Jet Li in a still from Fong Sai Yuk (1993). Martial arts films are heavily linked with Chinese culture, from the Shaolin Temple in China, to famous martial artists from history such as Wong Fei-hung, Fong Sai-yuk and Hong Xiguan. Photo: Eastern Productions Ltd
It is almost an understatement to say that Hong Kong martial arts cinema is rooted in traditional Chinese culture.
Below, we look back at some of our most popular explainers that shed light on 10 frequently asked questions culture buffs may have come across.
1. What is wushu? And how did Jet Li study it and make it famous in movies?
Wushu comes up a lot in the context of martial arts films, but what does it mean? A literal translation is “military arts”.
Jet Li as San Lun in a still from Kids from Shaolin (1984). Until Li and Donnie Yen began appearing in Hong Kong movies, they had mainly featured southern Chinese kung fu, not classical wushu. Photo: Chung Yuen Motion Picture
Today, though, wushu is generally taken to mean the sports version of martial arts that was established in mainland China after the communists took power in 1949. Read the full story
2. What do we really know about the Shaolin Monastery, the home of kung fu featured in Jet Li’sShaolin Temple?
Andy Lau as General Hou Jie in a still from Shaolin (2011). Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures
Everyone with an interest in martial arts films has heard of the Shaolin Monastery on Songshan mountain near the former Chinese imperial capital of Luoyang in Henan province.
According to film critic Ng Ho, writing in 1980, more than half of the wuxia and kung fu films made in Hong Kong and Taiwan “touch on the monastery and the legends surrounding it”. Read the full story
3. He was played by Jet Li and Jackie Chan in movies. Who was Wong Fei-hung for real?
Jackie Chan as Wong Fei-hung in a still from Drunken Master (1978). Photo: Golden Harvest
Wong Fei-hung is the most famous of all the exponents of southern-style Chinese martial arts, and his exploits have passed into legend.
There have been around 100 films about him. Radio plays, pulp novels, newspaper story serialisations, and television series have been devoted to his life. Read the full story
4. On that subject, who was the most iconic film actor to play Wong Fei-hung?
Kwan Tak-hing (right) in the title role in The Story of Wong Fei-hung, Part One: Wong Fei-hung’s Whip that Smacks the Candle (1949). Photo: Youqiao Film Company
But to earlier generations, martial arts expert and actor Kwan Tak-hing, who died in 1996, is the embodiment of Wong Fei-hung. Read the full story
5. Jet Li made Fong Sai-yuk a household name, while Chen Kuan-tai impressed as Hong Xiguan. Did these heroes exist?
Chen Kuan-tai as Hong Xiguan (centre) in a still from Executioners from Shaolin (1977). Photo: Shaw Brothers Studio
The sword-fighting heroes of wuxia films are generally drawn from novels, but the heroes of kung fu films are often folk legends who may have really existed. Read the full story
6. How did wuxia movies draw on the martial arts novels written by Louis Cha, Gu Long and Liang Yusheng?
Louis Cha, whose popular martial arts novels were devoured by Chinese people across the world, pictured in 1994. Photo: SCMP
Martial arts movies did not just spring out of nowhere; they have an intrinsic connection to Chinese culture.
The films exist as part of the martial arts subculture, or jiang hu, and often draw on the characters and storylines of well-known martial arts novels or feature real or mythical heroes from the past. Read the full story
7. Which film director was best known for adapting Gu Long’s novels for the big screen?
Ti Lung as Fu Hung-hsueh (centre) and Lo Lieh as Yen Nan-fei (right) in a still from The Magic Blade (1976). Photo: Celestial Pictures
Film director Chor Yuen adapted 17 works by the New Wave martial arts novelist Gu Long for the screen, and in the process created unique martial arts worlds filled with magic, mystery, deceit, deception and romance. Read the full story
8. Another big inspiration for martial arts storytelling is the 14th century novel The Water Margin. Why do its themes and style still resonate?
A still from The Water Margin, the 1972 film directed by Chang Cheh. Photo: Shaw Brothers Studio
The classic 14th-century novel Water Margin, attributed to Shi Nai’an and Luo Guanzhong, wasn’t the first book to talk about heroic martial artists, but it has proved the most influential.
Its 120 chapters tell of 108 outlaws who inhabit the marshes of Mount Liang in Shandong province, eastern China, where they fight for justice against the corrupt officials of the waning Song dynasty. Read the full story
9. There’s also Chinese opera, which influenced every martial arts filmmaker from Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung to King Hu. How?
Sammo Hung as his mentor, the Peking opera master Yu Jim-yuen, in a still from Painted Faces (1988). Photo: Golden Harvest
One of the beautiful things about martial arts films is the different influences that are present in them.
But the main influence on martial arts as they are depicted on screen is certainly Peking opera – or more accurately Chinese opera, as martial arts films choreography also draws from many regional Chinese opera forms. Read the full story
10. Do you still want to know more – much more – about Hong Kong martial arts cinema?
Look out for the next story in our Chinese martial arts 101 series on June 17, an interview with American martial arts actress JuJu Chan and her husband.
