Jin Yong, also known as Louis Cha, was born in 1924 in China and is considered one of the best-selling authors in the world, with over one hundred million copies of his books sold. This number does not include the unknown amounts of bootleg copies that have been distributed. Jin Yong is his pen name, and he is widely recognized as the best-selling living Chinese author.
Jin Yong was born as Zha Liangyong in Haining, Zhejiang, China. He later moved to Hong Kong in 1948 and began writing under the pen name "Jin Yong" in the 1950s. He is known for his wuxia novels, a genre that focuses on martial arts and chivalry. His works, including "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer," and "The Deer and the Cauldron," have gained widespread popularity in Chinese-speaking areas, such as mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and the United States.
Jin Yong's works have been translated into several languages, including English, French, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese, Malay, and Indonesian. His novels have been adapted into films, television series, comics, and video games, contributing significantly to Chinese culture and solidifying his status as a prominent Chinese author. Jin Yong was also a co-founder of the Hong Kong daily Ming Pao and served as its first editor-in-chief. He is often referred to as one of the "Four Scholars of Hong Kong," a group of highly accomplished individuals in the region.