Understanding Chinese Fantasy Genres: A Primer for Wuxia, Xianxia, and Xuanhuan

by Jeremy Bai

Do you love Chinese fantasy?

Do you want to understand it better?

Maybe you're a longtime fan who would like a handy reference guide. Maybe you're new to the genre and don't have the time to watch hours of videos to catch up. Or maybe you're an aspiring writer hoping to create authentic cultivation or xianxia content. Regardless, this is the book for you. Here's why.

I took some of the most popular videos in my Chinese Fantasy Novel FAQ YouTube series and put them into written form. 25 chapters, each packed with vital language and cultural information. I've also added examples from existing Chinese fantasy novel translations to make things more interesting, relevant, and understandable.

Get it now!

If you want to know exactly what content is inside, check out this complete chapter list:

Chapter 1: The Industry and the Genres
Chapter 2: Clans and Sects
Chapter 3: Alcohol and “Wine”
Chapter 4: Harems and Polygamy
Chapter 5: Sworn Brotherhood
Chapter 6: Courting Death
Chapter 7: “Beat You to Death”
Chapter 8: Forms of Address Among Family Members
Chapter 9: Forms of Address in Sects and Other Organizations
Chapter 10: “I, Your Father”
Chapter 11: Confusion About Stars and Planets
Chapter 12: Differences between Daoist Magics, Divine Abilities, and Magical Techniques
Chapter 13: "Devils" and "Demons"
Chapter 14: Clones
Chapter 15: Spirit Stones
Chapter 16: Qi Deviation, Fire Deviation, and Cultivation Deviation, etc.?
Chapter 17: Nascent Souls
Chapter 18: Breakthroughs and Bottlenecks
Chapter 19: Why Immortals aren't "Immortal"
Chapter 20: What is Cultivation?
Chapter 21: The Ruthlessness and Brutality of the Cultivation World
Chapter 22: What is the Jianghu?
Chapter 23: Unheroic Heroes?
Chapter 24: Unrealistic Sizes and Distances
Chapter 25: Why Immortal Cultivators often don’t “act their age”
Appendix 1: List of Chinese terms with pinyin
Appendix 2: References

Genres: Nonfiction, China, Asia

149 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 15, 2020

About the author

Jeremy Bai is a translator and writer who specializes in Chinese fantasy genres such as wuxia, xianxia, and xuanhuan. Including the cult favorite I Shall Seal the Heavens, he has translated roughly 14,000,000 Chinese characters’ worth of such fiction, which works out to about 8,000,000 English words. He also runs a YouTube channel devoted to explaining the literary conventions and cultural aspects of Chinese fantasy. He lived in China from 2010-2018, and currently resides in Southern California with his wife and children. His pet peeves include bad subtitles in movies, humid weather, and witty humor inserted into About the Author sections.

Reviews

[Yilin · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writer of the work does yellowface and is going by a Chinese last name as well as have a photo of himself trying to look Asian on his website and promotional materials. He also arrogantly claims to be the world's most accomplished wuxia and xianxia translator when he is talking about a literary genre that belongs to a culture he is not a part of. He is benefiting from Chinese culture in various material ways yet is so disrespectful and unprofessional.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't have the cultural background to provide commentary on the information presented, but as a chinese-american who's read my share of Wuxia, this is a pretty solid primer. I knew most of the information, but its cool to finally see what the original Chinese words for a lot of wuxia terms are. Def recommended for people getting into the genre

[Andy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author has chosen to proclaim they are the greatest wuxia and xianxia author/translator of all time, all while cosplaying a BIPOC group (who actively suffers) to build a "brand" and try and push copies. He even has the audacity to put racist hearsay in this book to push a disgusting narrative.

A fraud full of himself who actively uses colonizer logic to come in, take something that wasn't his, and shout he's better at it than any member of the actual culture that it comes from.

The book was rubbish, the ignorance and sheer gall he has shown is infuriating, and he refuses to show any amount of respect or decency to either the content or the culture that created it. 1/5 since it's the lowest I can give for the book, 0/5 for the man who made it.

[Pingmg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect primer

Informative and simple to understand
Read this just because I wanted insight on all the historical danmei I’m planning to read, plus the BL ones I’ve already read & watched. There’s a bit of an aha moment since this book explains it well without being tedious or dragging with long explanations.

