Dongfang Bubai

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Dongfang Bubai (東方不敗), literally "Invincible East", is a fictional character in the wuxia novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer by Jin Yong. He is the leader of the Sun Moon Holy Cult (日月神教), an "unorthodox" martial arts sect. In his bid to become the most powerful martial artist in the jianghu, he castrated himself to fulfil the prerequisite for learning the skills in a martial arts manual known as the Sunflower Manual (葵花寶典). His castration and supreme prowess in martial arts make him a memorable character even though he appears in only one chapter of the novel. Created during the Cultural Revolution, Dongfang Bubai and the Sun Moon Holy Cult – both names alluding to the propaganda song "The East Is Red" – serve as allegories for Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party. Since Brigitte Lin's portrayal of the character as a trans woman in the 1992 Hong Kong film Swordsman II, Dongfang Bubai's role has been greatly expanded and the character has become a queer icon in Chinese popular culture. From the 2010s onwards, censorship of LGBT themes in China has led to non-queer reinterpretations of the character in television series and films.