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The Journey to the West in Easy Chinese: The Complete Novel Retold With Limited Vocabulary, in Simplified Chinese, Pinyin and English PDF

 This book contains the complete text, in Chinese, pinyin and English, of all 31 books in the best-selling Journey to the West series of graded readers by Jeff Pepper and Xiao Hui Wang. If printed in standard paperback format this book would run over 3,500 pages. It is written for people who are learning to read Simplified Chi...

Chapter List (268 chapters):

• Chapter 1: Unknown
• Chapter 2: Acknowledgements
• Chapter 3: Audiobook
• Chapter 4: Introduction
• Chapter 5: Book 1: The Rise of the Monkey King
• Chapter 6: 第1章
• Chapter 7: 第2章
• Chapter 8: Book 2: Trouble in Heaven
• Chapter 9: 第3章
• Chapter 10: 第4章
• Chapter 11: Book 3: The Immortal Peaches
• Chapter 12: 第5章
• Chapter 13: 第6章
• Chapter 14: 第7章
• Chapter 15: Book 4: The Young Monk
• Chapter 16: 第8章
• Chapter 17: 第9章
• Chapter 18: Book 5: The Emperor in Hell
• Chapter 19: 第10章
• Chapter 20: 第11章
• Chapter 21: Book 6: The Journey Begins
• Chapter 22: 第012章
• Chapter 23: 第13章
• Chapter 24: 第14章
• Chapter 25: Book 7: The Monster of Black Wind Mountain
• Chapter 26: 第15章
• Chapter 27: 第16章
• Chapter 28: 第17章
• Chapter 29: Book 8: The Hungry Pig
• Chapter 30: 第18章
• Chapter 31: 第19章
• Chapter 32: 第20章
• Chapter 33: 第21章
• Chapter 34: Book 9: The Three Beautiful Daughters
• Chapter 35: 第22章
• Chapter 36: 第23章
• Chapter 37: Book 10: The Magic Ginseng Tree
• Chapter 38: 第24章
• Chapter 39: 第25章
• Chapter 40: 第26章
• Chapter 41: Book 11: The Monster’s Secret
• Chapter 42: 第27章
• Chapter 43: 第28章
• Chapter 44: 第29章
• Chapter 45: 第30章
• Chapter 46: 第31章
• Chapter 47: Book 12: The Five Treasures
• Chapter 48: 第32章
• Chapter 49: 第33章
• Chapter 50: 第34章
• Chapter 51: 第35章
• Chapter 52: Book 13: The Ghost King
• Chapter 53: 第36章
• Chapter 54: 第37章
• Chapter 55: 第38章
• Chapter 56: 第39章
• Chapter 57: Book 14: The Cave of Fire
• Chapter 58: 第40章
• Chapter 59: 第41章
• Chapter 60: 第42章
• Chapter 61: 第43章
• Chapter 62: Book 15: The Daoist Immortals
• Chapter 63: 第44章
• Chapter 64: 第45章
• Chapter 65: 第46章
• Chapter 66: Book 16: The Great Demon King
• Chapter 67: 第47章
• Chapter 68: 第48章
• Chapter 69: 第49章
• Chapter 70: Book 17: The Thieves
• Chapter 71: 第50章
• Chapter 72: 第51章
• Chapter 73: 第52章
• Chapter 74: Book 18: The Country of Women
• Chapter 75: 第53章
• Chapter 76: 第54章
• Chapter 77: 第55章
• Chapter 78: Book 19: The Angry Monkey
• Chapter 79: 第56章
• Chapter 80: 第57章
• Chapter 81: 第58章
• Chapter 82: Book 20: The Burning Mountain
• Chapter 83: 第59章
• Chapter 84: 第60章
• Chapter 85: 第61章
• Chapter 86: Book 21: The Rain of Blood
• Chapter 87: 第62章
• Chapter 88: 第63章
• Chapter 89: 第64章
• Chapter 90: Book 22: The False Buddha
• Chapter 91: 第65章
• Chapter 92: 第66章
• Chapter 93: 第67章
• Chapter 94: Book 23: The Monkey Doctor
• Chapter 95: 第68章
• Chapter 96: 第69章
• Chapter 97: 第70章
• Chapter 98: 第71章
• Chapter 99: Book 24: The Demons of Spiderweb Mountain
• Chapter 100: 第72章
• Chapter 101: 第73章
• Chapter 102: Book 25: Great Peng and His Brothers
• Chapter 103: 第74章
• Chapter 104: 第75章
• Chapter 105: 第76章
• Chapter 106: 第77章
• Chapter 107: Book 26: The Thousand Children
• Chapter 108: 第78章
• Chapter 109: 第79章
• Chapter 110: Book 27: The Monk and the Mouse
• Chapter 111: 第80章
• Chapter 112: 第81章
• Chapter 113: 第82章
• Chapter 114: 第83章
• Chapter 115: Book 28: The Dharma Destroying Kingdom
• Chapter 116: 第84章
• Chapter 117: 第85章
• Chapter 118: 第86章
• Chapter 119: Book 29: The Nine Headed Lion
• Chapter 120: 第87章
• Chapter 121: 第88章
• Chapter 122: 第89章
• Chapter 123: 第90章
• Chapter 124: Book 30: The Lazy Monk
• Chapter 125: 第91章
• Chapter 126: 第92章
• Chapter 127: 第93章
• Chapter 128: 第94章
• Chapter 129: 第95章
• Chapter 130: Book 31: The Last Trial
• Chapter 131: 第96章
• Chapter 132: 第97章
• Chapter 133: 第98章
• Chapter 134: 第99章
• Chapter 135: 第100章
• Chapter 136: The Rise of the Monkey King
• Chapter 137: Chapter 1
• Chapter 138: Chapter 2
• Chapter 139: Trouble in Heaven
• Chapter 140: Chapter 3
• Chapter 141: Chapter 4
• Chapter 142: The Immortal Peaches
• Chapter 143: Chapter 5
• Chapter 144: Chapter 6
• Chapter 145: Chapter 7
• Chapter 146: The Young Monk
• Chapter 147: Chapter 8
• Chapter 148: Chapter 9
• Chapter 149: The Emperor in Hell
• Chapter 150: Chapter 10
• Chapter 151: Chapter 11
• Chapter 152: The Journey Begins
• Chapter 153: Chapter 12
• Chapter 154: Chapter 13
• Chapter 155: Chapter 14
• Chapter 156: The Monster of Black Wind Mountain
• Chapter 157: Chapter 15
• Chapter 158: Chapter 16
• Chapter 159: Chapter 17
• Chapter 160: The Hungry Pig
• Chapter 161: Chapter 18
• Chapter 162: Chapter 19
• Chapter 163: Chapter 20
• Chapter 164: Chapter 21
• Chapter 165: The Three Beautiful Daughters
• Chapter 166: Chapter 22
• Chapter 167: Chapter 23
• Chapter 168: The Magic Ginseng Tree
• Chapter 169: Chapter 24
• Chapter 170: Chapter 25
• Chapter 171: Chapter 26
• Chapter 172: The Monster’s Secret
• Chapter 173: Chapter 27
• Chapter 174: Chapter 28
• Chapter 175: Chapter 29
• Chapter 176: Chapter 31
• Chapter 177: The Five Treasures
• Chapter 178: Chapter 32
• Chapter 179: Chapter 33
• Chapter 180: Chapter 34
• Chapter 181: Chapter 35
• Chapter 182: The Ghost King
• Chapter 183: Chapter 36
• Chapter 184: Chapter 37
• Chapter 185: Chapter 38
• Chapter 186: Chapter 39
• Chapter 187: The Cave of Fire
• Chapter 188: Chapter 40
• Chapter 189: Chapter 41
• Chapter 190: Chapter 42
• Chapter 191: Chapter 43
• Chapter 192: The Daoist Immortals
• Chapter 193: Chapter 44
• Chapter 194: Chapter 45
• Chapter 195: Chapter 46
• Chapter 196: The Great Demon King
• Chapter 197: Chapter 47
• Chapter 198: Chapter 48
• Chapter 199: Chapter 49
• Chapter 200: The Thieves
• Chapter 201: Chapter 50
• Chapter 202: Chapter 51
• Chapter 203: Chapter 52
• Chapter 204: The Country of Women
• Chapter 205: Chapter 53
• Chapter 206: Chapter 54
• Chapter 207: Chapter 55
• Chapter 208: The Angry Monkey
• Chapter 209: Chapter 56
• Chapter 210: Chapter 57
• Chapter 211: Chapter 58
• Chapter 212: The Burning Mountain
• Chapter 213: Chapter 59
• Chapter 214: Chapter 60
• Chapter 215: Chapter 61
• Chapter 216: The Rain of Blood
• Chapter 217: Chapter 62
• Chapter 218: Chapter 63
• Chapter 219: Chapter 64
• Chapter 220: The False Buddha
• Chapter 221: Chapter 65
• Chapter 222: Chapter 66
• Chapter 223: Chapter 67
• Chapter 224: The Monkey Doctor
• Chapter 225: Chapter 68
• Chapter 226: Chapter 69
• Chapter 227: Chapter 70
• Chapter 228: Chapter 71
• Chapter 229: The Demons of Spiderweb Mountain
• Chapter 230: Chapter 72
• Chapter 231: Chapter 73
• Chapter 232: Great Peng and His Brothers
• Chapter 233: Chapter 74
• Chapter 234: Chapter 75
• Chapter 235: Chapter 76
• Chapter 236: Chapter 77
• Chapter 237: The Thousand Children
• Chapter 238: Chapter 78
• Chapter 239: Chapter 79
• Chapter 240: The Monk and the Mouse
• Chapter 241: Chapter 80
• Chapter 242: Chapter 81
• Chapter 243: Chapter 82
• Chapter 244: Chapter 83
• Chapter 245: The Dharma Destroying Kingdom
• Chapter 246: Chapter 84
• Chapter 247: Chapter 85
• Chapter 248: Chapter 86
• Chapter 249: The Nine Headed Lion
• Chapter 250: Chapter 87
• Chapter 251: Chapter 88
• Chapter 252: Chapter 89
• Chapter 253: Chapter 90
• Chapter 254: The Lazy Monk
• Chapter 255: Chapter 91
• Chapter 256: Chapter 92
• Chapter 257: Chapter 93
• Chapter 258: Chapter 94
• Chapter 259: Chapter 95
• Chapter 260: The Last Trial
• Chapter 261: Chapter 96
• Chapter 262: Chapter 97
• Chapter 263: Chapter 98
• Chapter 264: Chapter 99
• Chapter 265: Chapter 100
• Chapter 266: Glossary
• Chapter 267: About the Authors
• Chapter 268: Endnotes

