Content provided by British Council
[1] A Chinese influencer has turned the flying sword in Chinese xianxia fantasy novels into reality. Fan Shisan is from southwestern China’s Sichuan province. He recently posted a video of himself riding a sword-shaped aerial vehicle. The video amassed 3.3 million views and 284,000 likes. Dressed in black and striking a cool pose, Fan looks like a knight in China’s xianxia dramas.
[2] Xianxia is a popular genre of Chinese fantasy. It was developed from wuxia, the martial chivalry genre. It was also inspired by Chinese mythology. Unlike wuxia, which is still largely bound by physics, xianxia has more supernatural elements. These include deities and immortality.
[3] Fan was born in the 1990s. He said he was obsessed with both genres. At first, his videos focused more on swordplay. Fan would utilise the physics and chemistry knowledge he studied. He recreated scenes from wuxia and xianxia dramas. He would cut balloons by wielding a sword in the air, create fire and ice swords or use a sword to induce lightning. He didn’t add visual effects.
[4] In 2024, Fan used the savings he earned as an influencer to create the spectacular scene ‘return of the ten thousand swords’. It was invented in the wuxia series Wind and Cloud. His team used motion-sensing techniques so he could control the swords’ movements with hand gestures. At that point, they still needed to hang the swords with wires.
[5] Last year, Fan combined the technique with drones. His new ‘return of the ten thousand swords’ video was even praised by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning. Fan’s latest flying sword video was a small milestone after many failed tests in the past 18 months. It is 4.6m long, weighs about 100kg and can carry a man weighing up to 70kg. It has propellers to help increase the thrust. It can be controlled either by remote or with a sword-shaped lever.
[6] The sword is an unconventional shape for aerial vehicles. Fan’s team needed to help it balance so he could stably ride it in the air. At first, the sword could only leave the ground for 10 seconds. Now, the sword can fly for three minutes, 2m above the ground.
[7] Fan admitted that his creation is still in the development stage. It is far from being mass-produced. He said his next step would be to remove the lever and control the flying sword simply using his body movements.
Source: South China Morning Post, May 22
