The Independent reports on renewed interest worldwide in the Chinese legend of The Monkey King, or Sun Wukong:
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 producers is working on a mammoth 50-part TV series. [Full text]
