⚠️ Vote for GagaOOLala to be added to list of streaming services ⚠️https://mydramalist.com/discussions/suggestions/130255-add-gagaoolala-to-lists-of-services⚠️…
Homophobia runs deep on MDL so even after years of asking they refuse to add GagaOOLala.
This drama is actually Xianxia. For some weird unknown reason MDL does not have/allow a Xianxia category in the…
It is widely accepted that Xianxia is a sub-genre under Wuxia and that Wuxia as a genre came first. You’re right that Journey to the West has immortals, Daoist cultivation, and heavenly realms. But that doesn’t mean Xianxia as a genre existed back then.
Immortal mythology came first. Wuxia became a defined literary genre earlier (Tang roots, fully formed by the 20th century with writers like Jin Yong). Modern Xianxia developed much later, especially in web novels, by combining Daoist myth + Wuxia structure + systematic cultivation tiers and power progression.
Journey to the West is better described as proto-Xianxia — it inspired the genre, but it wasn’t written within a Xianxia genre tradition because that category didn’t exist yet.
So immortal fantasy predates Wuxia, yes. But Xianxia as a defined genre does not.
Immortal mythology came first. Wuxia became a defined literary genre earlier (Tang roots, fully formed by the 20th century with writers like Jin Yong). Modern Xianxia developed much later, especially in web novels, by combining Daoist myth + Wuxia structure + systematic cultivation tiers and power progression.
Journey to the West is better described as proto-Xianxia — it inspired the genre, but it wasn’t written within a Xianxia genre tradition because that category didn’t exist yet.
So immortal fantasy predates Wuxia, yes. But Xianxia as a defined genre does not.