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The Complete Novel Retold With Limited Vocabulary, in Simplified Chinese, Pinyin and English

This ebook contains the complete text, in Simplified Chinese, pinyin and English, of the entire 31-volume Journey to the West series of graded readers by Jeff Pepper and Xiao Hui Wang. and full glossary. 2,384 pages. It is written for people who are learning to read Simplified Chinese and want to enjoy a fascinating story while gaining a better understanding of Chinese history and culture.

Journey to the West is probably the most famous and best-loved novel in China and is considered one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. Its place in Chinese literature is roughly comparable to Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey in Western literature. Wikipedia sums up the book’s role perfectly, saying, “Enduringly popular, the tale is at once a comic adventure story, a humorous satire of Chinese bureaucracy, a spring of spiritual insight, and an extended allegory in which the group of pilgrims journeys towards enlightenment by the power and virtue of cooperation.”

This book is NOT a literal translation of the original novel, which was written in the 16 th century and is difficult for modern readers. It is a graded reader, which means that it uses a restricted vocabulary of Chinese words and a simple sentence structure. It starts off relatively easy and gradually increases in complexity. For example the first story, Rise of the Monkey King , covers the events in the first two chapters of the novel and uses a vocabulary of just 507 words. The second story, Trouble in Heaven , covers the next two chapters and uses only 431 words. Each chapter adds, on the average, about 30 new words, and so by the time you finish the final story, called The Last Trial , you will have seen over two thousand different Chinese words.

Each paragraph of Chinese is followed by the same paragraph written in pinyin, which is a phonetic method of writing Chinese. The pinyin lets you sound out the word if you don’t recognize the characters. We recommend that when you read this on an e-reader, you scroll the text or cover the pinyin with a piece of paper, so that the pinyin is not visible on the screen. Try to read the Chinese characters, and only refer to the pinyin if you are completely stumped by some characters. If you still don’t recognize the word, look it up in the glossary at the end of the book.

Every time a Chinese word is used for the first time, it is highlighted and followed by a footnote link. Follow that link to see a definition of the new word. There are also footnote links without highlights, and you can read those to see useful and interesting bits of information about the story and the characters that you encounter.

At the end of the book is a complete English translation of each chapter. This English translation does not necessarily match the Chinese word for word, but you can refer to it to get a general understanding of the meaning of a paragraph.

Finally, there are audiobook versions of all 31 books available. You can use these to listen to a native Chinese speaker tell the story while you follow along with the text. The audiobooks are available on YouTube on the Imagin8 Press channel. You can also download them from the Imagin8 Press website.

The 31 stories in this book are also available as standalone books, in paperback and ebook formats.

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Journey to the West

Jeff Pepper

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18 November 2022

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Journey to the West: Introduction

by That's Mandarin | Oct 11, 2022 | Guest Blogs & Media

To spark your interest, our guest author Jeff Pepper from Imagin8 Press has shared a brief introduction of the book.

TIP: Scroll the the bottom of the article to discover links to a version of the book written for English-speaking students of Chinese!

