The Women of Wuxia - Huang Rong

At first, I was going to do just an article on how the female roles in wuxia are so much better than in Western programming, and even in tokusatsu.  However, as I began to plot out my article, I realized that it was going to be a massive undertaking, both for me as the author and for the reader.  Then I decided to just make it a series, focusing on an outstanding character (that any actress worthy of the name would stab somebody in order to play) from Ancient Chinese Series.

And there can be no discussion of the topic unless you bring up the subject of this first in the series....

Huang Rong

I am going to admit to some bias here, as Huang Rong is my favorite female character from anything, anywhere!  She's playful, mischievous, intelligent, cute, clever, not only just clever, but sly.  On top of everything else, more than anything else, the girl is capable...how some daughter of a well-known pugilist can become the leader of Beggar Sect, as well as trick Ouyang Feng into making him train his inner strength in a way that made him go insane, is proof of that.

And when we first meet her, she's disguised as a boy

(and when Rong'er is disguised as a boy, it's at least a bit believable, unlike every other case of "boy clothes = boy" I've ever seen)






Actually, the first encounter with Guo Jing, when she grabs his teachers' bags and when asked what she was doing, she just flashed a smile and proudly proclaimed, "Stealing your things!"

How do you NOT immediately like a character like that?

Ya know, stealing things seems to be a running thing for her...

And for as great as she is, the relationship between Jing and Rong is also crucial to her development into this vessel of pure awesome.  If not for her love of him, many of the great things she ended up doing would not have happened...

Because of her photographic memory, she could teach him the 9 Yin manual.  She did everything to manipulate the scenes and stay a couple steps ahead of their enemies, all because she loved Guo Jing and he was a good man.

I think I have to proffer the fact that Ariel Lin was GENIUS in her portrayal of Huang Rong.  I also can't think of an Occidental actress of an age who can get away with playing the character that can do said character justice.

Not a one.

Going further into the mythos of the character, her daughter founded the Emei Sect, she was able to develop a shortcut through learning 9 Yin (Which Zhirou used in Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber), and as the leader of Begger's Sect, her name went down in history of greatness, and as well it should.

Hands down, Huang Rong is the best female character to ever have happened in the history of ever.  There's no way this article can do her justice, you'll just have to watch the series.  Go to http://www.ancientchinese.net and download the series from their forums.  Not only is it my favorite wuxia series, but it also has my favorite female in it, Huang Rong!