Yang Guo is the protagonist of Jin Yong’s work The Return of the Condor Heroes with a miserable start of his life. His father Yang Kang died before he was born, and his mother Mu Nianci passed away when he was eleven. He thought he could live a good life after meeting the couple Guo Jing and Huang Rong. Just, Huang Rong did not treat Yang Guo well due to her own emotional knot towards Yang’s father. He lived a few years of relatively peaceful life when he was the apprentice of Xiaolongnü in the ancient tomb. Xiaolongnü was therefore the most important person to him.
As things never went smoothly in his life, Yang Guo’s clothes were mostly plain, simple and unadorned. But he was indeed handsome, with hard-angled eyebrows reaching his temples and phoenix eyes exuding power. Even without luxurious robes, his handsome and elegant demeanour could not go unnoticed. Yang Guo was highly skilled in martial arts. He mastered the best skills and techniques of various martial arts schools, including the unique skills of the Ancient Tomb School, the Sword Technique of Dugu Qiubai, the Toad Technique, the Dog Beating Staff Technique, the Finger Flicking Skill, the Jade Flute Swordplay, and the Jade Maiden Heart Manual, etc. He also created his own Melancholic Palms due to his longing for Xiaolongnü. During the sixteen years that Yang Guo had been waiting for Xiaolongnü, he wandered in jianghu (martial artists’ community) with the condor and was known as the “Condor Hero”.
Bonus: In the novel, Yang Guo’s right arm was chopped off by Guo Fu, but for filming convenience and the actor’s habit, many film and television versions changed to having his left arm severed. In the TVB’s 1995 television drama version of The Return of the Condor Heroes, Yang Guo was played by Louis Koo Tin-lok, who was a rising star at that time. It can be seen that he held his left arm tightly against his chest, leaving space for his left sleeve to sway in the wind to present the effect of absence of an arm.
