LOS ANGELES, Oct. 14 – Today UCLA East Asia Library held a special online event to celebrate the establishment of the Xiao Yi Wuxia Special Collection. Ginny Steel, Director of the General Library of UCLA Library, attended and delivered a speech, noting that UCLA Library is pleased to collect Siu Yat's special collections and sincerely thanking Siu PeiHuan, Mr. Siu Yi's second son, and Mr. Siu's family for their generous donations. UCLA's Vice-Chancellor for International Research and Global Engagement, Distinguished Professor of Geography and Asian And American Studies, attended and delivered a speech. She noted that UCLA's mission as a public research university is to create, disseminate, protect and apply knowledge for a better world. Today's event is a great reflection of this mission of UCLA.
The UCLA East Asian Library not only has a rich collection, but also has close ties to the South Canada- And American, Japanese-American, and Korean-American communities, and has collected and preserved a large number of first-hand historical materials and special collections to support teaching and research. Today, the Xiao Yi Wuxia Special Collection is a unique and perfect combination of Chinese culture and literature, transnational cultural heritage, interdisciplinary appreciation, scholarship and place. Vice President Fan also said that she herself is a fan of wuxia movies and novels, and she often sleeps and forgets to read wuxia novels when she is in Hong Kong, and she is very pleased to see that the Xiao Yi Wuxia Special Collection will be professionally protected at the UCLA East Asia Library to serve current and future readers and researchers.
Chen Su, Director of the East Asian Library, introduced the discussions and consultations with Xiao Peihuan on how to preserve and protect Xiao Yi's special collection of martial arts since May 2019. Immediately afterward, Xiao Peihuan, an alumnus of UCLA, talked about how he was born and raised surrounded by his father's martial arts novels, which embodied chinese culture that had a profound influence on him. Xiao Yi's eldest son, Xiao Peiyu, an alumnus of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, looks back on his father's successful and productive life as a legendary writer of martial arts fiction and a gourmet. Subsequently, Professor Zhou Min, director of the Asia-Pacific Studies Center, distinguished professor of sociology and Asian Studies, and director of U.S.-China Relations and Communications under the title of Walter-Sally, made a speech, pointing out that in the past, martial arts novels were mostly male protagonists and female characters were mostly foils. However, in Xiao Yi's martial arts novels, women and chivalry become the protagonists, thus forming an important feature in Xiao Yi's martial arts novels. Professor Zhou is not only a fan of martial arts novels, she further talked about using this batch of materials in her classroom for teaching. Bai Ruiwen, director of the China Center and professor of Chinese film culture studies, is very much looking forward to seeing Xiao Yi's manuscript and making some discoveries. Professor Bai pointed out that in the past, wuxia novels have not been valued, and they have been regarded as popular reading materials, and chinese literary history has not paid enough attention to wuxia novels. However, in the past 20 years, there has been a new understanding of martial arts literature in the academic community, and martial arts novels, which are an important part of popular culture, have become a part of our daily lives. Wuxia literature can also be traced back to Bruce Lee's kung fu movies in the 70s, Jackie Chan kung fu movies in the 90s, and prompted Chinese filmmakers to come to Hollywood as choreographers of action movies. There is also the well-known movie "Hidden Dragon and Crouching Tiger" and the martial arts movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which just staged this year, which not only tells the new world of martial arts, but also provides a new form of future martial arts literature, such as animation, games, television and movies, which is exactly what Xiao Peihuan's Immersive Studios will do, that is, to use the latest reception to reproduce Xiao Yi's martial arts novels and feelings. Professor Bai also pointed out that like those literary masters who have a great influence in the English-speaking world, wuxia novel writers such as Xiao Yi, Jin Yong, and Gu Long have the same great influence on chinese literature in the world. Now Jin Yong's novels have begun to be translated into English, which is the best proof. Best, Mr. Xiao Yi's close friend, honorary president of the Chinese Writers Association in Los Angeles, usa, and writer Mr. Ye Zhou made a brief development and spoke highly of Mr. Xiao Yi's literary creation and influence.
Also present at the celebration were Mrs. Xiao Yi's wife, Liu Meiqing, a friend of Chinese writers in Nanjia, and UCLA students, who witnessed the establishment of Xiao Yi's Wuxia Special Collection.