Louis Cha: Difference between revisions

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'''Louis Cha''' the Hong Kong journalist, editor and novelist born Cha Leung-yung (1924-2018), founder of the influential newspaper Ming Pao and author, under the pen name Jin Yong, of the most famous martial-arts romances of modern China. Considered under his legal name, he appears above all as a press proprietor and public commentator who used the editorial page to defend liberal and humane values.

#REDIRECT [[Jin Yong]]

~~== Birth, Family and Education ==~~

Louis Cha was born Cha Leung-yung on 10 March 1924 in Haining, Zhejiang province, into an old and distinguished family that had given China scholars and officials for centuries. His upbringing combined a classical education with the disturbances of a country torn by war and revolution, and it left him with a lifelong attachment to Chinese history and to the ideal of the learned gentleman.

His formal education was interrupted more than once by war. He studied in Zhejiang and later enrolled in law and international politics, but he moved often and did not complete a conventional degree. What he did acquire was an extraordinary breadth of reading in history, philosophy and literature, and a journalist's habit of close attention to the world of affairs.

Like many of his generation he left the mainland in the late 1940s, eventually settling in Hong Kong. There he found the freedom of a British colonial city and the base from which he would build both a newspaper and a fictional world. He became a Chinese citizen of Hong Kong in spirit, and the city remained his home for the rest of his long life.

~~== Ming Pao and the Editor's Career ==~~

In 1959 Louis Cha founded the newspaper Ming Pao with a small group of partners. From modest beginnings it grew into one of the most serious and respected Chinese-language papers, known for its analysis, its literary pages and, above all, for its editorials. He served as its guiding editor for decades and made it a platform for independent opinion.

His own editorials were the paper's chief attraction. Written with clarity and firmness, they commented on the great events of the age and argued consistently for moderation, legality and the dignity of the individual. They could be sharp, and they were watched closely by readers on both sides of the political divide. He believed that an editor should tell the public what it needed to hear.

In 1981 he founded another paper, Ming Pao Monthly, the journal of serious Chinese thought and culture, and he encouraged discussion of Chinese and international affairs. His news empire never approached the largest of the Hong Kong conglomerates, but its influence on opinion was out of proportion to its size, and it trained many leading journalists.

~~== The Novelist Under His Pen Name ==~~

It was as a novelist that Louis Cha reached the widest public. Writing under the pen name Jin Yong, he serialised his martial-arts romances in the newspapers and then collected them into books, producing the fifteen novels that form his canon. He began the series in the mid-1950s and completed the last of them in the early 1970s.

The novels of knighthood, revenge and divided loyalty are set in carefully researched historical periods and follow the fortunes of heroes who must choose between private happiness and public duty. The best known include The Legend of the Condor Heroes and its sequel, The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre and The Deer and the Cauldron. Their mingling of history, martial adventure and moral reflection made them a shared inheritance of Chinese speakers worldwide.

He wrote his fiction in the clear modern Chinese that he also brought to his journalism, and he revised it carefully in later years. He was proud that his stories had reached readers of every condition and every political view, and he understood the serial novel as a democratic form that spoke to a mass audience. His heroes became part of the common culture of the Chinese-speaking world.

~~== Public Life and Political Views ==~~

Louis Cha was drawn into public affairs as the colony approached its return to China. He served on the drafting committee for the Basic Law, the constitutional document of the future Hong Kong special administrative region, and helped to shape a blueprint for autonomy and a degree of popular participation. He advocated a gradual and orderly development of representative government.

His proposals for the political future of Hong Kong were sometimes attacked from opposing sides, and he defended them as a practical balance between stability and participation. He met with Chinese leaders and argued for the preservation of the freedoms of the colony within the new constitutional framework. He was a self-conscious moderate in a period of intense polarisation.

He also used his standing to speak on the great questions of Chinese unity and reform. His editorials and speeches urged reconciliation, continuity and the protection of civilised values, and he was respected by figures across the political spectrum even when they disagreed with him. His political positions were those of a liberal nationalist with a deep distrust of extremism.

