I have always loved reading wuxia (武侠 martial arts) novels, especially those written by Jin Yong (金庸) and Gu Long (古龙). The plots, dialogue, characters and fighting styles often play out in my mind’s eye.

The idea to explore wuxia through painting began as a playful thought. I was working on my sunflower series, and my mind wandered to the kuihua baodian (葵花宝典 “sunflower manual”), a martial arts manual from Jin Yong’s The Smiling, Proud Wanderer《笑傲江湖》. I created a work of swaying sunflowers and flitting petals and titled it Feng Qing Yang (风清扬 “the wind winnows”), the name of a character in the novel. This set my imagination in motion.

“A chivalric man does his part for his country and people,” says Guo Jing to Yang Guo in Jin Yong’s The Return of the Condor Heroes. To my mind, a great swordsman doesn’t simply possess great martial arts skills. He is also righteous in his deeds, loyal to his comrades, and protects his country and people with his life.

In the wuxia world evildoers exist, but there are also righteous heroes who render help when they see injustice. I have faith that in our real world, like in the wuxia novels, good will ultimately triumph over evil. Man’s benevolence will set things right and enable righteousness to perpetuate.