How do people enjoy Xianxia novels?

Which is odd because people don't actually read wuxia (more specifically they don't even know what it is), so why would they search for it?

What I hear about the newer xianxia doesn't seem like the kind of thing that I'd want to read, but traditional xianxia looks a lot more interesting. What would be some good books to check out? I'd assume that 蜀山剑侠传 is the obvious place to start.

 

Definitely 蜀山剑侠传 for a taste. It's not complete, though, so don't expect an ending.

Next, I would try 灵仙侠世传 because, in my opinion, it refined the genre. It was the first xianxia to finalise the six realms idea that's been used since in the old-school xianxia genre. I liked the way the plot was delivered: the secondary plots are interwoven into the main plot, so it doesn't feel like one long story of chasing one rabbit. It still uses Wudang as a sect, so you can tell it's sticking to the roots. Instead of just being an adventure story of one event after the next, it explores concepts along the way, which I loved. For instance, to be "xia", you need to venture into the secular world. To be "xian", you need to leave the secular world. Are they mutual, or are they exclusive? You get the drift. And, I like the prose

Let me know if you want more after them since I reckon it'll be a lot more of a preference thing from there.

 

Sounds cool, thanks!

See, for all of those asking the question in the OP, this is the kind of thing that you can get out of xianxia!

 

I really like the world building and imagination in recent xianxia webnovels, though the stuff I've read is stuck in a lot of tropes I find disappointing and hold the genre back from being as good as I wish it was. Hope to eventually read some stuff that does more interesting things with the material.

This is cool to know, I've already had 蜀山剑侠传 on my radar because of the 1983 hong kong film (which I'm sure is a tiny fraction of the source material). I'll have to add 灵仙侠世传 to the list, I'd be curious to you know when it was published? (my initial google search failed), would be curious to have a bit of a mental time line of the genre.

Though unfortunately I probably won't get to these for a while, since I'm stuck listening to Mandarin audiobooks while reading corresponding English translations until my language skills improve.

 

-"grinned like a bloom of a thousand flowers" describing a female smile. Why? She just smiled.
cause metaphors. also it should be know that in CN the pronouns aren't specified, so you just have to grow attached to the name. lady this or fairy that is just title to assume female identity or just appeal to those audience. poetic idiots sometimes
-Jade this and jade that
that is more of a cheap way out or the translators issue. jade just refers to a type of cold hard stone most times. like how azure can be translated as blue-green or blue or green.
-exponential numbers
the sales department would like to get in contact with your number. authors that like to sub-divide cultivation realms are CHEAP
I definitely see the OTHER problems you mentioned but how about stopping at the NU synopsis and read the tags. some authors go for the word count or the longest possible publications (why not name some of the impossibly long novels?) obvious quality drop- read some that are already "complete" either they have a disappointing ED but at least they have an ED, unlike some bull some authors try to pull

 

Based on the project's timeline and publishing dates, there's a bit of conflicting information on its publishing date, ranging from 2016-2018, since the author published, moved the series or something in between and then published on another site. I was first exposed to it back in the first quarter of 2017. Very recent, I know, but according to author-san, she (presuming the author is a she based on writing style because there's no confirmation on this) wants to popularise old-school xianxia again.

A bit of a digression: 蜀山剑侠传 was never complete, so I'm pretty sure anyone who used it as reference material has added their own spices to it.

The author has a unique writing style that some people may find weird. She combines movie scripts with novels, so it doesn't read like a serialised novel. It's like reading a script, yet not, like a novel, yet not - 剧小说. I bet even @ToastedRossi is going to find it odd to read at first.

Side note: I'm glad such an old film got a mention. I remember the 1991 adaptation was barely anything like it

 

btw when those with weird weapon fight this cat imagine they fight like this

 

Hype is hype, even if it's copied.

 

Rubbish! Get ur facts correct first. I was a long time member of spcnet and I know the entire mislabelling history. Anyone that is a long time member from spcnet forum knows that as well. Go away, joker.

 

Well, I'm not that anyone from spcnet. So no, I'm not joking. Wait, why are you bringing spcnet into this?