Q: What is Journey to the West about?

Journey to the West (西游记, Xīyóu Jì), is a Chinese novel written in the 16th century by Wu Cheng’en (吴承恩, Wú Chéng’ēn).

It is probably the most famous and best-loved novel in China and is considered one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. Its place in Chinese literature is roughly comparable to Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey in Western literature. Wikipedia sums up the book’s role perfectly, saying, “Enduringly popular, the tale is at once a comic adventure story, a humorous satire of Chinese bureaucracy, a spring of spiritual insight, and an extended allegory in which the group of pilgrims journeys towards enlightenment by the power and virtue of cooperation.”

Q: Is Journey to the West based on a real story?

The novel’s storyline is loosely based on an actual journey by a Buddhist monk also called Xuanzang who traveled from the city of Chang’an (today’s Xi’an) westward to India in 629 A.D. and returned 17 years later with priceless knowledge and texts of Buddhism.

Q: In short, what is Journey to the West about?

A long time ago, in a magical version of ancient China, the great Tang Empire is ruled by an emperor named Taizong. Due to a mixup involving the wrongful execution of a dragon king, Taizong falls ill, dies, and is dragged down to the underworld. There he comes face to face with the Ten Kings of the Underworld, survives a harrowing journey through hell, and finally escapes with the help of a deceased courtier.

When Taizong returns to the human world he is a changed man. He decides to send a monk to the Western Heaven (that is, India), to visit the Buddha, obtain holy scriptures, and bring them back to the people of the Tang Empire. This task is nearly impossible, requiring the crossing of thousands of miles of wild and dangerous territory. With guidance from the bodhisattva Guanyin, the emperor selects a young monk named Xuanzang.

Xuanzang is a brilliant young man but has a complicated history. In an earlier lifetime centuries before, he was a student of the Buddha but was careless in his studies. Expelled from the Buddha’s temple, he spent the next ten lifetimes meditating and acquiring merit. As an infant in his current lifetime he is nearly killed by bandits, placed in a floating basket by his widowed mother and sent downriver, rescued by a monk, and raised in a monastery. At age eighteen he learns his true history, and goes off to avenge his father’s death.

Later he is chosen by Taizong to undertake the epic journey to the west. Now called Tangseng (“monk from Tang”), he faces a near-impossible task: he must cross hundreds of mountains and thousands of rivers, and survive encounters with a horrifying series of bandits, monsters, demons, ghosts, evil kings, scheming monks, false Buddhas, and much more.

Q: How about the Monkey King and other famous characters?

Tangseng could never survive the journey on his own. Fortunately he acquires three powerful but deeply flawed disciples.

First is the monkey king Sun Wukong (孙悟空, S ūn W ù kōng , his name means “ape awakened to the void”), who he frees from a 500-year imprisonment under a mountain in punishment for creating havoc in heaven.

Second is Zhu Bajie (猪八戒, Zhū Bājiè, “pig of the eight prohibitions”), a gluttonous pig-man who is constantly fighting, and often succumbing to, his desires for food, sex and comfort.

And third is Sha Wujing (沙悟净, Shā Wùjìng, “sand seeking purity”), a reformed man-eating river demon.

All three have been converted to Buddhism by the monk, but they often slip back into their bad habits and cause Tangseng a great deal of trouble. Fortunately they all have great magical powers which come in handy for battling demons and monsters, and saving Tangseng from all sorts of trouble.

The story of this journey is described in this epic novel.

Q: How long is the original book?

The original Journey to the West is a very long book. It contains 100 chapters and is 588,000 Chinese characters long. It uses a very large vocabulary of 4,500 different words, over 90% of which are not included in HSK Levels 1-6, making it quite difficult for most non-native Chinese speakers to read.

The novel is also available in English translation, the best one being by the scholar Dr. Anthony Yu. His version fills four volumes and runs over 2,300 pages.

Q: Is the book suitable for Chinese beginners?

Fortunately for people learning to read Chinese, there is now another way to read this book. My writing partner Xiao Hui Wang and I have spent the last five years writing a series of 31 books that retell the Journey to the West story in language that is accessible to anyone learning to read Chinese at the HSK 3 level. The stories in these books are told in a way that matches the original as closely as possible, but because they are graded readers they are much easier to read. The first book, Rise of the Monkey King, is relatively short and uses just 512 Chinese words. Each book adds more new words and slightly increases the length of the story and complexity of the writing, leading step by step to the longest and most challenging book, Book 31, The Final Trial. All told, the entire series uses about 2,200 different Chinese words excluding proper nouns.

Fortunately, the original novel is not written as a single continuous story, but is broken up into more or less standalone episodes, each one between one and four chapters in length. This makes it possible to read and enjoy any of the 31 graded readers without having to read the ones that came before it.

Each book is written in Simplified Chinese. The books include pinyin, English translation, and a glossary. Free audio versions of each book are available free of charge on YouTube.

Q: Where can I get these books?

A list of all 31 books in the series, along with short descriptions and links to the Amazon product pages and free YouTube audiobooks, can be found on the Imagin8 Press home page, www.imagin8press.com .

by Jeff Pepper

Jeff Pepper ([email protected]) is President and CEO of Imagin8 Press , and has written dozens of books about Chinese language and culture.

Over his thirty-five year career he has founded and led several successful computer software firms, including one that became a publicly traded company. He’s authored two software related books and has been awarded three U.S. patents.

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Journey to the West Research

A repository for research on the great 16th-century chinese classic, archive #31 – the original 1592 edition of journey to the west, complete with pictures.

I’m proud to present a PDF of the original edition of Journey to the West anonymously published in 1592 by the Shidetang (世德堂, “Hall of Generational Virtue”) publishing house of Jinling ( 金陵, “Gold Hill,” a.ka.  Nanjing ) . Titled Newly Printed, Illustrated, Deluxe and Large Character, Journey to the West  ( Xinke chuxiang guanban dazi Xiyou ji , 新刻出像官板大字西遊記), it features 20 scrolls and 100 chapters ( minus the current chapter nine ). It contains many charming woodblock prints depicting the events described in the story. For example, this print shows the battle between Monkey and Nezha in their three-headed and six-armed forms.

One doctoral thesis shows that this version is based on an earlier edition of the story titled Newly printed, Completely Illustrated, Chronicle of Deliverances in  Sanzang  of the Tang’s Journey to the West  ( Xinqie quanxiang Tang Sanzang Xiyou shi ni (e) zhuan , 新鍥全像唐三藏西遊释尼(厄)傳) in ten scrolls (with three to ten chapters each) by Zhu Dingchen (朱鼎臣) of Yangcheng (羊城, i.e. Guangzhou ).

The PDF is quite large at 1.5 gigs, so it will take time to download. I’ve provided two options.

