China rediscovers magical world of Ming Dynasty's 'Monkey King'
"I suppose you want to fight me?" the Monkey King would say before spinning his magic staff, whipping up a magical pink cloud with his fingers and getting busy with the kung fu.
So begins many an adventure for the Monkey King, a belligerent but lovable monkey spirit who has charmed millions of Chinese - and British audiences in the early 1980s -- with his exploits en route to India with Pigsy, Sandy and a monk to find Buddha's scrolls and, they hope, enlightenment.
The Monkey King is the main character in "Journey to the West", a ribald Chinese folk tale by Wu Cheng'en, written more than 500 years ago during the Ming Dynasty and hugely popular ever since.
It seems everyone is going Monkey mad again these days, so expect plenty of airborne kung-fu action, deities flying on candy-coloured clouds and broken cardboard furniture on a screen near you. Or even at the opera.
Damon Albarn - of Blur, Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad and the Queen - is planning an opera based on "Journey to the West", while one of China's top prod- ucers is working on a mammoth 50-part TV series....
Read entire article at Independent (UK)
So begins many an adventure for the Monkey King, a belligerent but lovable monkey spirit who has charmed millions of Chinese - and British audiences in the early 1980s -- with his exploits en route to India with Pigsy, Sandy and a monk to find Buddha's scrolls and, they hope, enlightenment.
The Monkey King is the main character in "Journey to the West", a ribald Chinese folk tale by Wu Cheng'en, written more than 500 years ago during the Ming Dynasty and hugely popular ever since.
It seems everyone is going Monkey mad again these days, so expect plenty of airborne kung-fu action, deities flying on candy-coloured clouds and broken cardboard furniture on a screen near you. Or even at the opera.
Damon Albarn - of Blur, Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad and the Queen - is planning an opera based on "Journey to the West", while one of China's top prod- ucers is working on a mammoth 50-part TV series....