Exhibition in HK honors Jin Yong

[Photo by Roy Liu/China Daily]

The museum gives visitors a vicarious feel of China's landscape through an interactive multimedia device, representing the experiences of the protagonists in Jin Yong's novels with a combination of traditional Chinese cultural elements and custom stories.

Jin Yong fans can test their knowledge about his novels through a quiz, and the exhibition also includes an interactive zone covering 232 square meters, where visitors can exchange blows with martial arts masters in Jin Yong's novels and print the fighting scenes in the form of comics through an interactive device by working with Jin Yong's chief illustrator, Lee Chi-ching, who has drawn comics and covers for Jin Yong's novels since the 1990s.

Lee told China Daily that the exhibition unveils a wide range of his original drawings for Jin Yong's comics that have not been made public before.

Adam Cheng Siu-chow and Liza Wang Ming-chun, who were among the first generations of actors and actresses to play lead roles in drama series based on Jin Yong's novels, and gained fame on the Chinese mainland and in the wider Chinese-speaking community, also attended the opening ceremony.

Cheng said he admired the novelist's broad knowledge of Chinese history, culture, customs and geography, and that it is hard to believe that Jin Yong, as the author of so many martial arts novels, does not know how to use martial arts.

Wang said she was lucky to be selected to star in a TV series adaptation of Jin Yong's The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber, which first aired in Hong Kong in 1978. Wang recalled Jin Yong was "kind and gentle".

The museum spent HK$10 million ($1.3 million) on modifying its venue and setting up the exhibitions.

Honey Tsang in Hong Kong contributed to this story.