Whose Wuxia and What Kind of Myth: A Wuxia Accompanying Text Perspective

Abstract Texts are the result of engravings in different social contexts, and they are culturally activated in different ways. The image of wuxia is formed by various accompanying texts sharing and participating in constructing a collection of wuxia narratives. By means of text-naming methods, authors, serialization of novels, film and television adaptations, criticism, and so forth, the image of wuxia operates in a continuous cycle that flows throughout texts that are gradually accumulated in the literary corpus. On this basis, it condenses and expresses a series of ideological discourses centred on topics such as gender and nation. These accompanying texts have diverse identities and play multiple roles in the cause of wuxia coming to be viewed as public heroes. They not only supply us with frameworks and positioning of wuxia novels but also provide cultural observations of society so as to participate in the construction of wuxia myths.