Archive link :

From Google Drive

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zgxGr60YGfrdW1_qgpZAGp9xj9pw7UWV/view?usp=sharing

Or from WordPress

Click to access 二十卷一百回.明.吴承恩撰.明万历二十年金陵世德堂刊本.灰度胶片.pdf

I downloaded this PDF from the shuge.org archive .

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DualShockers

Chinese company gives employees a day off to play black myth: wukong.

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• Chinese company grants August 20 off to play Black Myth,
• Only those who have pre-ordered and tested the game can be eligible for the day off.
• Black Myth: Wukong serves as a different breakthrough in the Chinese gaming industry as the first AAA game in recent years.

A Chinese company is giving its employees a day off on August 20 to celebrate the launch of Black Myth: Wukong and offer them time to study the game.

Spotted by the Redditor u/Difficult-Quit-2094 , the company in question offers its employees a day off to celebrate the launch of the game and also encourages its employees to approach it as a developer when it releases on August 20th.

Job Posting Suggests Next God of War & New IP in Development

More Gods will be killed sometimes soon, but that's not all

Not every employee will benefit from the day off, though. As the holiday notice states, only those who have pre-ordered Black Myth: Wukong or tested the game's performance using the PC benchmark tool are eligible for the day off.

The company also specifically asks its employees ''not to fool them with an Xbox '' at the bottom of the notice, as the game is set to launch on PC and PlayStation 5 only.

Game Respects Game At This Chinese-Based Studio

The notice in the image seems to be attached to a glass, with a sign visible behind it indicating it's a gaming studio. However, we can’t be entirely sure due to the poor quality. Since the company asks its employees to ''study the game'' alongside celebrating its launch, it makes sense for it to be one.

Since its announcement, Black Myth: Wukong has been labeled as the first AAA game coming from China in recent years.

Although China-based HoYoverse 's Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail have become household names globally, Game Science's take on Journey to the West represents a different breakthrough in the Chinese gaming industry.

So, it's natural for a Chinese gaming studio to take the time off and approach the game from a developer's perspective.

A similar thing happened before the release of Elden Ring back in 2022 when a couple of gaming companies around the world gave their employees a paid day off to step into the Lands Between.

Although the anticipation for Black Myth: Wukong isn't quite as high to rival FromSoft's latest hit, the review scores point towards a GOTY contender.

Black Myth: Wukong

An action-RPG set against the backdrop of Chinese mythology, Black Myth: Wukong is a Soulslike adventure game retelling the story of Journey to the West.

• Video Games

Black Myth: Wukong review – "A great action RPG that feels like God of War for Chinese mythology"

B lack Myth: Wukong is not a Soulslike. It's a third-person action RPG based on the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West, and it isn't particularly hard. It flows like the modern God of War games, not just because of all the gods around, but also the mix of color-coded gear, character skill trees, and linear paths with half-open sections attached. It is first and foremost an adventure, more inviting than punishing. But it does take a page from the book of Souslikes by hiding a ton of content from you, including some of the best moments and most challenging encounters. 

You could blast through Black Myth: Wukong as a 20-hour boss rush, but you could also spend over 40 hours hunting down every boss, collectible, and NPC. A full half of the game is in the margins. I gave myself time to backtrack, and I'm glad I did, but as I reflect on Black Myth: Wukong after 34 hours, the stuff I know I didn't find hogs a lot of my headspace. That said, most of what I found was good, often great. Black Myth: Wukong can be incredibly frustrating on occasion, but it's an overall rock-solid action RPG with dozens of fantastic bosses in an absorbing, refreshingly weird world. 

A world worth wandering 

You play as a staff-wielding monkey warrior known as the Destined One, following the footsteps of the late legend Sun Wukong by collecting his six relics, or senses. This pursuit takes you through five main areas separated as chapters – plus a special final one I won't spoil – each with their own bespoke setting and subplot, which you can revisit whenever you want. Collecting six MacGuffins is a suitably video game-y way to package a dense tale, and it's a welcome lifeline in what remains a heady experience. Black Myth: Wukong is less of a story told to you and more a sprinkling of parables left for you to find. It's a matter of verbs; this is one of those stories that feels built for active interpretation over passive enjoyment. 

As someone who's not familiar with the source text, it feels like starting a book on page 200. One benefit to this approach is that the world feels lived-in. You get the sense you're a small part of this place and can't do everything yourself, and the offhandedness of absurd events reinforces the mystical atmosphere. It's hard to overstate how casually people just shapeshift – into foxes, cicadas, birds, or deceitful disguises. This is just how this world of Yaoguai, deities, and immortals operates. The sheer irreverence is hammered home by a cast that's almost universally larger than life. I played with Chinese VO and found even the most metaphor-heavy characters effective – effectively likable, effectively hateable, or whatever their role demanded. This made me wish the Destined One wasn't a passive mute. The English VO seemed mostly fine with a few standout performances, but less memorable overall.

The presentation can be confusing, but the ending – that is, the ending I got, as there are multiple – helped several details click in my brain. And even when the experience seems to be on a tangent, it is always eye-poppingly gorgeous. Rather than the way it adapts Journey to the West as a story, Black Myth: Wukong hooked me because of how it reconstructs it as a space. Every area is dripping with detail – lively forests and quiet snowfields, intricate temples and rough-hewn crags. "What comes next" becomes a powerful lure. 

There is so much to see and explore – arguably too much to see and too little to explore. Black Myth: Wukong is a stunning Unreal Engine 5 game capable of both stylized art and realistic graphics, but its visual language is terrible. Many levels are oversized and end up spreading encounters and collectibles too thin, the world littered with invisible walls blocking off what looks to be navigable terrain. Where you can and can't go feels bafflingly arbitrary and limiting. This turns those gorgeous environments into minefields of disappointment. Will I find a cool secret, or an inexplicable dead end? Over time, this blunts the joy of exploration. Similarly, many levels are so visually cluttered that it can be hard to make out key items. It's dangerously easy to miss a permanent health pickup, for instance, when it's locked in a tiny gold box on a tiny gold shrine in a dimly lit room flooded with particle effects. Black Myth: Wukong is crying out for a map and clearer indicators like light beacons. 

Monkey business 

Apart from opening anything with a button prompt, your main concern while exploring is hitting anyone that the camera can lock onto. The Destined One is a melee brawler whose fighting style revolves around fixed staff attacks and a suite of more flexible spells. A shared light attack combo connects three staff styles that have unique heavy hits. The default smash style spends Focus points on overhead slams. (Focus is temporarily charged up by holding the heavy attack button, or permanently charged by dealing damage, dodging attacks, and fighting skillfully.) The pillar style sends the Destined One aloft, out of reach of ground attacks as he uses his staff as a pillar, with Focus attacks prioritizing AoE sweeps. My favorite, the thrust style, has access to fast and far-reaching lunge heavy attacks, plus a mid-combo dodge that can chain into an invincible follow-up. It's as good as it sounds. 