 

Well I used to enjoy them because they they were kind of heady, and new to me. Basically an interesting and novel power trip. Over time I've kind of gotten tired of it though, as it all started to seem the same to me.

Anyways, I don't think 99% of Chinese novels are Xianxia though. I guess maybe it depends on how you are defining xianxia, but from what I see most Chinese novels now involve some random earth person getting transported to another world (Maybe a rip of off a popular franchise such as harry potter), and then given a gold finger (usually some kind of system). Then they spend all there time grinding that system until they reach the top, or the author gets tired of it.

 

It's not that each novel in the genre is enjoyable, but the good quality ones even have a saying at the global level. Of course, they need to be adjusted into scripts and shorter novels, you see before getting into reading web novels, a 3 book series was the end of it for me.

But it's kind of unique, especially those ones that use mythology and folklore heavily. As a foreigner, who had read novels and classic literature for most of my life, this way of 'hard-magic system building' of folklore and mythology kind of fascinated me. It's like living your historical culture and feeling the development of your countrymen thinking of their culture. It can also start an open ground study and discussion of your culture throughout the whole country. Maybe that's what makes the Chinese love it. Personally, I see it unlikely that mythology and religious thinking of my own home country get such a setting any time soon. As it's a living, mostly single religion country. And the past religion and mythological beliefs had been truly misinterpreted to justify the current one. If there was even a middle quality work it could win the masses support. First of all, it's unique, and second, you can relate to it and compare it with the stories that you've heard growing up.
Telling the truth, at first, tolerating some cliche in a new media circle is mind-blowing as most of these cliches were never to be found in the bestsellers of the global market when I started reading. Each genre has a growth timeline, as you can see the history of sci-fi or fantasy as a genre but Xianxia although old as works like the journey to the west can kind of be fathers of the genre[Not really] wasn't in line with social discussions and problems that were going around me. Lots of the problems discussed were ridiculous in my culture. Maybe ongoing Chinese social problems were kind of distinct from mines. I got a thorough understanding of this as I got to know more about modern Chinese history, the things this nation had gone through are kind of unimaginable for us to think we could tolerate. Only the one-child policy had such a social effect for that country that made me dumbfound. The effect of the great leap forward and cultural reform that were going on before and after the genre was getting attention can't be ignored. Although I accept that some of the annoying elements were added for wish fulfillment of some types of readers, it can't be ignored that a healthy society doesn't produce such a pressured readers.

overall, the genre has both their cultural, mythological backbone which makes it relatable for them, these mythologies and beliefs were formed from their ancestor's imagination and a way for thousands of years, making it a completely natural process for the next generation to enjoy it. Second, the growth of the genre is in line with the social situation and performance of their own national readers.

So here I am not relating to lots of troops and even wanting to throw out my laptop facing some of them, but also learning about another group of people and their story. You see reading wuxia or Xianxia stories for years is also kind of reading the story of the genre and the Chinese audience's growth and change. Where will it take us, I don't know. But as long as the tour is enjoyable and I've got free time I'm on this ship.

 

You have no idea how much this thread made me giggle. I've spent like a total of like 3 and a half years now reading translated novels and I can unironically say that the amount of decent chinese novels that I've come across is around like 10 to 15 novels in total. This copypasta strikes such a cord in my soul that I can't help but laugh.
Also

Lmao. I can remember seeing almost 90% of all of these novels pop up on the "new" list in the years past.
Most of these novels can be immediately written off just by taking a look at the summary, art, and the tags of them.

I can personally vouch for garbage levels of "Super Gene", "Magic Industry Empire", and "Low Dimension Game", as I've spent time reading them and can safely say they aren't likeable. Super Gene is generic psychotic chinese edgetrash thats just with a MC who curbs stomps everyone, and Magic Industry Empire is with a slightly more bearable, but still overall unlikeable MC with a story thats kinda asspully in it's application of industry and how the dude builds it up. Finally, Low Dimension Game has a MC who basically gains God level power in like the first 10 chapters from what I remember when I read it like a year and a half ago, so unless you like the idea of a overpowered MC who has a "godly" view on things, the story becomes highly boring after that.

