Liu Shen Lei Lei Reads Jin Yong
This is a collection of articles from Liu Shen Lei Lei’s WeChat public account of the same name, organized by different Jin Yong novels. Reading it all at once felt very satisfying. I clapped my hands in delight many times.
Because these were originally WeChat public-account articles, they are very good at attracting traffic and readers. The language is relaxed and humorous, yet also very reasonable. It counts as a set of unique interpretations of Jin Yong’s novels. The author has clearly read the novels many times, so he can bring up characters from different works effortlessly. He is good at horizontal comparisons (different characters in the same novel) and vertical comparisons (similar characters across different novels), and even knows the experiences and fates of many minor characters by heart. He pays attention not only to the protagonists, but also to supporting characters, always starting from their own perspectives. This reveals a kind of compassion for the world. The author also believes this is one of the core qualities of Jin Yong’s novels. Another is “the great hero serves the country and the people.” The perspective is also very modern. Sometimes he jumps out of the jianghu and compares things to companies or real life, and the humorous effect appears.
In many Jin Yong novels themselves, there is already a lot of using the past to satirize the present, and using the jianghu to satirize the politics of the time. Of course, Liu Shen Lei Lei does not dare expose this too obviously either. He only picks some harmless points to discuss. I hope that in my lifetime I can see everyone speak openly. Literature and society would both become much more interesting.
Wang Xiaobo once said: “In China, history has a limit of thirty years. We cannot know anything from more than thirty years ago.”