posting meme: day 3: wuxia again
from 
snarp Favorite relatively-short wuxia series with female protagonist(s)?
This is, sadly, an easy one to answer.
To my knowledge, there aren't any. Most wuxia series are between 30-40 episodes, sometimes longer, less often a bit shorter. In addition, almost every wuxia series has a male lead, though most that I've seen have had numerous female characters with several as major characters. The only wuxia I know of with a female lead is Legend of the White-Haired Demoness (aka The Bride With White Hair), though I don't know of any TV series based on it that are completely subtitled in English. (I believe the one from a couple years ago is partly subtitled on vikii, but vikii has never worked well for me.)
There are some non-wuxia historical biodramas and melodramas with female leads, but I've only found most of them on vikii, and various adaptations of The Strange Tales of Liao Zhai seem to mostly pick stories that are either heavy on women, or can be reworked to be so.
As far as wuxia series go, most of the ones I really like tend to be based on either Jin Jong or Liang Yusheng novels. Some good starters are probably the 2006 Return of the Condor Heroes (there's a new one coming out, but it sounds awful), the 2008 Paladins in Troubled Times, and the 2007 Sword Stained With Royal Blood. (These are all Zhang Ji Zhong productions, which was not deliberate, but does mean that there are good fight scenes, largely good costuming choices, and lots of hair fluttering in the wind while indoors.) There's also the 2008 version of Legend of the Condor Heroes, though it's almost 50 episodes long, and it's half an awesome series with the BEST HEROINE EVER (and a really cute romance), and half annoying manpain with a dude I found thoroughly uninteresting and a heroine I reallyreally wanted to go to the other half of the series, and find a less emotionally abusive and unstable boyfriend. This one isn't a Zhang Ji Zhong production, though I've heard good things about his version from the early 2000s, but I haven't seen it yet.
All that said: there are a few people who will probably read this who have watched more wuxia than I, and may have suggestions.
snarp Favorite relatively-short wuxia series with female protagonist(s)?
This is, sadly, an easy one to answer.
To my knowledge, there aren't any. Most wuxia series are between 30-40 episodes, sometimes longer, less often a bit shorter. In addition, almost every wuxia series has a male lead, though most that I've seen have had numerous female characters with several as major characters. The only wuxia I know of with a female lead is Legend of the White-Haired Demoness (aka The Bride With White Hair), though I don't know of any TV series based on it that are completely subtitled in English. (I believe the one from a couple years ago is partly subtitled on vikii, but vikii has never worked well for me.)
There are some non-wuxia historical biodramas and melodramas with female leads, but I've only found most of them on vikii, and various adaptations of The Strange Tales of Liao Zhai seem to mostly pick stories that are either heavy on women, or can be reworked to be so.
As far as wuxia series go, most of the ones I really like tend to be based on either Jin Jong or Liang Yusheng novels. Some good starters are probably the 2006 Return of the Condor Heroes (there's a new one coming out, but it sounds awful), the 2008 Paladins in Troubled Times, and the 2007 Sword Stained With Royal Blood. (These are all Zhang Ji Zhong productions, which was not deliberate, but does mean that there are good fight scenes, largely good costuming choices, and lots of hair fluttering in the wind while indoors.) There's also the 2008 version of Legend of the Condor Heroes, though it's almost 50 episodes long, and it's half an awesome series with the BEST HEROINE EVER (and a really cute romance), and half annoying manpain with a dude I found thoroughly uninteresting and a heroine I reallyreally wanted to go to the other half of the series, and find a less emotionally abusive and unstable boyfriend. This one isn't a Zhang Ji Zhong production, though I've heard good things about his version from the early 2000s, but I haven't seen it yet.
All that said: there are a few people who will probably read this who have watched more wuxia than I, and may have suggestions.