~~== Honours, Death and Legacy ==~~

In his later years Louis Cha received numerous honours. He was made a member of the Order of the British Empire and later received high Chinese and Hong Kong decorations, and universities at home and abroad awarded him honorary degrees. He gave public lectures on history and culture and was treated as an elder statesman of letters and letters in Hong Kong.

He died in Hong Kong on 30 October 2018 at the age of ninety-four. His death was reported around the world, and tributes came from newspaper editors, political figures and millions of ordinary readers. Obituaries described him as the founder of a great paper and the author of a fictional world that had shaped the moral imagination of Chinese speakers.

He is remembered in two guises. As Louis Cha the editor and public man, he stood for journalistic independence, moderation and the defence of humane values in the press. As Jin Yong the storyteller, he created the most beloved body of popular fiction in modern Chinese letters. The two careers belong to one restless and disciplined mind, and both have left a lasting mark on the culture of the Chinese-speaking world.

~~== See also ==~~

* Ming Pao

* Hong Kong journalism

* Wuxia fiction

* Hong Kong Basic Law

~~== References ==~~

~~<ref name="r1">Louis Cha, Ming Pao She Lun Xuan, Ming Pao Chubanshe, 1987.</ref>~~

~~<ref name="r2">Louis Cha, Wode Zhongguo Lishi Guan, Minghe She Chubanshe, 1981.</ref>~~

~~<ref name="r3">Louis Cha and Peter L. Bernstein, editors, Zhongguo de Xiwang, Ming Pao Chubanshe, 1989.</ref>~~

~~<ref name="r4">Ying-shih Yu, Cong Zhongguo Lishi Kan~~ Jin Yong ~~Xiaoshuo, Ming Pao Chubanshe, 1994.</ref>~~