You unlock new moves by spending ability points in your skill tree, which is broken up into core stats, the staff styles, and your spells. Most points are earned leveling up via XP collected from defeated enemies, which is separate from the Will currency spent at merchants, but some points are obtained through meditation spots found throughout levels. You can redo all of your points for free at any checkpoint, which is a huge quality-of-life win. I changed my build frequently to experiment with different moves and lean into specific armor or staff effects.

I was extremely hungry for skill points in the first half of the game but soon found that maxing out one staff style and sticking to it felt optimal. Combat would benefit from more interplay between the three styles. There was no need to use anything other than thrusting style once I unlocked it. Pillar style felt clunky and smash seemed like a worse thrust. Each style also only has a few nodes for new attacks, and there's sadly no way to expand your light attack combo, so be prepared to see the same attack animation about a million times. 

Combat gets a little same-y – it doesn't help that many normal enemies are so slow, weak, or easily staggered that they're non-threatening – but chaining Focus heavies and slow-mo perfect dodges is so dang fun that I was never close to bored. Sound design puts in a lot of work. The woody thunk of your staff battering a shield, the resonant gong of cracking iron-skinned monsters, the glassy swish as you spin around a boss in slow motion – you feel details like this in the heat of the moment, like tiny rewards for playing well, and it makes duels more impactful. 

Black Myth: Wukong is at its best in boss fights. There are dozens and dozens of bosses, back-to-back at times, and most of them are real spectacles. Some are rehashed, but the audio-visual feast is delightful. Levels sometimes feel like mere appetizers before the next boss. I did notably beat most bosses on my first try. To put the difficulty in perspective, the final boss took me two attempts. The hardest optional boss I found took me seven or eight tries. I'm good at action RPGs but I'm not the God King Of Space, so as I said, this game is not very hard, though a few bosses seem to be packing comically bad hitboxes. The thing that killed me most was a frankly horrific platforming section that is thankfully the only one of its kind. 

Build a better Wukong 

Despite an underwhelming skill tree, there's deep character progression in Black Myth: Wukong. To go with armor set bonuses, you can upgrade your favorite gear to keep it around, boosting its stats and subtly changing its appearance. I was partial to a double two-piece armor setup that gave me extra Focus from perfect dodges and a parry-style spell called Rock Solid. Your healing gourd, which refills whenever you rest, can be upgraded for more uses and customized through different drinks and soaks. Some drinks heal for less but come with an attack buff or mana refill, for example, while soaks can make your gourd heal extra, mitigate status effects, and much more.

You'll naturally increase your base health, mana, and stamina through items primarily found after bosses, and you can further boost stats of your choice using collectible stones that, again, you can reallocate whenever you want. Staffs can be upgraded almost Monster Hunter-style using parts from bosses. Equippable accessories called curios bring boosted stats, conditional attack buffs, and more. Gathered materials are used to craft medicine to temporarily boost your stats or cure statuses. It wasn't hard to maintain a stock of medicine for damage reduction, attack boost, and max health boost, and these became my boss fight snacks. And we still haven't gotten to the magic. 

Spells have cooldowns and cost mana which is generally only refilled when you rest at a checkpoint, so rationing spells is important. Rock Solid is my GOAT, but I was also a big fan of Immobilize, which freezes enemies in place for several seconds and, with upgrades, increases the damage they take. Immobilize does work on bosses, by the way, and it's even stronger than you think. It's free damage, obviously, but also a guaranteed moment to heal and a way to interrupt some problem combos. It's also the first spell you unlock, which sets the bar high. You get a few options for your spell slots, with quite a few spells tied to optional content. You can change your equipped spells at checkpoints, but I almost never took off Immobilize or Rock Solid, stubbornly clinging to time-stopping and pseudo-parrying in this proudly dodge-focused game. 

The most varied spells are the transformations. Proper transformations let you fight as vanquished enemies for a short time, dealing damage without getting hurt yourself since these alternate forms have their own HP. Lesser, equipable spirits provide passive stat bonuses and function as special attacks tied to a Qi meter. You can sneak in spirit attacks during normal staff combos, and while I only found five transformations, I had nearly 50 different spirits, and I'm sure there's plenty more of both. There's a running theme of harnessing the strength of your enemies, and this brings some welcome variety to fights. I'd regularly open with Immobilize, get in a staff combo, finish with a spirit, then launch right into a transformation. You can spend most of a boss fight playing as anyone but the Destined One if you invest into transformations. 

I absolutely loved Black Myth: Wukong for the first two chapters, but recurring annoyances and some drawn-out sections began to wear me down around the halfway point. Combat carries the experience, the story is interesting albeit too fragmented to put me on the edge of my seat, and the world is a wondrous place to be. It's exciting to see such a rich setting, which has gone largely untapped in games, treated with clear love and care by an action RPG of this scale. Despite some frustrations, Black Myth: Wukong feels great and finishes strong – so strong that I've half a mind to give New Game Plus a try, if only to find yet more stuff I missed. 

Black Myth: Wukong was reviewed on PC, with a code provided by the publisher.

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The journey to the west: a platform for learning about china past and present.

In US college students’ first course on China, the challenge for instructors is to pack the maximum amount of punch into the experience so that the course will inspire them to seek more opportunities to learn about China at and beyond the college level. One way to achieve this goal is to use a rich text with many applications to help students unpack the complexities of Chinese history, language, politics, economics, and thought. For this purpose, the sixteenth-century novel The Journey to the West, with its many incarnations, is ideal. 1 It features a rousing adventure story, which can be read as historical fiction, political satire, and religious allegory. The novel has been reproduced for many types of audiences in many different media, including children’s books, puppet shows, operas, comics, TV series, and movies; each version is different enough to allow instructors to discuss them in the context of important Chinese historical events and cultural elements. Because well-told stories help us make sense of the world, instructors can use this novel as a foundational element to facilitate students’ connections with and between the various elements of the course. In this article, we show how The Journey to the West and its multiple incarnations can be used to help students unpack the complexities of China as a subject and develop a critical awareness or appreciation for a culture different from their own. We first show how the story may be introduced in a way that sets students’ minds for embracing the immense complexity of humanity and Chinese culture. Then, we show how various elements and incarnations of the story can be used to facilitate discussions about some outstanding aspects of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Maoist China (1949–1976), and postreform Communist China.

A Glance at The Journey to the West

Developed into its full length in the sixteenth century, the 100-chapter novel The Journey to the West (The Journey hereafter) is believed to have its historical basis in the epic pilgrimage of the monk Xuanzang (c. 596–664) to India and has been a popular subject for storytellers since the late Tang dynasty. The fictionalized pilgrimage as depicted in the novel sees Xuanzang accompanied by four nonhuman disciples: Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy, and Dragon Horse. The four disciples have been expelled by the Daoist Celestial Court (i.e., Heaven) due to misbehaviors, but will beaccepted by the Bodhisattva Guanyin (AKA the Goddess of Mercy) into Buddhism on condition that they promise to assist Xuanzang’s pilgrimage.