[Sem · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would be a helpful introduction for anyone not familiar with the genres. I liked the author's discussion of some of his translation decisions.

[Jeffrey Powanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enthusiastic and accessible introduction to the three main genres of Chinese fantasy web novels: wuxia (martial arts novels), xianxia (mythical cultivation novels), and xuanhuan (fusion of Eastern and Western fantasy). The book is based on Bai's own experiences translating several popular Chinese web novels, including A Will Eternal and I Shall Seal the Heavens by Er Gen, as well as his full-time job translating Chinese fantasy role-playing games. The book is short (149 pages), and easy to read in a couple hours. It's also lively, informative, and worth the $2.99 price tag. Each of the chapters supplements a video in Bai's popular YouTube series Chinese Fantasy FAQ.

[Zevlen]

This is a short, succinct, and well-researched book on the tropes and jargon of Chinese (historical/epic/classical) fantasy genres, with special focus on xianxia (which the author defines as CH high fantasy, with epic traits) and, to a lesser extent, wuxia (CH historical fantasy with some limited and oftentimes downplayed supernatural elements). It is highly informative, a characteristic which is no doubt bolstered by Jeremy “Deathblade” Bai’s fluency in Chinese, life-experience as a Chinese citizen, and very long history of reading, translating, and writing works in all three of these genres. If there is anything to complain about in this piece, it is that some of the chapters are perhaps a bit overshort; particularly, I would’ve liked Deathblade to go into more detail about the common tropes regarding the depiction of Xian (immortals) and Qi cultivation throughout these novels, rather than very quickly defining them and dispelling common misconceptions about them. Perhaps further detail could be given on these archetypes and cross-work conventions in a follow-up book.

Nevertheless, this is still highly recommended for those intending to better understand or introduce themselves to Chinese fantasy.

[Vedrana · Rating 2 out of 5]

The general idea of the book is good - to provide some basic information about Chinese fantasy genres.
However, there is no structure in the book, just a bunch of random chapters with no connection to the previous or the next one. Very often the author wastes too much time on explaining the Chinese characters and meaning behind certain word instead of actually providing an useful information about the topic. On top of that, it is clearly that many things are nothing but author’s speculations and guesses, as he is unable to provide relevant source for his claims. There is so much more the author could have focused on, add more information about other related things, provide an actual source if only he did not spend too much time and paper on praising himself. So take the book as your starting point and go digging deeper into proper literature on this matter.

[asdfghl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A light primer for the genre

And a rather interesting one at that! It’s not academic, so to speak, in that the author shares personal anecdotes and how his experiences have shaped the way concepts are translated from one language to the other. I also appreciated the list of classics and newer works from the genre!

[Jayden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just wanted to get some additional information on Chinese fantasy genres and their difference to Western fantasy, and that is exactly what I did. I liked that he gave me some context on the Chinese words (and characters) used, and the translation choices he made.

Not super structured, and not very long, but I really enjoyed the book and the information. I got this on Kindle Unlimited, and otherwise probably would not have read it. And I would have missed out. As a non-Chinese new reader of these genres, the additional and societial background was very informative and fun.

I enjoyed reading this. Glad I took the time.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐1/2

I wish I'd read this before reading Beware of Chicken and The Legend of the Condor Heroes books I read this year. While I really enjoyed by of those novels along with the countless adaptions of "Journey to the West" I've seen over the years I'd have a deeper understanding of them if I'd read this book 1st.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of the different types of Chinese fantasy and how certain words and phrases are translated into English, which might be confusing to Western readers.

I appreciate the example texts to see how certain words and phrases are used in context along with the explanation.

[Charmie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Provided basic information, but I felt like it could have been better. I came across this when I was looking for something to introduce my friend to Chinese fantasy because she keeps saying she's bored because she feels lost. But I think this would help her a bit. I'm not sure. We'll see.

[Zayden Blaze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does not have a chapter on 'Face' in the culture section, and I'd have liked a bit more information on some things. Still very informative.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very well-written reference that helps explain many of the nuances in Chinese fantasy that those of us not familiar with Chinese culture might otherwise miss. It is written very conversationally, which makes it a very easy read, and the connections drawn to the different Chinese characters used and how they affect translation was something I found fascinating.

Long story short: If you read wuxia, xianxia, or xuanhuan stories, you will likely learn something new here, and that something new will only increase your enjoyment of those stories.