Recurring theme

Death is a topic that features often in Cha's novels. In one scene in Heavenly Sword Dragon Slaying Sabre the heroes are cornered and chant: "What is the happiness of life and what is the bitterness of death? We have done good and uprooted evil. All the luck, joy, sadness and suffering are going to ashes. People are pathetic as they worry too much."

At the end of almost every novel, Cha would set a scene where the hero left the rivers and lakes.

In The Return of The Condor Heroes, he wrote: "Suddenly Yang Guo (the hero) stood up and said to the crowd: 'We have had a good drink, and it is time to say goodbye.' He waved the sleeve of his robe, took the hand of his lover and they went down the mountain shoulder to shoulder in the company of the condor.

"The moon was clear in the sky and the breeze swept the leaves in the tree. Crows on the tree top were making a noise. Guo Xiang (his admirer) could not hold her tears anymore and cried."

He Shusi and Li Bingcun in Hong Kong, Zou Shuyue in London, Xu Fan and Mei Jia in Beijing contri-buted to this story.

Contact the writers at [email protected]