I am looking for a good book or two on WuXia.  Or the Xia.  I know almost nothing about them.  I think the Xia were like a chinese cross between an american gunfighter of the old west and a european Knight errant.  But obviouly their own thing that grew out of their own culture and history.  

Also readable history or well researched historic fiction on china's waring warring states period.  I also think during certan historical periods China's west was like the American old west.  Both empty, in both the horse was paramount, and both had heroic fighters wandering through.  

I may not have any Idea what I am talking about.  

Any suggestions welcome.

(Reading a book called Empire of the Summer Moon about the history of the Comanches.  I think their is a lot of good campagin materia in there.  It's related to my question about the simlairities between the far east and the old west.  I can't decide if it should have its own thread.)

You want Far West by Gareth Michael Skarka. Available everywhere in print and PDF.

It is a genre so I would recommend reading wuxia novels and watching wuxia movies. But for overviews you might try Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition by Stephen Teo and Paper Swordsman by John Christopher Hamm. For reading wuxia I recommend starting with the Water Margin, then finding some translations of wuxia novels in print or online. For print you can still get a few Louis Cha/Yong Jin books (The Book and the Sword, Fox Volant, etc) and Gu Long's Eleventh Son has been translated as well. For fan translations you can find all kinds of stuff online. What you like will come down to personal taste but I personally recommend checking out the Condor Hero trilogy, Baifa Monu Zhuan (The White Haired Maiden), and Heroes Shed Tears (this one is available at Wuxia World). For movies I would say start watching a bunch of Shaw Brothers stuff and work from there (there is a ton of it on Amazon Prime right now and Netflix has some classics as well). I suggest sampling different directors to see whose style you like. You can also watch Chinese Drama series (many of which are 50 episode versions of the stories I already mentioned). You can see those at places like Viki or buy them on Amazon. Those are good because you get the more complete story (a lot of the movies are based on the books but have to squeeze the storylines into under two hours).

Thanks for the sugestions.  Any history to recomend?

Quote from: Matt;955718You want Far West by Gareth Michael Skarka. Available everywhere in print and PDF.

I also heartily recommend looking for this gem.

Quote from: Headless;955739Thanks for the sugestions.  Any history to recomend?

I would probably start with a survey book, but then for specific periods, there is a good series called The History of Imperial China series (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/collection.php?cpk=1338). Those are still survey books but they will give you more focus on individual periods. Another very cool book is Bing by Michael Lowe (and he has a nice simple book about daily life during the Han called Everyday Life in Early Imperial China). Those are both pretty quick reads (one is a fictional account based on historical sources, the other is a quick guide to the culture during the time). I am a lot more interested in Tang and Song China so most of the books on my shelf tend to deal with those periods. But you will definitely want to pick up some info on architecture and technology. There are lots of great resources for that. Another good resource is A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China by Charles O Hucker). I am in a bit of a rush because I have to go deal with some car issues but if you PM me I'd be happy to shoot you a list of books and websites when I get back. Also I think that Kevin Crawford has posted a massive list somewhere of historical resources on Imperial China.

The Good, the Bad, & the Weird is an fun movie that might give you ideas as well, although it's set in Manchuria, rather than Xinjiang. It's Korean, rather than Chinese, but it sounds like what you're looking for, and there's a certain amount of commonality between all the former horse nomad areas in Central Eurasia, from Manchuria to the Hungarian plain.

Quote from: 3rik;955747I also heartily recommend looking for this gem.

Ever since it was released, my entire world was literally turned upside down.

Quote from: Matt;955718You want Far West by Gareth Michael Skarka. Available everywhere in print and PDF.

Definitely the best kickstarter I've ever had the misfortune of not backing.

More seriously, Qin or Weapon of the Gods are both good choices. I'm rather fond of WuShu, but its a system that requires players to already have an understanding of the genre, so maybe not the best place to start.

All y'all have a mischievous sense of humor.

Wait it released?

Quote from: tenbones;955799Wait it released?

[video=youtube;sYU_eDMr4xE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYU_eDMr4xE[/youtube]

HAHAHAHHAHA that was awesome!!!

I got mine on December 2011, exactly when it was estimated to be delivered.