The Chinese-speaking world is mourning the death of renowned martial arts novelist Louis Cha, who is better known by his pseudonym, Jin Yong. Mr. Cha dies on Tuesday afternoon in a Hong Kong hospital following a well-fought battle against a lingering illness. He was 94.
Mr. Cha is well known throughout the Chinese-speaking world for his epic "wuxia" novels. These novels often depict kung fu heroes during the times of Ancient China. Mr. Cha's vivid depiction of these noble heroes has earned him the enduring nickname of "China's Tolkien," referencing J.R.R. Tolkien who is famous for his epic fantasy novels like "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit."
While some of Mr. Cha's books have been translated into the English language, most of his avid followers are from Chinese-speaking regions. He is also regarded as one of the world's most-read Chinese authors with his fans traversing China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong regions.
Like most high-regarded novelists, most of Mr. Cha's novels and stories have been adapted into various films, television shows, video games, and comic books. Widely considered as one of his most popular series, "Legends of the Condor Heroes" have been published in the English language this year.
Following the news of his death, many of Mr. Cha's fans have flocked various online platforms to show their sympathy and remembrance to the widely beloved author. Some fans have shared their favorite quotes and lines from some of Mr. Cha's novels. A hashtag remembering the author's legacy was the number one trending topic on China's version of Twitter, Weibo. The hashtag was viewed more than 1.3 billion times as of this writing.
Most of Mr. Cha's novels are set in the city of Xiangyang. As an act of remembrance, the city's residents held a candlelight vigil on its ancient walls.
The mourning of Mr. Cha's death has crept all throughout China's virtual world. The country's top search engine provider Baidu changed its front page to black and white to pay honor to the deceased novelist. China's top e-commerce platform Taobao also paid homage to the writer by redirecting users who searched Jin Yong related products to a page that shows the author's photo along with a quote from one of this novels. Incidentally, Taobao founder Jack Ma is also a huge fan of the author.
In one of his speeches published in 2005, Mr. Cha conveyed that he is not interested in being upheld as a historical figure, he is most concerned about people reading his books "after one or two hundred years."
