the title of this list comes from Helena Yuen Wai Wu's article (link here), in which she argues that both within and beyond wuxia narratives, the jianghu, by its very nature, resists a fixed definition and acts more as an ever-evolving concept; however, it is still commonly used and understood even today despite its notorious ambiguity (60). she further notes that translators of classic poetry take wildly different approaches when confronted with it, such as directly translating it or omitting it entirely (63), and that such untranslatability thus suggests that “jianghu is a continuous continuum where its interpretations and its representations intertwine to spark out other meanings and other manifestations of the term in infinitude” (64)—that is, that it resists all attempts to impose any regulation upon itself, even by language. yet it is also this inability to coherently define the jianghu that grants it such unifying power in Sinophone communities, according to Wu, who states that “the transnational imagination of jianghu actually comes to foster actual bonding by [sic] among different [Sinophone] communities, by establishing a common language, a collective imagery and an imagined connection called Jianghu” (69).

Yay yay yay!!! Very excited for this list, thank you rui!! 🤩🤩