~~<references />~~

~~[[Category:Literature]]~~

~~[[Category:Novels]]~~

~~[[Category:Contemporary China~~]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Louis Cha''' the Hong Kong journalist, editor and novelist born Cha Leung-yung (1924-2018), founder of the influential newspaper Ming Pao and author, under the pen name Jin Yong, of the most famous martial-arts romances of modern China. Considered under his legal name, he appears above all as a press proprietor and public commentator who used the editorial page to defend liberal and humane values.
+#REDIRECT [[Jin Yong]]
-== Birth, Family and Education ==
-Louis Cha was born Cha Leung-yung on 10 March 1924 in Haining, Zhejiang province, into an old and distinguished family that had given China scholars and officials for centuries. His upbringing combined a classical education with the disturbances of a country torn by war and revolution, and it left him with a lifelong attachment to Chinese history and to the ideal of the learned gentleman.
-His formal education was interrupted more than once by war. He studied in Zhejiang and later enrolled in law and international politics, but he moved often and did not complete a conventional degree. What he did acquire was an extraordinary breadth of reading in history, philosophy and literature, and a journalist's habit of close attention to the world of affairs.
-Like many of his generation he left the mainland in the late 1940s, eventually settling in Hong Kong. There he found the freedom of a British colonial city and the base from which he would build both a newspaper and a fictional world. He became a Chinese citizen of Hong Kong in spirit, and the city remained his home for the rest of his long life.
-== Ming Pao and the Editor's Career ==
-In 1959 Louis Cha founded the newspaper Ming Pao with a small group of partners. From modest beginnings it grew into one of the most serious and respected Chinese-language papers, known for its analysis, its literary pages and, above all, for its editorials. He served as its guiding editor for decades and made it a platform for independent opinion.
-His own editorials were the paper's chief attraction. Written with clarity and firmness, they commented on the great events of the age and argued consistently for moderation, legality and the dignity of the individual. They could be sharp, and they were watched closely by readers on both sides of the political divide. He believed that an editor should tell the public what it needed to hear.
-In 1981 he founded another paper, Ming Pao Monthly, the journal of serious Chinese thought and culture, and he encouraged discussion of Chinese and international affairs. His news empire never approached the largest of the Hong Kong conglomerates, but its influence on opinion was out of proportion to its size, and it trained many leading journalists.
-== The Novelist Under His Pen Name ==
-It was as a novelist that Louis Cha reached the widest public. Writing under the pen name Jin Yong, he serialised his martial-arts romances in the newspapers and then collected them into books, producing the fifteen novels that form his canon. He began the series in the mid-1950s and completed the last of them in the early 1970s.
-The novels of knighthood, revenge and divided loyalty are set in carefully researched historical periods and follow the fortunes of heroes who must choose between private happiness and public duty. The best known include The Legend of the Condor Heroes and its sequel, The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre and The Deer and the Cauldron. Their mingling of history, martial adventure and moral reflection made them a shared inheritance of Chinese speakers worldwide.
-He wrote his fiction in the clear modern Chinese that he also brought to his journalism, and he revised it carefully in later years. He was proud that his stories had reached readers of every condition and every political view, and he understood the serial novel as a democratic form that spoke to a mass audience. His heroes became part of the common culture of the Chinese-speaking world.
-== Public Life and Political Views ==
-Louis Cha was drawn into public affairs as the colony approached its return to China. He served on the drafting committee for the Basic Law, the constitutional document of the future Hong Kong special administrative region, and helped to shape a blueprint for autonomy and a degree of popular participation. He advocated a gradual and orderly development of representative government.
-His proposals for the political future of Hong Kong were sometimes attacked from opposing sides, and he defended them as a practical balance between stability and participation. He met with Chinese leaders and argued for the preservation of the freedoms of the colony within the new constitutional framework. He was a self-conscious moderate in a period of intense polarisation.
-He also used his standing to speak on the great questions of Chinese unity and reform. His editorials and speeches urged reconciliation, continuity and the protection of civilised values, and he was respected by figures across the political spectrum even when they disagreed with him. His political positions were those of a liberal nationalist with a deep distrust of extremism.
-== Honours, Death and Legacy ==
-In his later years Louis Cha received numerous honours. He was made a member of the Order of the British Empire and later received high Chinese and Hong Kong decorations, and universities at home and abroad awarded him honorary degrees. He gave public lectures on history and culture and was treated as an elder statesman of letters and letters in Hong Kong.
-He died in Hong Kong on 30 October 2018 at the age of ninety-four. His death was reported around the world, and tributes came from newspaper editors, political figures and millions of ordinary readers. Obituaries described him as the founder of a great paper and the author of a fictional world that had shaped the moral imagination of Chinese speakers.
-He is remembered in two guises. As Louis Cha the editor and public man, he stood for journalistic independence, moderation and the defence of humane values in the press. As Jin Yong the storyteller, he created the most beloved body of popular fiction in modern Chinese letters. The two careers belong to one restless and disciplined mind, and both have left a lasting mark on the culture of the Chinese-speaking world.
-== See also ==
-* Ming Pao
-* Hong Kong journalism
-* Wuxia fiction
-* Hong Kong Basic Law
-== References ==
-<ref name="r1">Louis Cha, Ming Pao She Lun Xuan, Ming Pao Chubanshe, 1987.</ref>
-<ref name="r2">Louis Cha, Wode Zhongguo Lishi Guan, Minghe She Chubanshe, 1981.</ref>
-<ref name="r3">Louis Cha and Peter L. Bernstein, editors, Zhongguo de Xiwang, Ming Pao Chubanshe, 1989.</ref>
-<ref name="r4">Ying-shih Yu, Cong Zhongguo Lishi Kan Jin Yong Xiaoshuo, Ming Pao Chubanshe, 1994.</ref>
-<references />
-[[Category:Literature]]
-[[Category:Novels]]
-[[Category:Contemporary China]]