/lit/ - Literature

What's the difference between asian sword and sorcery and wuxia or xianxia

>>22808757
Put some respect to wuxia. Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee were peak.

>>22783779
>How does one start reading Wuxia? I've been meaning to read Reverend Insanity for some time.
Wuxia or Xianxia?
Wuxia is basically those old chinese movies with little magic and more martial arts. For this, I would recommend the Jin Yong novels.
Xianxia on the other hand, is when the protagonist is trying to surpass mortal boundaries to become Immortal, usually involving him becoming a literal divine being. For this, Martial World or Er Gen novels. A Record of A Mortal's Journey to Immortality is good too, but excruciatingly slow. The best two are undoubtedly Lord of Mysteries and Reverend Insanity.

>>22783352
How does one start reading wuxia? I've been meaning to read Reverend Insanity for some time.

>>22783712
Ah yes, the "jewish" God who was persecuted by jews and who followers persecuted them 2000 years thereafter. Are you perchance one of those pajeets the JIDF hires?
>>22783717
Read his post again mate, he's trying to derail the thread.
>>22783720
You can look for your "morally grey" protagonist in the next TV-slop trying to replicate GoT, the truth is that the reading medium is inherently orderly.

>>22739590
Sounds a bit like shitpost but I'll bite.
You won't develop strong will from books. Reading about stuff may motivate you but in the end it's up to you to hold your course despite difficulties till your stuff is done (but also know when your course is leading nowhere and your goal is bullshit).
I guess, especially since you want to keep to Dragonball-like themes:
For just stories you can check a lot of wuxia and xianxia novels or progression fantasy genre in general, but that is more of a light read for fun. A Thousand Li and Cradle are two best series I found in the genre (yes, I've read a lot, not my fault those two authors do better than most native chinese whose work I've seen translated).
Otherwise, if you care about self-improvement but want to keep it still in asian themes, actual qigong and neidan practices will help you maintain physical health and also strengthen your control on your mind. Start with Eight Pieces of Brocade by Yang jwing-Ming, Jwing-Ming Yang - pretty good, basic introduction into one of the most popular qigong exercise sets as well as traditional chinese medicine and cosmology in general.

>>22722509
It is insufferable, isn't it. Like a new, lower bottom tier. Not to mention the 14,000 pages long wuxia amateur twitterman translations

>>22699440
Unfortunate that the sseth video made this even worse because he also used the wrong term, though I don't think I've seen people mislabel wuxia as xianxia. I've only seen the inverse.

If a cultivator travels to another setting, is it xianxia or xuanhuan? It has a xianxia system because a xianxia character is there, but it's not a xianxia setting.

I hate how westerners say wuxia but they actually mean xuanhuan or xianxia, and say xianxia but they’re actually referring to a kung fu wuxia novel.

>>22686891
I only come here every few weeks to find obscure books to read. I used to come here every day, but I would legitimately get angry because you're all retarded and turn everything into a retarded generalization and then argue over ill-defined stereotypes and hearsay. The only ones who actually discuss things are the litRPG and wuxia bros but I've never read a web novel I didn't drop within the first chapter so I just leave them be.

>>22680561
it's almost always one of the following
>traditional chinese medicine/religion
>martial arts
>martial arts films
>earlier wuxia novels
>fantasy that made it into china
>videogames/ttrpgs

I figure wuxia and xianxia are pretty much just fantasy, so I'll ask here: Does anyone know the origins of common aspects of the genre, like storage rings? Where'd the fucking things spring from?

>>22674375
I've read The Anubis Gates and liked it. May check out Declare later.

On an unrelated note: someone recommended Carrion Comfort 3 months ago that I just finished reading. Thanks, it was great. A wee bit bloated towards the end, but I'd give it a solid 4/5.

Any other recommendations? Bakker and wuxia fags need not reply.

>>22673941
Interestingly enough, most of the top web fiction by income is apolitical. Edgy in content, maybe, but very apolitical. Self censoring? Who knows. Fantasy and litrpg reign supreme. Korea and China have eaten a large portion of readership by pure volume of pages, which is interesting. Chink Wuxia novels are very long.

Male readership moved to litrpgs and other web fiction I.E. Royal Road. All the income is from donations or patreon. In fact, I personally believe more male readers are reading Jap Light novels or Wuxia/Xianxia than (((Western Novels))).

>>22668680
>wuxia/xianxia books
When are we getting new Wiwaxia books?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiwaxia

>walk past a bookstore
>see all these cool new wuxia/xianxia books
>still haven't finished Mother of Learning and The Blade Itself.
where do people find time to read so much?

>>22654790
Chinese animation is actually quite good (because they spend a ton of money on it) but directing and story telling is absolutely terrible, Chinese live action (wuxia shows) has same problems, absolutely terrible directing and story telling

>>22650650
It's worth reading if you already like wuxia slop or other forms of amateur web-lit. If you're a normal person who is accustomed to reading normal books, you'll find quality of the translation and the depth of the narrative to be sub-standard and off-putting. Like that guy said above , it's fairly good when compared to others within the genre, but novels of this kind are the literary equivalent of junk food. Litslop, if you will.

>>22640001
If it's well written it can do well, but might take longer to get traction. Genre is less important than people think. The important part for RR is the feeling of satisfaction progression fantasy gives. Clear goals that are reached. Revenge exacted. Numbers or levels that mark progress. Power, money, influence increasing. Watch Brando Sando's youtube vids on Promise & Payoff for some insight.

You could literally write a story about a rat starting his own rail road company, and people would read it, while a litRPG-wuxia-apocalypse that drags will be ignored.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hO7fM9EHU4

>>22640107
Is getting a decent readership on these sites actually viable if the story isn't isekai/wuxia shit? That's all I see on RR.

They're more well read than typical Americans. I've been surprised that they not only read their own classics (and you're seen as retarded if you haven't) but the major Russian, English, and American classics as well at an early age. The English classes try to get them to enhance their vocab as much as possible instead of introduce them to contemporary identity plot novels like in the West.
>>22616246
But like this anon said, most are reading wuxia and similar online novels. There's also a lot reading nonfiction. Their thirsty for knowledge is insatiable.

>>22616102
I lived in a wealthy second-tier city in China with some good universities. Good bookstores abounded and everyone I interacted with was a very active reader. Kids and old folks read Wuxia novels voraciously, and the university crowd read their Tang and Song poets alongside Cavafy and Apollinaire. It could just have been a function of where I was, but I really did feel more among thinking people there than anywhere else. Of course there was censorship and of course there were the small inconveniences of life, but all in all it was the best time of my life. God, I miss it so much. Fuck COVID.

My grandfather reads a lot of Wuxia books

>>22612982
>I thought about writing a Western Wuxia set during English Civil War and making all of the commanders martial arts experts
Kek.