Wuxia by a western author

TheUnsaid

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I believe it can work, and work well, IF you focus more on the cultivation part of the story instead of Wuxia in general. Have you ever heard about "progression fantasy"? It's a genre of books that have some really cool cultivation stories. You should check it out.
First time hearing the term, but it sounds like the global equivalent of cultivation.
I think the cradle series is basically that
Sounds interesting
...
Reading summary online
...
Why does the story have factionalism like it's divergent XD?
But yeah, the whole vocabulary of clans and such is there. They even have cultivation levels.

Interesting to know that western authors have attempted it in their own way at times.
 
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FeverDream

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First time hearing the term, but it sounds like the global equivalent of cultivation.
Yeah it's kinda new, but basically it's about books that focus on the progression of the MC. So a lot of trainings, learning new techniques, finding rare weapons, those kinda of things. Really cool
I think the cradle series is basically that
Yeah it is, and it's awesome!
 

TheUnsaid

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Yeah it's kinda new, but basically it's about books that focus on the progression of the MC. So a lot of trainings, learning new techniques, finding rare weapons, those kinda of things. Really cool

Yeah it is, and it's awesome!
So you're of the opinion that it's better to just remove the chinese culture stuff and keep the cultivation and other stuff that drew me in?
 

FeverDream

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So you're of the opinion that it's better to just remove the chinese culture stuff and keep the cultivation and other stuff that drew me in?
Oh, not totally remove the chinese culture, but mix things a little. Keep enough so that the core of what makes a wuxia story is still there, but don't worry too much of getting every detail right. Do your on interpretation of how some things would work.
 

K5Rakitan

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I just don't want to offend anyone.
Have you even looked at my stories? They are dripping with offensive content. That's why I enjoy my 1-star ratings and ask for mor 😇
 
D

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If you're thinking about having Chinese names for your characters, you can check this out if you want https://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/chinese. Up to you thu. I use this site mostly to get an idea what I want to name my characters.

Idk much about wuxia. The things I did read was set in fantasy historical ancient china or a xianxia but more gods and demons than just immortals cultivating kind. Thu, I do know wuxia is about martial arts heroes or something like that. Maybe look at martial art films to get an idea?

Maybe have sects. And each sect has its own fighting technique style that sets it apart from the other sects (groups/schools/institutions/etc.). From what I know, wuxia major components are the sects and the martial arts.

And I keep seeing legend of condor heroes having another remake. Legend of Condor Heroes is a famous wuxia story.

by way, I second @Anon_Y_Mousse 's comment in other post.
 
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TheUnsaid

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Have you even looked at my stories? They are dripping with offensive content. That's why I enjoy my 1-star ratings and ask for mor 😇
Content I make elsewhere is generally well liked, and when people like what you make they're much more interactive and supportive.
I know I can't make a work that won't offend everyone since someone out there will find something to take issue with. I was generally gauging it.

If you're thinking about having Chinese names for your characters, you can check this out if you want https://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/chinese. Up to you thu. I use this site mostly to get an idea what I want to name my characters.

Idk much about wuxia. The things I did read was set in fantasy historical ancient china or a xianxia but more gods and demons than just immortals cultivating kind. Thu, I do know wuxia is about martial arts heroes or something like that. Maybe look at martial art films to get an idea?

Maybe have sects. And each sect has its own fighting technique style that sets it apart from the other sects (groups/schools/institutions/etc.). From what I know, wuxia major components are the sects and the martial arts.

And I keep seeing legend of condor heroes having another remake. Legend of Condor Heroes is a famous wuxia story.

by way, I second @Anon_Y_Mousse 's comment in other post.
That was a very helpful resource thank you.

I've read a lot of wuxia and xianxia in general. I have a good idea of what I want to make no worries :)
 

Mysticant

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First things first, I'm an adult content creator primarily.
My writing experience mostly comes from writing 3D adult videos.
They're not the best due to technical limitations, but it was really good practice for persiflage.

With that out of the way, I'd like to write a semi-adult Wuxia, but I don't know if I should. Wuxia is innately tied to chinese mythology and focuses heavily on that society and culture. I have cursory knowledge from reading quite a few and reading wiki's, and I'm willing to do more research in order to write a good story.

That being said, it's more extreme than an American writing a story that takes place in Japan with characters that have Japanese names, and I'm not sure if I should tackle it that way.

Or maybe I should take the Avatar the Last Airbender approach and just retool the society so much that the chinese influence is practically gone?

What do you guys think? What wuxia elements would you consider core to wuxia to the point that it can be moved to a "general cultural" environment and still feel like a wuxia?
OP let us get one thing straight.
Xianxia= Eastern Mythological Fantasy (it stands for immortal stories in chinese)
Wuxia= Eastern Martial Stories (it stands for martial stories, it can be fantasy or not)

What you see in murim in korean novels etc are all wuxia. Xianxia is ISSTH, DPCQ etc. It sounds like you want to write a xianxia than an wuxia. Let me tell you first that wuxia is not as easy to write than a xianxia. As it revolves more around martial skills and weapons than magic, spells, talismans, summons etc.

I gave you my opinion on wuxia and xianxia already. A good legit example of a xianxia is journey to the west itself if you want a proper WN i would say 'My senior brother is too steady'. That is a true and blue xianxia with orginal references to eastern gods. The easiest way to portray wuxia would be murim which there are plenty of nice manga as reference. Eg Northern blade, Nanomachine(disputable).

