ABSTRACT
In recent years, the "martial-arts novel" has been elevated to an accepted category of literature, or at least of "popular literature." So many articles have been published in Chinese on the subject that some scholars speak of "Jin Studies," or "Jin Yong-ology." Late 1987 also saw the first international research conference devoted to the genre. The following piece, which proffers fresh insights on twentieth-century Chinese literature from the viewpoint of an "outsider" close to popular Chinese traditionalist taste, may be considered Jin Yong's own contribution to such studies.
