Opinion | Martial arts novelist Louis Cha earns doctorate from Peking University, say reports

Hong Kong novelist Louis Cha Leung-yung – who wrote The Legend of the Condor Heroes and is better known by his pen name Jin Yong – will be adding another doctorate to his long list of scholarly and literary achievements, said mainland media reports.

Peking University told the Beijing Youth Daily on Tuesday that the renowned writer of wuxia martial arts novels from the 1960s-80s had been pursuing a doctorate in Chinese literature there since September 2009 and had recently completed his thesis.

Professor Chen Pingyuan, a former dean at the university’s Department of Chinese Language and Literature, confirmed to media that Cha, 89, had been a doctoral candidate at the department.

However, he said Cha did not have to attend classes there and had no information as to when the writer was scheduled to graduate.

Cha’s mentor was Yuan Xingpei, head of the Communist Party-affiliated Central Research Institute of Culture and History, Chen said.

A photo of Cha’s diploma, dated July 2013 complete with the institution’s seal and signature of university president Wang Enge, was published on social networking site Renren this week. Its authenticity could not be confirmed.