Wuxia

China Artistry in the News

In a recent NPR Morning Edition article by Sandy Totten, Americans found that China wants to use the western movie making infrastructure to promote China and its long history. “The Chinese government-owned company recently invested $30 million in hopes of making a movie that would both celebrate Chinese culture and turn a tidy profit.”

New Anthology and Society Opening

I’ve received word that the Community site for the “Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove” is up and running. For those of you who love Asian Literature, get over there and sign up. It’s a community where the general public can login to discuss all sorts of things regarding Asian lit, though I think the specific focus will be Wuxia.

Which leads to the other exciting news: John, the author of the Seven Sages, is also interested in printing a Wuxia anthology. How cool is that? And to make it even better, it will be a paying anthology. More on that after he opens to submissions. For now, make sure you login to join the Sages.

Do you have anything you plan on submitting?

New Good News!

My online buddy, Jeannie Lin (see blogroll below) has had an AMAZING week. She just signed a contract with Harlequin for “Butterfly Swords”. “Butterfly” is a romance set in ancient China, so I’m delighted for many reasons. And on top of that, last weekend Jeannie Lin won the Golden Heart Historical Genre contest (http://www.rwanational.org/cs/contests_and_awards/golden_heart_awards). How cool is that? Well done, Jeannie Lin!

Red Cliffs Trailer

For those of you who are not familiar with my book or with the history it’s based on, the John Woo movie, “Red Cliffs” covers the pivotal battle of the Three Kingdoms period. I thought you might be interested in seeing this trailer of the movie. I have seen the movie on DVD and it ends on a cliffhanger. I’ll warn you, the first ten minutes or so is bewildering to the unitiated who knows nothing of these characters or their struggles. After that, the movie is an excellent character-driven story based on two strategists from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Red Cliffs has not been released to theaters in the U.S.

Here’s the link to the trailer: http://www.examiner.com/x-1378-LA-Foreign-Film-Examiner~y2008m10d25-John-Woos-epic-Red-Cliff-marks-monumental-shift-in-Chinese-cinema. I’ve also embedded the trailer at the bottom of the page.

Variety Magazine reports that this is the highest grossing film in the Chinese movie making industry’s history. What’s more, it’s only part one.

Asian Themed Books by Caucasian Authors

I thought this might be an interesting question. Does anyone have a list of reading material covering books set in or around Asian culture? Seeing as how I’m not Asian at all, but have an interest, I’m fascinated by those western authors who, like me, chose an Asian setting for their novels.

There are a few I can think of off hand:

• Alma Alexander – Secrets of Jin-Shei and The Embers of Heaven (“Jin-Shei” is great. I haven’t read “Embers” yet, but I love that title!)
• Daniel Fox – Dragon in Chains (I haven’t finished reading this, but the beginning is incredible.)
• Adrienne Kress – Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate (I have to confess, it’s still waiting to be read.)
• Lian Hearn – Tales of the Otori (I’ve also not yet read these. So much to do, so little time!)

Feel free to list any good Asian-themed books! These just fascinate me because of where the authors have come from.