How do people enjoy Xianxia novels?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by Ddraig, Oct 29, 2020.

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  1. Kurotsubaki

    Kurotsubaki Reincarnation of the Seven Deadly Sins

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    Ikr?
     
  2. ongoingwhy

    ongoingwhy Meat Pie Lover

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    You should ask why translators keep choosing trashy xianxia novels to translate.

    If you want a breath of fresh air, check out My Senior Brother is Too Steady.
     
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  3. Nightow1

    Nightow1 Well-Known Member

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  4. Effugium

    Effugium [Investigator], Praise Shigure-sama

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    The world in this novel is quite interesting, do you know where it's taken from?

    I would also recommend The sage who transcended samsara if only the translation is good. I had struggled to read the bad translation and really liked it, but gave up in the end due to bad translation.
     
  5. ongoingwhy

    ongoingwhy Meat Pie Lover

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    It's a mix of Investiture of the Gods and Journey to the West. You might recognize some of the characters if you've read The Sage Who Transcended Samsara.

    Oh, I've already tried that. I dropped it after the part where he explored the Celestial Court. It didn't feel like the plot was going anywhere.
     
  6. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    Really? From what I can tell, proper wuxia novels barely ever get translated. Where are you finding them all?
     
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  7. Lazriser

    Lazriser Well-Known Member

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    In NU advanced search? Hopefully the tagging criteria is accurate enough to establish which is wuxia or xianxia.
    I recommend Romance of Dragons and Snakes, it's definitely a good wuxia read.
     
  8. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    I don't know how you define wuxia, but no more than a quarter of the books considered wuxia on NU actually are. For a lot of genres, NU is hilariously inaccurate.
     
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  9. Jojofann

    Jojofann Well-Known Member

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    I actually check this Romance of Dragons and Snakes. Yes, it isn't wuxia but martial arts or kungfu story. There isn't anything heroic about this MC at all. He just trying to be the next Bruce Lee, that all. He doesn't have a noble purpose.

    The original wuxia are in spcnet forum until He-Man starts to translate Stellar Transformation (which is a xuanhuan) and Ren Woxing starts to translate another xuanhuan call the Coiling Dragon there (he is the moderator).

    In order to make his claims legit and hookwink everyone, he calls Coiling Dragon a wuxia then xianxia. Then even creates a wuxia website and claims all xuanhuan as xianxia and wuxia. So many idiots got fooled and end up everything is wuxia and xianxia. What a joke. To cover his website naming, he even put real wuxia on the website at a later date.

    Even more idiotic is, many people even believes that stories with the real wuxia and xianxia tags must have cultivation system and they are asking for a cultivation systems.

    Just call xuanhuan a xuanhuan and stop using wuxia and xianxia.
     
  10. SaltyBolty

    SaltyBolty Well-Known Member

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    Honestly I rarely use Novel Updates to look for novels, I just browse through various translation sites they are more up to date and have a bigger range of chinese novels
     
  11. Lazriser

    Lazriser Well-Known Member

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    Wuxia is strictly or extensively focused on martial arts. Xianxia is the heroic tale. Xuanhuan is a mixture of both. Thus, the reason why NU readers call them CN novels rather than just xianxia or wuxia nowadays. You can find the terminology on wuxiaworld.
    RDS is wuxia? I think you're confusing wuxia with xianxia. CD's misunderstood genre has already been explained.
    Wuxia doesn't have cultivation systems... what are you on about? Seriously, it seems to me you have something against wuxiaworld?

    Wait, is this one of those copy and paste satires and I'm falling for it again?
     
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  12. Wu Jizun

    Wu Jizun Well-Known Member

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    ^ This, folks, is why I've given up trying to correct the definitions after 3 years. Imagine if Gu Long or Shi Yukun was revived to see this.

    Edit: typo
     
    Last edited: Oct 31, 2020
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  13. Daresan

    Daresan Well-Known CN Master

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    Well if you dont like CN then why dont you read Jap beta simps novel? Looks like it does perfectly suite your taste.

    And no i dont think you have read much CN if you think 99% of CN are xianxia. Here is the list probably you arent familiar with CN. Its better not to speak trash when you dont know anything.

    1. Lord of mysteries
    2. My house of horrors. (Horror)
    3.Age of cosmic exploration. (Scifi)
    4. Warlock of the magus world
    5. Trafford's trading club
    6.Sword of dawnbreaker
    7.Empress's gigolo.
    8.Building the ultimate fantasy.
    9.Magic industry Empire.
    10.King of german Mercenary.
    11.Holy roman empire.
    12.plague doctor
    13.Black iron glory
    14.Elixir supplier
    15.The world online (Vmmorpg personally dont like the genre)
    16.Lord's empire (Vmmorpg)
    17. Crazy Detective. (Detective)
    18.losing money to be tycoon.(money)
    19.I am god of games
    20.Low dimension game
    21.Shepherding humanity
    22.Soul of negary
    23.Extraordinary genius. ( Money)
    24.Godfather of champions.( Football)
    25. Dark age blood (Scifi)
    26.Dady's fantasy restaurant. (Food)
    27. Monster Factory. (Machine + Money)
    28. Super gene
    29. Monster evolution
    30. Tales of reincarnated lord.,
    31. Otherwordly Merchant
    32. Netherworld investigator. (Detective)
    33. Genius detective (Detective)
    34. Yu brother's casebook ( Horror)
    35. The first order (Scifi)
    36. The kings Avatar
    37. I am really a superstar.

