Woon Swee Oan (born Woon Liang Giok in January 1954) is a Hong Kong-based Malaysian poet and writer of wuxia novels. Some of his best known works include Jingyan Yi Qiang, Buyi Shenxiang, and Si Da Ming Bu, which have been adapted into television series The Four and Face to Fate, and the film The Four, among others.
Life
Woon was born in Bidor Town, Batang Padang District, Perak State, Malaya in 1954 in a Hakka family with ancestry from Mei County, Guangdong Province, China. In 1959, at a young age, he started reading from his family's collection of books and wrote his first short story. In 1961, he started attending primary school, and was accompanied by his elder sister because he was shy and afraid. However, soon after entering school, he became very active and outspoken in class, and was selected as the model student of the year in 1963. Throughout his years in primary to senior high school, Woon published articles in various magazines and defeated an opponent a year older than him in a debating competition when he was in secondary two. He also wrote a romantic novel titled Ouran (偶然; By Coincidence).
Between 1971 and 1972, Woon studied psychoanalysis and aesthetics. During this time, he met Fang E'zhen (方娥真), who became his partner for 16 years. He also started writing for various Taiwanese magazines and published his debut wuxia novel in the Hong Kong magazine Wuxia Chunqiu (武俠春秋). In 1973, he established a poetry society and published his first novel in the series Si Da Ming Bu (四大名捕; The Four Great Constables). At the end of the year, he travelled to Taiwan to further his studies at the National Taiwan University.
In 1976, Woon and Fang E'zhen established the Shenzhou Poetry Society (神州詩社) in Taiwan. However, not long later, they were accused of "promoting communism" by the Taiwanese government and detained for three months; the society was disbanded. They were sent back to Malaysia later, but were subsequently forced to move to Hong Kong due to the Malaysian government's strong stance against communism.
In 1981, after moving to Hong Kong, Woon published the wuxia novel series Shenzhou Qixia (神州奇俠; Hero of Shenzhou) in the newspaper Ming Pao. In the second half of 1983, ATV recruited Woon to be one of their writers. In the same year, Woon's works were published by Bok Yik (博益), a sub-company under TVB. His wuxia novels were later re-released by a Taiwanese publisher, Wansheng (萬盛). Woon's novel series Si Da Ming Bu and Buyi Shenxiang (布衣神相) were also adapted by ATV into television series.
In 1988, Taiwan's CTV released a television series based on Woon's novel series Si Da Ming Bu. Woon also wrote wuxia serials in the Taiwanese newspapers China Times and United Daily News. At the end of the year, Woon started his own magazine company in Hong Kong to promote his "new school" of wuxia stories. From 1990 to 1998, Woon ventured into the mainland Chinese market and spent most of his time in China. His most recent works such as Da Laohu (打老虎), Bu Laoshu (捕老鼠) and Yuanhou Yue (猿猴月) were published by Crown House Publishing (皇冠出版社) in Hong Kong.