The mischievous Monkey character and his dedicated master Xuanzang have the central roles in the novel, and the first thirteen chapters establish the backstories of how the two became destined for the journey. The exciting part of the tale begins in chapter 14, when Xuanzang releases Monkey from a mountain and together they embark on a journey filled with the humor of Monkey’s mischievous battles against bandits and demons, interspersed with moments of Buddhist enlightenment. Starting here, students get a taste of the original novel and are introduced to the two main characters. A useful in-class exercise is to brainstorm words to describe the two characters. Through this activity, students come to understand the complexity and contrast of the characters’ personalities and why this dynamic is so important not only for the success of the story, but also metaphorically for understanding the complex nature of Chinese culture and society. For example, how have the three distinct and often-contradictory teachings—Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism—been able to operate relatively harmoniously in the lived religious experience of everyday Chinese? An understanding of how each individual has contradictory tendencies and how a story needs such individuals to be successful will set students’ minds for embracing the complexity of the topics to be discussed in the course, such as the various adaptations of Monkey and The Journey, and how they relate to different aspects of China.

Learning about Traditional China through The Journey

Written in the late Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and based on a true event during the Tang dynasty (618–907), The Journey offers the opportunity to introduce two of the “golden eras” in Chinese history. With almost 4,000 years of written history, there is a lot of Chinese history to potentially cover, but for a course that seeks to introduce China studies through multiple disciplinary lenses, a focus on the Ming dynasty, alongside the more recent events of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, may suffice. The chapter on the Ming in Patricia Ebrey’s Cambridge Illustrated History of China offers a vivid depiction of Ming society. 2 After reading the chapter and watching episodes 2 and 3 from the 1986 TV series of The Journey , students can quickly map the hierarchical structure of the court of the Ming government onto that of the Celestial Court in The Journey . 3 Students can also connect Monkey’s eagerness to seek a position in the Celestial Court with the civil service examination in the Ming dynasty. 4 From these connections, students can get a sense of China’s hierarchical social structure and its traditional emphasis on self-improvement through education. These connections serve as foundations for students to understand the historical continuities and differences when discussing the political structure and educational system of contemporary China.

The history of the Ming dynasty is also important because it is one of the wealthiest eras in China’s history and has some interesting correlations with contemporary China, such as both being periods of international economic interactions. Employing The Journey as a fictional account of history offers a unique opportunity for the correspondences and differences between traditional and contemporary China to be highlighted and analyzed.

The syncretism of the three major teachings of traditional China, namely Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, culminated when Ming General and statesman Wang Yangming’s (1472–1529) teaching of “learning of the mind” became popularized in the empire. Inspired by Chan (Japanese, Zen) Buddhist philosophy, Wang emphasized that a true understanding of the essence of morality can only be achieved through cultivating one’s own mind, which means persistent personal enactment of moral principles. The Journey depicts the lived religious experience of everyday Chinese. To help appreciate the interplay of belief systems, students can read Asian Studies Professor Joseph Adler’s Chinese Religious Traditions , accompanied by some application exercises to highlight the distinct reasoning patterns of the three major teachings. Such application exercises might include asking students to play the roles of hardcore Confucianists, Daoists, and Buddhists, who are requested to comment on such phenomena as family reverence, gender roles, death, humanity, and the vicissitudes of life.

At this point, students begin to realize that the journey actually represents the ongoing effort to end attachment to worldly things such as fame and money, which often make the mind susceptible to moral corruption. Students will also be able to identify the Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist elements as they read other selected chapters from the novel and view other adaptations of the story, such as the movie Conquering the Demons . 5 Conquering the Demons is a fun movie to watch, and it presents a lively and modern interpretation of The Journey as Buddhist allegory. 6

The three major teachings and their syncretism should be included in an introductory course in their own right, but they also frame the Chinese worldview and inform people’s daily practices across much of East and Southeast Asia. A solid understanding can provide a useful lens for appreciating the perspectives and practices prevalent across the region. Further, discussing the three teachings offers the opportunity to remind students of the limitation of English translations of Chinese concepts, which is an important issue involved in cross-cultural studies. For example, the Chinese word zongjiao (the clan’s teaching), a compound that first appeared in Chinese translations of Buddhist sutras referring to different schools of Buddhist thoughts, has often been equated as religion and applied to Confucianism and Daoism. 7 Reflecting on what they have learned about traditional Chinese thought, students may discuss whether the three teachings, especially Confucianism, count as “religions” in the English sense.

The fact that novels like The Journey proliferated during the Ming dynasty reveals the advanced printing technology and expanded readership during the period. 8 This opens up a variety of different inquiries. For example, what kinds of books got printed? How was copyright handled? Who read the books? What social changes came with the printing technology? Questions like these lead students to discussions about various aspects of social life in the Ming, such as the role of media, censorship, literacy, leisure, and women’s education and social status. These topics could and should be revisited and expanded throughout the course. The roles of technology and media also provide a useful lens for understanding contemporary China.

Learning about Maoist China through The Journey

Maoist China refers to the period from the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 to the launch of the Reform and Opening Up initiative in 1978. 9 The founding of the PRC was celebrated by much of the nation at the time as a great victory of the Chinese people over the oppression from imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism. Mao Zedong, the national leader of China from 1949 until 1976, was given the status of perfect hero or “the people’s great savior” by his cadres. 10 Of course history proved that despite some positive reforms, Mao was, along with Stalin and Hitler, one the twentieth century’s most evil tyrants. It was in such historical context that the mischievous Monkey was transformed into a proletarian revolutionary hero, as depicted in the cartoon movie Havoc in Heaven (AKA The Monkey King) and several of its immediate antecedents in popular art forms and in print. 11 To facilitate the discussion of the cartoon movie, background readings may include chapter 3 of Hongmei Sun’s book Transforming Monkey, which reviews the various adaptations of Monkey’s story up to the Mao years and discusses how the Monkey character was then transformed from trickster to hero.

From the 1963 cartoon movie’s depiction of the officials in the Celestial Court, students can see a prevalent Communist Chinese view of the backwardness of the alleged Chinese feudal system and the corruption of elites. By comparing the storyline of this cartoon with either the two episodes they have watched from the 1986 TV series, which also emphasize the story of Monkey’s uproar in Heaven, or chapters 3 to 7 in the novel, students will notice how the changes to the details of the cartoon make Monkey almost entirely an innocent victim of the Celestial Court. The cartoon’s ending with Monkey’s victory over the celestial troops without being subjugated by Buddha is also an interesting point for discussion. It symbolizes the victory of the proletarian revolutionaries, while ignoring religion.

