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The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.
Yes. Wo hu cang long (English: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon[/]) is the fourth book in the Crane-Iron Pentalogy, written by Chinese author Wang Dulu [1909-1977]. The other four books, written between 1938 and 1942, include: (1) [i]Crane Frightens Kunlun/He Jing Kunlun, (2) Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin/Baojian Jinchai, (3) Sword's Force, Pearl's Shine/Jianqi Zhuguang, and (5) Iron Knight, Silver Vase/Tieji Yinping. As of 2007, no official English language translations of his novels exist. However, there is a manhua (comic book) series created by Andy Seto.
"Crouching tiger, hidden dragon" is a Chinese philosophy that refers to keeping your strength hidden from others and warns that, because others may also be practicing it, you never know when you'll meet up with someone who is stronger and better than you are.
The "wu" in "wuxia" refers to "martial arts" or "combat". The "xia" refers to a person whose sense of righteousness is so profound that it empowers them to sacrifice themselves and even break the law to help people. The closest equivalents in English would be the hero, knight, warrior, or vigilante in superhero comics. See here for more information about wuxia and the xia.
In terms of wuxia masterpieces, Xia nu [A Touch of Zen] (1969) is seen as the influential epic grandmaster of the genre. Ying xiong [Hero] (2002) is another good example. Some other wuxia flicks of note are Shi mian mai fu [House of Flying Daggers] (2004) and Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia [Curse of the Golden Flower] (2006). If you like wuxia movies, try some of Akira Kurosawa's jidaigeki cinema, like Ran (1985), Kagemusha (1990), Yojimbo (1961), and Shichinin no samurai [Seven Samurai] (1954). Another movie of interest might be Huo Yuan Jia [Fearless] (2006). More movies similar to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon include Chi bi [Red Cliff] (2008), Musa (2001), and Ching Se [Green Snake] (1993).
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