The only story I can legitimately recommend to read would be Daddy's fantasy restaurant, and I personally haven't even kept up with that story due to how I lost interest in general. Human from earth gains a system of cooking, integrates with some ex hero dude, and then proceeds to spoil his brat of a elf daughter for the entirety of the story, while proceeding to cook and upgrading his restaurant. It gets major brownie points for not having a shitlord as the unbearable protagonist, but it still has usual chinese cliches like faceslapping, and "stoic" protagonist from what I remember of it.

 

I use a lot of these "garbage novels" as piecemeal reading. As much as I want to be engaged in a good story, I currently no longer have the time to do so since I have a very limited amount of free time each day. Novels like these on the other hand, can be read by turning your brain off. It can be dropped and picked up whenever you want, wherever you want. I can read it at the bus, at the toilet, when waiting for medicine at the hospital, and even at work when there's not a lot of projects. Not to mention you don't really have to hide it when your coworker/boss is passing by since they think you're reading some documents on your computer(I saved them all in pdf form in case I can't go online).

 

Can we switch places? I've got so many good books on my reading list that I can't even get to the ones that Wu Jizun mentioned in this thread! I have a whole bunch of good writers that I've been putting off because there are so many books I need to read first. And I don't even read xianxia; the problem is that there are just too many interesting books out there!

 

Wouldn't surprise me.

Most of those xianxias read like edgy adolescent Mary Sue fiction, honestly.

There's overlap between the fantasy elements as well, but I do notice that what you call old-school xianxia does a much better job of world-building and exploring faction politics.

That feels like a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy to be honest. People not translating old-school xianxia because nobody reads them results in nobody reading them because there are almost no old-school xianxias to read so those types of fiction don't develop a readerbase.

Moreover, complaints about xianxia CNs having awful protagonists who believe the world revolves around them and whatever they do is justice, arrogant young master cliches, extreme plot armor, ridiculous good luck, shallow writing, etc. are really, really common. So I think there is a real demand for better xianxias that actually try to reflect a more multifaceted world that actually explore the setting, where people behave sensibly, protagonists have to earn their strength more properly, and the plot just isn't an endless mess of idiots lining themselves up to get killed by the protagonist by antagonizing him.

It's just that we don't have a lot of stories like that to peruse.

 

This is untrue. Oldschool xianxia is basically built like modern and classic wuxia. Of these, there's plenty of renowned modern wuxia that's been translated, and nobody on NU reads that so why would oldschool xianxia be any different? It might be interesting to discuss why this stuff doesn't get readers but it's definitely not a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

We'll have to agree to disagree there. Griping about the bad points of xianxia is extremely popular to the point that quite a few people end up having given up on the genre or become resigned to it, saying "it's shit, but what can you do about it." I think that makes it clear that there is strong interest in a better take on xianxia. Oldschool xianxia isn't a monolithic type of writing either. There are oldschool xianxias which are uneventful stories padded with extensive bouts of flowery writing, navel-gazing, and constant long-winded flavor text exposition which fail to present the reader with a compelling reason to care about the protagonist, setting, or story and as such naturally end up boring people, but there are other stories that end up quickly drawing people in, which do understand the value of good pacing and also understand that flowery writing isn't just about using fanciful language but making sure that your words actually contribute meaningful information, characterization, and nuance to your story without disrupting the text's flow. By the same token that not all wuxias are alike, not all xianxias are alike either.

In addition NU popularity is often also determined by factors like update frequency, word of mouth (in terms of how much people talk about it and bring it up, not simply how positive word of mouth is), how good the novel description is, translation quality, how popular the TL group is (ie. wuxiaworld translations are automatically more popular), and even how cumbersome the TLer's website is, especially if the text has an unpleasant layout.

 

The problem is that if these readers were interested in this kind of story, they can already read it. The fact that they don't tells us that they're not really interested, and that they actually prefer the new style xianxia.

 

You glossed over the vast majority of the points I made, I see.

Anyway, could you list these stories then, ToastedRossi, because I am honestly hardly aware of their existence. And I suspect that I am far from the only one.