Louis Cha, better known by his pen name Jin Yong, has written fifteen immensely popular martial arts novels which have been translated into over a dozen languages and adapted into films, television serials, plays, comics and works in other media. ‘Jin' in Chinese means ‘gold', and Cha certainly had the touch of gold. So important are his novels that a field of study in Chinese literature, Jinology, is dedicated to them.

 

Jin was actually a filmmaker before he was a novelist. He penned scripts under the pseudonym Lin Huan, earning his first screen credit in 1953, two years before his first novel  The Book and the Sword was serialised in  The New Evening Post. He had also been a director, having shared the helm on two films. To celebrate the opening of the 'Jin Yong Gallery' at Hong Kong Heritage Museum, the Hong Kong Film Archive is presenting six films in this year's Muse Fest in homage to this great artist.