So far I am enjoying this book immensely, especially in comparison to our previous text. The work starts with an introduction to a piece of Chinese folklore called the Monkey King. This immediately caught my eye for two reasons, the first is because I am fascinated by folklore in general, and the second is that I realized I had seen incarnations of this “character” before in popular culture, so I wanted to learn more about it. The monkey king apparently originates from a novel written in the 16th century called The Journey to the West, and it is considered something of a national treasure. Indeed this story has been told many times in different ways over the last few hundred years, and some of them I have managed to absorb even on a casual basis. He is known in the west as the Monkey King, but in China he goes by Sun Wukong, and in Japan he goes by Son Goku. The flying nimbus, the magical red staff, and the tail are no coincidences; the main character of the famous DragonBall is the Monkey King himself, told with heavy creative license of course. I can’t say I see a great deal of paralell beyond the superficial but my experience with both subjects is limited. Perhaps someone more familiar with the imagery could point out more deeply running themes. Goku seems to be more human than monkey and any mischief he shows in the early series stems mostly out of the fact that he is a child, rather than being a deity of mischief.
Another little factoid was that in the 2008 film The Forbidden Kingdom Jet Li plays the monkey king, and a few aspects of his character are shown throughout the film. Also the nerd in me would like to point out that you can play as the Monkey King in little big planet, and an incarnation of him in Marvel vs Capcom 2.
I find it interesting that we see the Monkey King in popular culture, considering how steeped in popular culture the work American Born Chinese is. Has anyone else seen a a version of the Monkey King out and about?
Monkey King,
So far I am enjoying this book immensely, especially in comparison to our previous text. The work starts with an introduction to a piece of Chinese folklore called the Monkey King. This immediately caught my eye for two reasons, the first is because I am fascinated by folklore in general, and the second is that I realized I had seen incarnations of this “character” before in popular culture, so I wanted to learn more about it. The monkey king apparently originates from a novel written in the 16th century called The Journey to the West, and it is considered something of a national treasure. Indeed this story has been told many times in different ways over the last few hundred years, and some of them I have managed to absorb even on a casual basis. He is known in the west as the Monkey King, but in China he goes by Sun Wukong, and in Japan he goes by Son Goku. The flying nimbus, the magical red staff, and the tail are no coincidences; the main character of the famous DragonBall is the Monkey King himself, told with heavy creative license of course. I can’t say I see a great deal of paralell beyond the superficial but my experience with both subjects is limited. Perhaps someone more familiar with the imagery could point out more deeply running themes. Goku seems to be more human than monkey and any mischief he shows in the early series stems mostly out of the fact that he is a child, rather than being a deity of mischief.
Another little factoid was that in the 2008 film The Forbidden Kingdom Jet Li plays the monkey king, and a few aspects of his character are shown throughout the film. Also the nerd in me would like to point out that you can play as the Monkey King in little big planet, and an incarnation of him in Marvel vs Capcom 2.
I find it interesting that we see the Monkey King in popular culture, considering how steeped in popular culture the work American Born Chinese is. Has anyone else seen a a version of the Monkey King out and about?
I agree with you that The Monkey King folklore is what get me into the novel at first. Besides that the imagery of this particular monkey showing up in Dexter’s Lab as the class agreed on, the monkey itself has a may a folklore and symbolism attached to it. There’s a monkey style kung fu, and the three monkeys of evil (hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil). I have even heard parents of today calling their children “little monkey” because they are so rambunctious. In the Chinese zodiac the monkey is Clever, skillful, and are remarkably inventive and original and can solve the most difficult problems with ease. Although they look down on others believing they are better. Even thought the novel was mainly about finding yourself, I think that the Monkey King’s portrayal was pretty accurate and also fun to read. Even though the Money King is a great character and folklore ledgend, I still prefer the Ox and the Dragon…
As to answering your question about if there were any other versions of the Monkey King out and about, there are may versions. Just not so many in the United States. There was a TV series in the seventies called “Monkey” that was dubbed into English and a TV movie called “The Lost Empire.” Also, even thought he’s not a kin in the movie, Monkey in Kung Fu Panda was on of the Legendary Furious Five. In the movie his voice was Jackie Chan’s and was still an important character/ animal in the story. All these may not be what you may be looking for but it’s just another way the Monkey King or even just Monkey himself in used as visual entertainment for the masses.