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Jin Yong's new badge

The China Writers' Association's recent public announcement of more than 400 candidates for admission this year is notable for two reasons.

First, it includes a notice inviting the public to report any instances of plagiarism on the part of anyone on the list, probably in response to scandals involving high-profile members like Guo Jingming (whose plagiarism actually occurred long before his induction to the CWA). Second, for the first time, the list contains the names of writers from Hong Kong and Macau, including the king of 20th Century martial arts fiction, Jin Yong.

Jin Yong (金庸, aka Louis Cha 查良镛) officially retired from writing in 1972 and has spent the last few decades conducting a series of revisions to his fourteen novels, collecting honorary degrees, and working on a doctorate in history at Cambridge.

Jin's application to join the CWA was accompanied by rumors that he would be given the position of honorary vice-chairman upon acceptance. Chinese media has run with the story even as CWA staff have denied it. From yesterday's Guangzhou Daily:

Great knight Jin Yong's position in the world of writing is so high, his contributions to literature so brilliant, that for him to become an ordinary member would a bit of an insult to his talent. A few days ago, Jin Yong's assistant Pan Yaoming responded, saying that given Jin Yong's social position and literary accomplishments, he would not be an ordinary member of the CWA. As for how high a position he would occupy, a CWA official who did not wish to be identified said, "Procedure would have to be followed for Jin Yong to be given an official position. The specifics are still under discussion."

Predictably, the vice-chairmanship rumors drew criticism from commentators who have grown tired with the popular image of Jin Yong as a "great knight" who has made "brilliant contributions" to literature. Wang Xiaoyu, whose response is translated below, compared Jin Yong to the "post-80s" rebel novelists who have been co-opted by the system, and suggested that his image as a chivalrous, upstanding hero hides the heart of a hypocrite.

In the wake of the media focus on Jin Yong's possible vice-chairmanship, children's author Zheng Yuanjie declared that he was withdrawing from the Beijing Writers' Association. His declaration, which was widely interpreted as a protest against CWA favoritism of Jin Yong, actually seems to be the product of dissatisfaction that has been building for a long time. Zheng joined the BWA in the late 1980s and wrote in his statement that the organization has declined precipitously over the past two decades, to the point that it no longer serves the interest of its members.

Zheng is not the first author to make a public exit from a writers' association. Wang Lixiong left the CWA in 2001 over political boilerplate in the organization's mission statement. 2003 was a big year for withdrawals: Yu Kaiwei and Huang Heyi left the Hunan Writers' Association because they felt it was far too disorganized, Xia Shang left the Shanghai Writers' Association because he felt that "the honor of being a member had completely disappeared," and Li Rui, vice-chairman of the Shanxi Writer's Association, quit his post and the CWA to concentrate on his work.

Quitting an organization in protest implies that membership once had value. Zheng Jun (郑军), a Tianjin-based author, suggests that a writers' association membership has been valueless for quite some time.