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Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain
The story took place in Snowy Mountain in the coldest part of Manchuria, one Winter's morning in 1781. The Dragon Lodge party ran into the Horse Spring Banditry who were there to unearth a buried casket. They were waylaid yet by the Peking Overland Convoy. All three parties had designs on the metal casket, supposedly housing a poniard, which was an heirloom of the Martial Brotherhood. A monk arrived on the scene and the invited the parties to the eyrie on the summit. The lord of the eyrie happened to be away summoning help to fight Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain, who was scheduled to arrive on the summit at noon. While waiting, each one in the parties began recounting incidents which took place some twenty years before. The excitement, intrigue and action in these incidents are well dramatized, with one event firmly intertwining with others in the past, developing into a vendetta involving the offspring of several families. The story ends with a fight between Fox, the hero of the story, and his sworn enemy, but the result of the fight is untold, left to the imagination and creative power of individual readers. Jin Yong is one of the best-known Chinese writers of this generation. Born in 1924 in China's Zhejiang Province but now based in Hong Kong, Louis Cha (Jin Yong's real name) is a novelist, journalist, publisher, political commentator, historian and Buddhist scholar, all rolled into one. He is an Honorary Fellow of St. Antony's College, Oxford and Wynflete Fellow of Magdalen College, also at Oxford. He was made an Officer of the British Empire by the Queen and received the Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur from France. The University of Hong Kong honoured him with the award of the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences and the University of British Columbia with the award of the degree of Doctor of Literature. Olivia Mok, who translated Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain, was born and raised in Hong Kong. She has studied in Hong Kong, the United States and the United Kingdom and worked in various fields. She now teaches translation at the City University of Hong Kong. This book represents her first major effort at translating a major genre in contemporary Chinese literature into English.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 27, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 12, 2021
Jin Yong's shortest novel. Some odd translation decisions, including translating the characters' names instead of using pinyin romanization. Some other uncommon diction makes this sound like it was translated by someone who had a dictionary open next to them the whole time rather then someone who had an easy command of natural English. The story is interesting, though there has been some rearranging of the syntax that mars Jin Yong's style.
February 11, 2024
Publishers: Please create a complete box set collection of all his works!
If you are a fan of the genre - buy all of these books already!
If you are new to the genre - buy all of these books already!
This is the highest quality writing I’ve had the pleasure to read; this author is the king of ‘功夫!’. But, not only that, he crafts brilliant, tense, action packed and absorbing storylines around it all, wow!
The skill of this writer to do this is second to none. I can see now that a lot of modern writers use Jin Yong as a template for their work.
Western Publishers need to do something about bringing to market a complete collection of the authors work. It’s way beyond time those of us in the west who pay the highest tribute to this work need access to it.
The author did so much to put China in the annals of literary legend with his works, characters and stories, the fact is, I’d tour the whole country based upon the authors work, I’d love to visit these amazing places.
If you are a fan of the genre - buy all of these books already!
If you are new to the genre - buy all of these books already!
This is the highest quality writing I’ve had the pleasure to read; this author is the king of ‘功夫!’. But, not only that, he crafts brilliant, tense, action packed and absorbing storylines around it all, wow!
The skill of this writer to do this is second to none. I can see now that a lot of modern writers use Jin Yong as a template for their work.
Western Publishers need to do something about bringing to market a complete collection of the authors work. It’s way beyond time those of us in the west who pay the highest tribute to this work need access to it.
The author did so much to put China in the annals of literary legend with his works, characters and stories, the fact is, I’d tour the whole country based upon the authors work, I’d love to visit these amazing places.
April 25, 2026
Be warned, Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain is a monster of a story.
This novel reads like a classic Hong Kong martial arts film only accelerated by an entire order of magnitude -- there are simply so many characters, subplots, and random things going on it becomes inordinately difficult to keep track of the story.
The plot follows an ancestral feud between martial arts families who are searching for a long lost treasure. Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain is the ancestor of one of these families but the book switches POV so many times without warning.
The translation was difficult to follow as well, with the diction and flow of the story choppy at times. Despite all of this, however, I found the underlying plot of several feuding houses and the ancient treasure with all its intricacies well established and satisfying: a testament to how international literature can be (or at least attempted to be) brought to modern readers.
This novel reads like a classic Hong Kong martial arts film only accelerated by an entire order of magnitude -- there are simply so many characters, subplots, and random things going on it becomes inordinately difficult to keep track of the story.
The plot follows an ancestral feud between martial arts families who are searching for a long lost treasure. Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain is the ancestor of one of these families but the book switches POV so many times without warning.
The translation was difficult to follow as well, with the diction and flow of the story choppy at times. Despite all of this, however, I found the underlying plot of several feuding houses and the ancient treasure with all its intricacies well established and satisfying: a testament to how international literature can be (or at least attempted to be) brought to modern readers.
March 1, 2022
While entertaining and emblematic of Wuxia, that form of novel is not for everyone. Get ready for long and drawn out fights, many characters, long digressions into family histories, etc. Jin Yong is clearly an incredibly proficient and well read writer, and the translation of names (rather than romanization) aids the non-Chinese speaking reader.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews