I. Legacy Rekindled: Wen Ruan’an’s Revolutionary Wuxia Vision Emerging during the Hong Kong New Wave of the 1970s, Wen Ruan’an’s Legend of the Swordsmen (神州奇侠) shattered wuxia conventions with its psychological complexity and political allegory. Unlike contemporaries Jin Yong and Gu Long, Wen infused his Jianghu with existential dread – heroes grapple with survivor’s guilt after witnessing sect massacres, while villainy emerges from systemic […]
