist Party policies from around 1964.
He was also an outspoken opponent of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) and Hong Kong's 1967 left-wing riots, for which he received death threats. In 1985 he was a founding member of the committee that drafted the Basic Law for Hong Kong, but resigned in 1989 in protest against the martial law imposed by Beijing that led to the Tiananmen Square massacre.
In 1998, Cha and Daisaku Ikeda, the Japanese philosopher and author who was awarded the United Nations Peace Prize in 1983, co-authored the book, Asia's Light of MercyTheir intellectual debate series, “,” has been published in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese.
In his book, Ikeda wrote about Cha: “I was amazed at the strong mental strength he displayed, even in the face of such enormous power. This is the spirit of the 'Great Teachers' that has been passed down throughout thousands of years of Chinese history. Jin Yong used his pen like a sword, and it was sharp and shining.”
In 2004, Cha was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Cambridge in the UK. The following year, he left Hong Kong to study for a non-honorary doctorate at the same university, completing his doctorate in 2010 with his thesis “Imperial Succession in the Tang Dynasty of China, 618-762”.
Chan died on 22 January 2009 in Sydney, Australia, aged 85, and Cha died on 30 October 2018 in Hong Kong, aged 94.
Their legendary status in Hong Kong's literary world remains unchallenged, and their work continues to be widely respected in the wider Chinese-speaking and Chinese immigrant communities around the world.
“Sculpture: Kuo Jing”, Hong Kong International Airport Terminal 1 Arrivals Hall, 1 Sky Plaza Road, Chek Lap Kok. Open 24/7. Until July 19.
“Len Jie Sculpture,” Hong Kong Heritage Museum, 1 Man Lam Road, Sha Tin. Open weekdays 10am to 6pm (closed on Tuesdays), weekends and public holidays 10am to 7pm. Until October 7.