    None of these novel have anything to do with xianxia. Its like watching doremon and telling whole anime community is for kids.Ignorance is a wierd thing
     
    Last edited: Oct 31, 2020
  14. Lisant

    Lisant Active Member

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    Xianxia manages to be a different fantasy setting from western fantasy, so the setting can be fresh and interesting at first. The concept of constantly improving is also an appealing concept. The pity of it is that as you said, the MCs of xianxia tend to be supreme narcissists, overall terrible and sociopathic people, and the whole genre is mostly used as edgy wish fulfillment fantasy where the setting is poorly explored and the MC progresses not through his own efforts but through a combination of some absurd cheat, ridiculous good luck, and extreme plot armor.

    I feel like there's a bit of an untapped market for xianxia stories where stereotypical xianxia protagonists get their comeuppance, but aside from History's Strongest Senior Brother there aren't many novels like that and HSSB gives up on the concept after the first 100 chapters as it devolves into another boring xianxia. At least the chapters at the beginning are entertaining.

    Honestly there needs to be more xianxia that is properly written and better explores its setting. My favorite xianxia so far is Tian Ying (Heaven's Shadow) because it reads more like a proper novel rather than stereotypical xianxia, but the series got dropped by the TLer.
     
    Last edited: Oct 31, 2020
  15. uaxk7edhtf73rgg

    uaxk7edhtf73rgg Well-Known Member

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    agree, the description of women is too much. like
    "she look like a fairy with cherry lips and some sort of lotus?" . ffs even mc doesn't get that much bootlicking.

    is there no average looking women in cultivation novels? why are they all "celestial maidens as cold as ice".


    that's another thing that erks me , "the cold as ice" arrogant chicks in these novels. that's an ugly characteristic, but it never seems to stop the mc from simping.

    i much prefer the humble type like ke'er from "war sovereign soaring the heavens".



    there's alot to criticize about these types of novels, but every once in a while there's a gem like Reverend Insanity, we can't expect everyone to be that good.


    i guess the reason why these types of stories are so popular is because we all read a really good one and been looking for similar types of stories ever since. even if it's a terrible knockoff the original it still does well because the demand is there. we've all experienced the emptiness after finishing great novel and looking for something similar.
     
  16. Lisant

    Lisant Active Member

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    It's a good question. I honestly don't know the answer. I do feel like TLers go out of their way to translate the most derivative and generic xianxias. I don't know why. Wuxiaworld is filled with dreck, for instance.

    The Qidian translation reads like MTL with an editing pass. I'm guessing TLers get paid by the word here?
     
  17. UnGrave

    UnGrave ななひ~^^

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    :blobpopcorn_cool:

    へへ
     
  18. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, it really feels like the people who are the most willing to tell us what wuxia is have never actually read it.

    It's obvious: xianxia gets translated because people read it. And genres like wuxia don't get translated very often because people don't read it.
     
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  19. Wu Jizun

    Wu Jizun Well-Known Member

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    I did a check, and xianxia is also erroneously tagged to an unthinkable degree. Even translators among the most vaunted are incorrectly tagging their series as xianxia or claiming they translate wuxia. The only possible explanation I have for this is that they're deliberately doing it because xianxia and wuxia are highly searched keywords compared to xuanhuan.

    What you describe here is prevalent in modern/new-school xianxia.

    Tian Ying is a traditional/old-school xianxia. The only universal similarities between old-school and new-school xianxia are that they contain fantasy elements and are written in Chinese; you're making an apples to orange comparison here.

    Old-school xianxia isn't well-received and/or popular in the West, so it isn't translated. Its reader base and number of translated works is almost as small as wuxia.
     
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  20. Saorihirai

    Saorihirai Well-Known Member

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    I think more than not liking CN novels, they don't like Xianxia. It's just that a lot of the Chinese novels they have read is Xianxia. If someone says 99% of something is x, it's not meant to be taken literally, it's just something that reflects their experience. What they really mean is that "most of CN novels I've read are Xianxia". Since a lot of Xianxia novels are translated it's really only natural they would think that.
    lol I don't if I've said this before but side note, on every post even somewhat criticizing Chinese novels I see you triggered :hmm: but good list btw. Nice recs.
     
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