Since media resources about Maoist China abound both online and in print, instructors can provide students with a list of events during this period, such as the Korean War (1950–1953), the Great Leap Forward (1958–1963), the China–USSR border dispute in the late 1960s, and the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Students can do research outside class and then present in class their analyses of why and how the events happened and were related. As a starting point, students should watch the documentary titled China: A Century of Revolution 1949–1976 on YouTube or read Clayton Brown’s EAA article, one of the most succinct and useful introductions to the Great Leap Forward. 12 The research and discussions should get students ready for the economic reformto come, which has been the direct cause of the economic boom that lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese out of abject poverty and a series of side effects, including corruption, environmental issues, and intensifying social inequality.

Learning about Postreform Communist China through The Journey

The launch of the Reform and Opening Up initiative by Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997) in 1978 marked a new era for China. Through a series of dramatic economic reforms and opening China’s economy to the outside world by 1980, this initiative transformed China into, until a few years ago, the world’s fastest-growing industrializing country and now the world’s second-largest economy. The famous Taiwanese cartoonist Tsai Chih-Chung’s comic version Journey to the West, first published in 1987, is an amusing way to introduce how the story was adapted to mock the popular social practices and perspectives during the early days of the economic reform. 13 The inclusion of this text allows instructors to remind students why The Journey remains relevant to China and Chinese peoples, as the numerous twentieth- and twenty-first-century adaptations demonstrate. It also offers a lighthearted insight into the impact of the economic reform period. Students may also read the first two chapters of Chinese–American journalist Leslie Chang’s Factory Girls and chapters from major contemporary Chinese author Yu Hua’s book China in Ten Words for vivid depictions of Chinese society during the economic boom, and discuss where China might go next.

Themes to be explored about contemporary China can revolve around media and the concept of “soft power.” Since the early twenty-first century, soft power has been a component of China’s national development strategy and the alleged goal of the PRC’s foreign policy. Media has been employed as an important tool for manipulating soft power. For some initial knowledge of media’s role in soft power, students may read the introduction and Wanning Sun’s chapter in Screening China’s Soft Power. Sun’s chapter raises the distinction between “soft power by design” and “soft power by accident.” 14 A nice media resource is the BBC’s two-minute cartoon ad for the Beijing Olympics. The cartoon features Monkey’s “journey to the East,” assuming a familiarity with the story among at least the BBC portion of the world audience. 15 A discussion of why the BBC chose Monkey for the ad will introduce students to questions about China’s viability for cultural export. Later in the course, The Journey can be related more directly to the Silk Road and in turn to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), to be discussed in a later section.

For general knowledge of how different disciplines, such as economics and political science, have made sense of soft power and what soft power may mean for China, students can read China studies scholars Young Nam Cho and Jong Ho Jeong’s article “China’s Soft Power: Discussions, Resources, and Prospects” and social psychologist Kwang-kuo Hwang’s article “Face and Favor: The Chinese Power Game.” These readings present students with scholars’ ideas about China’s soft power potential and strategy. Cho and Jeong’s article also briefly describes the global context for China’s soft power initiative. To get a sense of China’s aggressiveness in cultural exports, students can read Media Studies Professor Aynne Kokas’s book Hollywood Made in China (particularly chapter 3), which discusses how China’s movie policy influences Hollywood, and media and democratic studies expert Shanthi Kalathil’s article “Beyond the Great Firewall,” which includes a comprehensive report of the measures China has been taking to manipulate the global information system. 16 With background knowledge obtained from these readings, students will be able to generate interesting discussions as they view the media products produced in contemporary China, such as the ones to be discussed in the following sections.

As Chinese society drastically changes, Monkey also experiences a major transformation—from a fighter to a lover who struggles to find his own identity. The transformation was marked by Stephen Chow’s movie A Chinese Odyssey (1995). Produced by a Hong Kong director two years before Hong Kong’s return to China, this movie has been interpreted as Hong Kong’s uncertainty about its fate after returning to China. 17 Discussion questions invite students to consider the symbolism of Joker’s (a human bandit leader who is initially unaware that he is the reincarnation of Monkey) resistance against transforming back into the hero Monkey. Further, the ending, which leaves the viewer with a deep sense of sadness and helplessness, can spark discussions about the physical and emotional losses that the characters undergo in their spiritual journey and the hard choices they are forced to make in order for their journey to be successful.

It is also worth comparing A Chinese Odyssey with the same director’s 2013 adaptation of The Journey, Conquering the Demons. A comparison of the different endings of the movies will make students curious about events occurring during the years between the two movies, notably the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 and the CCP’s increasing interference in Hong Kong’s administration. The comparison can also illustrate the fall of Hong Kong’s Cantopop (i.e., pop music sung in Cantonese) in the age of China. 18 Reflecting this language shift, the 2013 movie adaptation, though produced in Hong Kong, is made in Mandarin instead of Cantonese and features more actors from Mainland China.

Aside from facilitating discussions of the politics and economics of language use in contemporary media, it is fair to say that A Chinese Odyssey has started a fad in more recent productions of The Journey . Not only do new movie adaptations of The Journey come out almost every year, there have also been cartoons, games, online novels, and even songs inspired by Monkey. Jin Hezai’s novel Wu Kong, first posted online in 2000, became so well-received in China that it was republished in print the following year. The novel is not available in English yet, but a movie adaptation of the same name, directed by Derek Kwok, was released in 2017, starring Eddie Peng, Shawn Yue, and Oho Ou, all of whom are popular young faces on the screen in China.

Wu Kong may be watched in its own right for its award-winning action choreography and the rebel spirit demonstrated by Monkey and his fellow fighters. The movie can be seen as an allegory of the individual fighting against the authoritarian system, which is represented by the Destiny Council in the movie. 19 Every 1,000 years, the Destiny Council administrates an exam to choose new immortals who can join the Destiny Academy and become candidates for positions in the Destiny Council. This exam mirrors China’s gaokao (college entrance examination), which brings about dramatic effects on people’s lives. Discussions of the movie can be supplemented with readings about China’s education system, especially the preparation and consequences of gaokao. 20 Students can explore gaokao independently and share their findings in class.

When connecting Wu Kong and gaokao, discussions can be guided to the role of family and authority/face in China. This brings back the Confucian worldview, whose fundamental metaphor is the family. In the Confucian tradition, the goal of self-cultivation is to keep the family in order, which is the prerequisite for being a leader who can put the nation in order and bring peace to the world. This understanding of the Chinese worldview becomes critical for coming to terms with some of the other elements of contemporary China’s engagement with the rest of the globe. 21

The concepts of family and authority/face, by themselves may sound familiar to students, but their unique interactions in Chinese society may go beyond students’ imaginations. A discussion of these concepts in relation to business practices and China’s foreign policy can provide very important lenses for understanding contemporary Chinese society and its global ambition, epitomized by the BRI and “the Chinese dream,” both associated with current Chinese President Xi Jinping. 22 The BRI has been a hot topic in the media, so after briefly introducing the “belt” and the “road” with a map, instructors may ask students to each identify a country of their interest and do research to find out what the BRI might mean for that country. Sharing their findings will provide the class with a more general picture of what the Chinese dream may entail and how China’s “journey to the West” may have extended beyond seeking the true teachings of Buddha from India and been geared toward exporting the traditional China-centered world order through the BRI.

