About WuxiaSociety

Hail, wanderer.

I’m Jenxi Seow. I’m a bilingual ethnic Chinese Malaysian wuxia fan who grew up watching wuxia dramas. Growing up in a Mandarin-speaking home, my Chinese language was my stronger language. I won writing competitions for my Chinese essays in primary school. Then, I got hooked on Western fantasy novels and became inspired to write my own stories.

My passion in writing helped English language improved to the extent that my friends are surprised I spoke only Madarin at home. To say it the English language became an obsession was an understatement. I was reading an Oxford English Thesaurus for fun to learn words I could use. I had a word bank of phrases I loved from my favourite authors.

Yet, even though I was consuming the latest wuxia drama with tacky special effects, I did not pick up any wuxia novels because I found it easier to read English than Chinese text. That changed when I encountered Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils in my Chinese language textbook. I can’t remember if it was only a chapter or short excerpt, all I know is that it whetted my appetite.

My Chinese teacher assigned us to write a Chinese book review, and my choice was inevitably Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. I became hooked on reading wuxia novels and it opened my eyes to appreciating the works beyond the TV and film adaptations.

I’ll stop myself here. If you’d like to learn more about my wuxia journey, read my blog.

My love for writing and wuxia are key primers to why this site exists. Let me take you on a trip down memory and tell you how WuxiaSociety came to be.

History

I revived WuxiaSociety after the original WuxiaSociety.org site went down in March 2007. It was one of the several wuxia communities that I frequented back then. The site disappeared without warning, though it wasn’t the first time that had happened.

Before rebranding itself and moving to the .org domain, the community hosted on Phorumz was known as Wuxiamania. The forum ran from 10 June 2005 to 20 October 2006. There were failed attempts to revive the community before the site returned as WuxiaSociety.org in 5 March 2007 with a promise of a relaunch of the forum on 9 March 2007 that never happened.

The other wuxia sites died one after another. Another notable site was Wuxiapedia that ran from 2 June 2005 to 30 April 2007. The collapse of two of the biggest wuxia sites among others caught my attention. I enjoyed the content and discussions on the sites even though I lurked more than I posted. The loss of the sites was a blow for the community.

I build websites as a hobby and a business. I understood the work required to create and maintain a site and forum, but I also felt that it could be managed in a way that ensured longevity. I knew I had to do something, and when I noticed that the .com domain was available, I took it as a sign I should attempt reviving the community that I cherished.

Many translation works have been lost when sites die and bring all the precious translation and community content with it, with only some snapshots captured by archive.org. It is a constant struggle to preserve the history of the online wuxia community in time where data is ephemeral.

Some communities jumped to the new and exciting world of Facebook pages and groups. Only to discover that the data and content belongs to the social network and is not portable.

This site will continue the legacy of its predecessor by being a community of wuxia fans, by wuxia fans, for wuxia fans.

WuxiaSociety mission

WuxiaSociety’s mission is to provide the most comprehensive information about wuxia, and strive to present good quality wuxia translations in English.

This brings wuxia to non-Chinese speaking audience and broadens the exposure of a genre in a genre that is deeply rooted in Chinese culture.

WuxiaSociety vision

WuxiaSociety wants to let the world understand Chinese culture better through the shared love and passion for the wuxia genre.

Wuxia stories are set in ancient Chinese societies and immerse the readers in the Chinese traditional culture. The popularity of the genre in the Chinese diaspora has elevated wuxia into a pop culture status in the modern day.

Perhaps with greater understanding, it will help to promote awareness and acceptance of cultural differences.

Support WuxiaSociety

Please consider supporting WuxiaSociety by subscribing to our Patreon.

I volunteer my free time and fork out my own money to keep this website and community going. Passion has kept this site running the past 16 years. However, passion cannot pay the bills. Any support goes a long way to keep this site going.

A big thank you to the donors who chipped in to help keep us going over the years. Your support helps lighten the burden. More importantly, it is a pat on the back for me. A sign that my time and effort spent gained some recognition.

You can do your part by pledging $0.16 per day to keep the lights on, or $0.66 to help fund the translation effort.

Don’t forget to spread the word and be an active member on the forum and Discord.

Contribute

We would like to feature your wuxia novel, translations or fan-fiction. We are accepting submissions for both English and Chinese works. Contact us ↗