John’s Blog

I just finished reading The Book and the Sword (書劍恩仇錄) by Jin Yong (or Louis Cha). For better or worse, I’ve become somewhat addicted to Jin Yong’s novels.

Wikipedia never ceases to amaze me. The article on Jin Yong links to an article on The Book and the Sword, which–in addition to having a fairly complete plot summary–links to the official site of a recently published English translation (complete with the complete text of the first chapter), and even an English-language “Wuxiapedia” article that details changes made in the third edition of the book (”wuxia” 武侠 means something like “martial arts heroes”). The changes listed in the wuxiapedia are actually pretty major: a major character runs off instead of committing suicide, one of the main antagonists shows a sign of a heart before dying, and an extra chapter is added at the end. I must have read the second edition!

This book is based on the folk legend that Emperor Qianlong was actually a Han Chinese, a story that I’ve heard from numerous taxi drivers in Beijing, but that probably isn’t true. Famous historical characters often play key roles in Jin Yong’s novels–Ghengis Khan plays a major role in The Legend of the Condor Heroes 射雕英雄传, and Kublai Khan shows up in The Return of the Condor Heroes 神雕侠侣 (both of which I’ve only seen TV versions of). My favorite so far, though, is Kangxi in The Deer and the Cauldron 鹿鼎记.

Hmmm… the English names of these books sound so ridiculous! The Return of the Condor Heroes! I’d like to write a bit more about what is so appealing to me about Jin Yong’s books… They’re more than just a good read.

Some people don’t like him, but I’ve always been a fan of Thomas Friedman. Like Andrew Sullivan, he’s someone with whom I don’t always agree, but I admire for being willing to explore (and sometimes change) his opinion in a public forum.

Friedman has become very well-known in China with the discussion surrounding his book The World is Flat. The concept seems to resonate with people here, and makes good dinner table conversation.

So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I was in the bookstore the other day and noticed that the Chinese edition of his The Lexus and the Olive Tree has been renamed The World is Flat: The Perspective of the Lexus and the Olive Tree. Never mind that the whole concept of “the world is flat” came to him after he published “The Lexus and the Olive Tree”. I wonder if he knows about the new title.

I’m on a train back from Shanghai and the CDMA connection keeps going in and out, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to post this or not. The other two people in my four-person compartment are asleep, and the light from my dimmed (to keep the battery going) computer display is all that’s lighting up the compartment.

We’re taking the same train that we took down to Shanghai. The only difference is that on the way down they gave us free dinner and a travel toothbrush. It’s a “soft-sleeper”, which means that there are four people in a compartment with a door, whereas a “hard-sleeper” would be six people without a door. The beds are all hard.

I’m worried that my typing is too loud for my traveling companions to sleep.