Epic Fantasy Meets Wuxia: Good Premise Or Bad?

In short, I'm thinking along the storylines similar to The Elric Saga, but with more of a Wuxia movie feel to it in terms of appearance (such as costumes and/or weaponry). Would this Genre Hybrid work or not? Just your opinions.

At a base level, I say "Go for it!" — if only because I think that Wuxia would be an awesome genre to explore. My question to you is, how well do you think you can pull off the style? I'm assuming that since you brought it up, you know how to handle the genre's elements; given that, I'd say as long as you can capture the tone/traits (and show them well), then you're good to go.

On the X Meets Y front, I doubt it really matters. Make it cool, make it interesting, make it your own story; follow your instincts and leave the classification to others.

There's two cents for ya. Hope that helps.

I´m pretty sure it could work, even if it´s in a non-oriental setting. There are, after all, Wuxia movies that are in a modern setting (though with an asian cast). I don´t see why it couldn´t be done, specially if it´s epic fantasy and you have larger-than-life characters.

Wuxia with any fantasy elements is generally accepted as "the Eastern version of Epic Fantasy".

Go for it. Although I have to say that what I personally believe separates wuxia from Eastern fantasy is the use of framing devices: characters doing things in reaction to other characters' actions and speaking of them.

If you write something, please show it :D

I would gather some knowledge on ancient Chinese myth first. I think that would give it the perfect atmosphere if you had just a little background knowledge. That isn't to say you shouldn't make it your own, though!

I like the idea, so power to you.

Absolutely. Here in Korea, at least one out seven fantasy series is Wuxia themed and they do pretty well. You WOULD need to do some research, though.

d Roy, could you recommend me a good book in english about the history of Korea? I have a project of my own that includes ancient history, and I want to include China, Japan and Korea in the mix :)

EDIT: Forgot to add, I´m reading the Romance of the Three Kingdoms now, and I think it might be a very good influence (I´m very far from Asia and not very fluent in the Wuxia genre, but from what I´ve seen, it seems to fit it quite well. It reminds me of Hero, the Jet Li movie).

edited 3rd Jul '11 10:53:59 PM by Gamabunta

I'm afraid not. There aren't that many books that deals with Korean history because it's not really a popular topics for westerners. Asian history in general is dealt a lot, but even then, I don't know much books. So, sorry, can't help you there.

In a random note, one thing that really bugs me about the genre is how forcedly exotic names of the characters and the techniques are. It's not much of a problem in visual media but in written form, it can be a bit annoying, although it's just me.

edited 3rd Jul '11 11:56:08 PM by dRoy

Is there perhaps a book that could be considered representative of the traditions/ beliefs of ancient Korea? Like the Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, or the Hagakure, or the Romance of the Three Kingdoms?

I´m quite ignorant about chinese, korean and japanese folklore and histtory, and any help in that regard would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, I´m reading the Romance in english, so there isn´t any trouble reading the names, only remembering later who was who :P

Again, sorry, not that I know of. Closest I can think of is [[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annals_of_the_Joseon_Dynasty this]] but it's more of a history records and I highly doubt that you can find any translated version...

About Romance, it's so WILDLY POPULAR in here that some knowledge about the series is required by the law but for other Wuxia or fantasies inspired by them written by Koreans...they are more or less of a Canis Latinicus version of Chinese and to be a bit blunt, sucks donkey balls.

edited 4th Jul '11 1:15:35 AM by dRoy

If you're reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms, do yourself a favor and read Journey To The West and the Water Margin as well. Journey To The West because of it's cultural impact on the world as well as some real mind-bending fantasy, and the Water Margin because it is quite possibly the first wuxia novel ever.

Oh yeah, I read both of them too, although to be honest they were (very, VERY dark and grim) Manhwa version but still. They are all pretty good, although if you are not good with shitloads of characters, then you are out of luck.

I´m quite interested in getting myself a copy of journey to the West, mainly because I want the full account of the Monkey King´s adventures.

I´m now aiming to read the four great classics of the chinese literature :D :D

I hope that helps me understand chinese culture a bit better.

Good luck :D

Be careful though, culture back then and now is VASTLY, I'm not talking about change that naturally happens in long time but holy shit what the hell level, different.

You mean between the Old Days and today?

If that´s so, at least I can show proper knowledge of a bit of chinese culture, and that's at least a start :D

Besides, the project I have in mind is set a few centuries in the past, so having at least a rough idea of the mindset would be incredibly useful.

EDIT: By the way, is there any relation between the hangul system of writing, and chinese ideograms? Reading in the page you just gave me, says "The Annals are written in Classical Chinese; they were translated into modern Korean in the 1980s in North Korea and in 1994 in South Korea." Was chinese widely used even though hangul existed, or did the hangul writing system replace chinese writing?

edited 4th Jul '11 1:57:59 AM by Gamabunta

Personally, I find that the Water Margin has more culture than Journey To The West does, as the actions that the characters take are all in some way or another fitting in the Confucian idea of righteousness (including mutilating adulterous women without a trial), whereas Monkey is a rebel and a taboo-breaker and a general counter-culture being.