Screen adaptation brings 1930s Beijing to life

Chinese author Zhang Beihai says his martial arts novel Xia Yin has fulfilled his dream of a lifetime.[Photo by Li Jing/China Daily]

Clad in a T-shirt, a sweater, and Converse shoes, 79-year-old Zhang Beihai seems much younger. He is energetic and alert when speaking about his novel, Xia Yin, which is now being adapted into a movie by director Jiang Wen.

"The novel fulfills the dream of a lifetime," says Zhang.

The novel was first published on the Chinese mainland in 2007, and its latest edition, together with a collection of essays about New York, was published in a new book A Taste of New York in April.

Set in Beijing, Xia Yin is based on stories of Chinese martial arts heroes during the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s.

"Over the years, I came to realize that the setting of the story pays homage to my early life in Beijing, an unforgettable part of my memories," he adds.

Zhang started working on the story after his retirement in New York in the 1990s. It took him six years to complete.

For the first two years, he invested time and energy on collecting material and doing research.

He is now an expert on the history, culture and life of the city, where he lived more than half century ago, and which is half a world away, and he is able to draw maps of old Beijing.

While preparing to write he paid special attention to language－the Beijing dialects and slang.

He used several books to help him with this. They included The Gallant Maid by Wen Kang, which has a lot of Beijing slang, and Camel Xiangzi by Lao She, which contains descriptions of old Beijing.

Chinese author Ah Cheng says Zhang's novel is so detailed in its description of old Beijing that it can be used as a guidebook. "Zhang brings something surprising to the martial arts novel scene."