The common theme of most eastern fantasy would be sects, family which is ingrained in Chinese culture due to confuscianism. You can choose to do the bullshit ancestors or hidden grandaddy crap. Anyways what usually separates xianxia from wuxia is the scaling mechanism. Wuxia scales on martial skills and might. Xianxia scales based on cultivation levels. You need to be very clear that most wuxia don't have xianxia elements, but most xianxia can include wuxia elements if the author isn't just batshit terrible or lazy to actually plan and write out a fight scene that lasts more than 1 chapter with minimal spell usage.
 
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K5Rakitan

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Content I make elsewhere is generally well liked, and when people like what you make they're much more interactive and supportive.
I know I can't make a work that won't offend everyone since someone out there will find something to take issue with. I was generally gauging it.
You do you!
 

TheUnsaid

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OP let us get one thing straight.
Xianxia= Eastern Mythological Fantasy (it stands for immortal stories in chinese)
Wuxia= Eastern Martial Stories (it stands for martial stories, it can be fantasy or not)

What you see in murim in korean novels etc are all wuxia. Xianxia is ISSTH, DPCQ etc. It sounds like you want to write a xianxia than an wuxia. Let me tell you first that wuxia is not as easy to write than a xianxia. As it revolves more around martial skills and weapons than magic, spells, talismans, summons etc.

I gave you my opinion on wuxia and xianxia already. A good legit example of a xianxia is journey to the west itself if you want a proper WN i would say 'My senior brother is too steady'. That is a true and blue xianxia with orginal references to eastern gods. The easiest way to portray wuxia would be murim which there are plenty of nice manga as reference. Eg Northern blade, Nanomachine(disputable).

The common theme of most eastern fantasy would be sects, family which is ingrained in Chinese culture due to confuscianism. You can choose to do the bullshit ancestors or hidden grandaddy crap. Anyways what usually separates xianxia from wuxia is the scaling mechanism. Wuxia scales on martial skills and might. Xianxia scales based on cultivation levels. You need to be very clear that most wuxia don't have xianxia elements, but most xianxia can include wuxia elements if the author isn't just batshit terrible or lazy to actually plan and write out a fight scene that lasts more than 1 chapter with minimal spell usage.
Yeah, I was using Wuxia as an umbrella term when it has its own specifics. You're right. The thing I really want to make is a Xianxia.
 

SakeVision

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Can a western author write a Chinese themed story? Yes, if he consumed a lot of Chinese fiction and did his research, and speaks at least some degree of Chinese language.

Your question is more like: can someone pretty much clueless about the genre write a wuxia story?

The answer is also yes, but expect to get burned.
 

Mysticant

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I won't say that the author will get burned. SH has a few authors who are obviously not Chinese writing xianxias with relative success. I mean it is pretty darn obvious to me once I read the names.
 
D

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@Mysticant Curious question. Do you know what separates a shenmo from a xianxia? when i look up journey to the west, its described as a shenmo instead.
 

Mysticant

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@Mysticant Curious question. Do you know what separates a shenmo from a xianxia? when i look up journey to the west, its described as a shenmo instead.
Shenmo is a more olden term I would say since it revolves around the gods and demons. Like xianxia is just immortal cultivation stories in general, if one thing that would separate it more would be the fact that shenmo usually already hit their power spikes in general and revolve around the gods and demons themselves rather than the cultivation levels whereby xianxia usually has immortality as its target. Don't quote me as I may be wrong though. I still rather classify everything under xianxia as it is still usually stories about mythical beings, immortality, and cultivation.
 

Mysticant

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Yeah, I was using Wuxia as an umbrella term when it has its own specifics. You're right. The thing I really want to make is a Xianxia.
My advice to this is to at least read the Book of Authors in Webnovel that they made for people who want to try writing xianxias(or actually chinese wn in general which eastern fantasy is the majority besides bossy ceos). Their tips are a bit farfetched but they give you a genuine feel to how the mind of chinese xianxia writers operate. Don't believe it though, it is utterly biased and filled with misinformation still in my opinion.

I know I sound kind of dumb saying to read but not believe it, but I truly believe that anyone that follows the advice of that would at least be a 2nd rate xianxia writer even if you don't know Chinese. It is just that true first rate works in my opinion has an amazing x-factor that no recipe can emulate, LOTM/CCG/TKA are all examples of that.

I am kind of being mean here, but all(okay maybe moooooost) of the novels of xianxia genre that I have tested on SH do not even hit 2nd rate (based on my opinion). Maybe I have not read enough of them, but I still believe on this fact. Mainly, because most plots I read are rather shallow to me. This applies to a large number of original works in WN itself.
 
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SakeVision

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I won't say that the author will get burned. SH has a few authors who are obviously not Chinese writing xianxias with relative success. I mean it is pretty darn obvious to me once I read the names.
I meant that if the author gets some things straight out wrong, some people might find issues with it. That's why research is needed.

Of course, the success of the story depends on a lot of factors, mainly the plot, the characters and the prose...as long as these are good, some people will always like it.
 

Kuropon

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I'm writing a Xianxia with a westerner MC in it. Think the biggest thing about them would be 'face' and how everything is kind of based around it in xianxia type novels.
 

LinXueLian

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Ehhhh. I'll say this as a Chinese person - do whatever you want. I don't think it's that extreme compared to someone not Japanese writing about Japanese stuff, it's generally the same thing. In fact, I've even written about western stuff despite knowing little to nothing about the west. No one has knocked me on the head, ever.

We're going to end up offending someone anyway. I say just do you. It's not like you're writing it maliciously anyway. You like the culture enough to make stories about it. What's the problem?
 
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