Stories that captivate the world

Since the story was serialized in newspapers in the 1950s, A Hero Born has been a must-read martial arts novel among many Chinese internationally.

But whether a translation can succeed depends on many factors, including the quality of the translation and readers' interest in another culture.

For example, without Ken Liu's fine translation of The Three-Body Problem it may not have won the Hugo Award, let alone won over so many English readers, including the former United States president Barack Obama and the Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, both of whom gave it a marketing fillip by recommending it on social media.

Holmwood said in a previous interview that she translated A Hero Born: Legends of Condor Heroes volume one in a humble spirit because she was aware of the important place Jin Yong occupied in the hearts of many readers.

Before translating A Hero Born she had translated other Chinese fiction, including Under a Hawthorn Tree and A Perfect Crime, but Jin Yong's work had been the most difficult one, she said, because of the abundant historical background, customs, characters, food and traditional Chinese medicine, as well as the various matchless magical kung fu and martial arts movements.

How to translate them accurately was a "headache" for her, she said in the interview, adding that she tried to present the vividness between the lines of the original work in smooth English.

She seems to have done a good job. After reading a sample of her translation the publisher decided to give it a go. The Economist called it "spirited translation".

"Jin Yong is one of the world's best-selling authors," Engles says. "He had not been published successfully in English, but nonetheless it seemed to be a huge opportunity," he says, explaining why MacLehose Press wanted to publish the English version.

As for potential cultural barriers, he says, he did not worry so much that cultural differences would be a barrier because, having read the sample and then the translation, "I told myself that Legends of the Condor Heroes has much in common with books by authors such as Walter Scott and Alexandre Dumas, which have been enjoyed for centuries by English readers".

"I think British people are very interested in Chinese culture. When there is an exhibition about the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) or the Terracotta Warriors at the British Museum, it is all anyone talks about."

After reading the first two volumes, Engles's favorite character is Lotus Hoang, a smart and cheeky girl who later marries the hero, Guo Jing.