Discussions about the China-centered world order will involve reviewing the Confucian concepts of self, family, nation, and the world (or tianxia in Chinese). Zhang Yimou’s movie Hero (2012) serves as an illustration of how a peaceful tianxia is traditionally believed to be achieved. Comparing the sacrifices and contributions of the protagonists in Hero and those of the protagonists in The Journey, students may consider the traditional Chinese ideal of “hero,” how it may adapt to the contemporary context, and how it differs from their own culture. This discussion may also lead to a discussion of China’s projected global role in the remainder of the twenty-first century and how it may be received by the rest of the world.

The purpose of an introductory course is to get students interested enough and academically prepared to explore the complexity and novelties of the subject. Using The Journey as the foundational element for an introductory course on China, instructors will be able to provide a tantalizing glimpse at the breadth of Chinese history, demonstrate the continuing importance of that history for understanding today’s China, and help students develop a critical awareness and appreciation for Chinese society and culture. The various adaptations of The Journey give students ready inroads for exploring the relevant content for an introductory course on China and introduce them to a variety of lenses to appreciate another culture while critically reflecting on their own.

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1. Since a few selected chapters will suffice for the purpose of the course, we recommend using an English version of the full novel. This could be either W. J. F. Jenner’s Journey to the West , 4 vols., reprint ed. (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1984) or Anthony C. Yu’s The Journey to the West , 4 vols., revised ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012).

2. Patricia B. Ebrey, Cambridge Illustrated History of China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 190– 219. The titles suggested in this article are intended to be taken as suggestions found to be useful from experience rather than prescriptive requirements.

3. The 1986 TV series produced by CCTV is probably the version understood as the most authentic for many Chinese people. When the names of the characters of The Journey are mentioned, the images created by this TV series would be what many Chinese people picture in their minds.

4. The discussion about civil service examinations can be connected with contemporary China’s college entrance examination, AKA gaokao. Background readings may include Benjamin A. Elman’s article “Civil Service Examinations” in Education in China: Educational History, Models, and Initiatives, ed. Qiang Zha, Ruth Hayhoe, and Heidi Ross (Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing, 2013); chapter 6 of Yong Zhao’s book Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon: Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World (San Francisco: Jossey–Bass, 2014); and Hoi K. Suen and Lan Yu’s article “Chronic Consequences of High-Stakes Testing? Lessons from the Chinese Civil Service Exam” in Comparative Education Review 50, no. 1 (2006): 46–65.

5. Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, directed by Stephen Chow and Derek Kwok (Hong Kong: Bingo Movie Development, 2013).

6. The movie Conquering the Demons may be seen as essentially about the spiritual transformation of Xuanzang, who was eventually able to get rid of his worldly attachments by facing and conquering them one by one. The three demons, whom Xuanzang encountered and conquered with the help of the demon hunter Ms. Duan (whose family name shares the same sound as the Chinese word for “to cut off”), may each symbolize a stubborn worldly attachment. That the conquered demons became Xuanzang’s companions on his journey to the west may be a symbol of his spiritual maturity as a Buddhist pilgrim.

7. Shenglai Zhou, “Origin and Evolution of zongjiao, a Word in Chinese,” Journal of Shanghai Normal University (Philosophy & Social Science Edition) 40, no. 5 (2011): 114–119. According to Zhou, the use of zongjiao as the Mandarin counterpart for “religion” is actually a nineteenth-century borrowing from the Japanese, who expanded the meaning of the term to match the Western concept.

8. Two useful readings on these topics are Anne E. McLaren’s chapter “Constructing New Reading Publics in Late Ming China,” in Cynthia J. Brokaw and Chow Kai-wing, eds. Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005) and Raymond Chang’s article “The Renaissance of Book Arts in the Ming Period,” The Journal of Library History (1974–1987) 16, no. 3 (1981): 501–508. 9.We readily acknowledge that events between the Ming dynasty and the Communist China period, such as two opium wars and two world wars, left significant traces on Chinese and world history. However, the Communist China period is more relevant to the students, most of whom (if they are interested in Asia at all) are interested in career opportunities outside the academic field. Therefore, it is appropriate for an introductory course to put more emphasis on Communist China when talking about modern China.

10. This term has been extracted from the Chinese song titled “The East Is Red,” whose lyrics idealize Mao as a perfect hero. This song was the de facto national anthem of the People’s Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s.

11. Hongmei Sun, Transforming Monkey (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2018), 83.

12. Clayton Brown, “China’s Great Leap Forward,” Education About Asia 17, no. 3 (2012): 29–34.

13. For instance, the social phenomena mocked in the chapter “A Duel with Buddha” include pirating, pursuit for instant profits, the enthusiasm for studying abroad in the USA, the serious littering at tourist sites, the attraction of the movie industry, and the popularity of instant noodles and other Western goods such as perfume, etc. Tsai Chi-Chung’s Journey to the West comic series is now available in English versions and bilingual versions. For the purpose of the course, selected chapters from the English translations published by Asiapac Books Pte. Ltd. in 1993 would suffice. For interested readers, the entire set of thirty-eight volumes were made available in 2006 by Modern Publishing House in China.

14. Wanning Sun, “Soft Power by Accident or by Design,” in Screening China’s Soft Power , eds. Paola Voci and Luo Hui (London: Routledge, 2017), 196.

15. Ollie Williams, “Monkey’s Journey Begins,” BBC Sport , May 28, 2008, https://tinyurl.com/54v79w.

16. Articles and books mentioned in this paragraph: Young Nam Cho and Jong Ho Jeong, “China’s Soft Power: Discussions, Resources, and Prospects,” Asian Survey 48, no. 3 (2008): 453–472; Kwang-kuo Hwang’s “Face and Favor: The Chinese Power Game,” American Journal of Sociology 92, no. 4 (1987): 944 –974; Aynne Kokas, Hollywood Made in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2017); and Shanthi Kalathil, “Beyond the Great Firewall,” Center for International Media Assistance, accessed April 4, 2019, http://tinyurl.com/y2xrsmke .

17. A Chinese Odyssey , directed by Stephen Chow (Beijing: Xi’an Film Studio, 1995). Also see Hongmei Sun, Transforming Monkey, 95.

18. Yiu-Wai Chu, Hong Kong Cantopop (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2017), 184–195.

19. Wu Kong, directed by Derek Wong (Beijing: New Classics Media, 2017). Based upon the 2000 online novel Wu Kong’s Biography by Jin Hezai. See also Derek Elley, “Review: Wu Kong (2017),” Sino-Cinema, 2017, accessed July 20, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yx9ckaeg .

20. See note 4 above for suggested readings on gaokao.

21. Some background readings about the China-centered world order may include David Bell’s chapter “Realizing Tianxia: Traditional Values and China’s Foreign Policy,” in Chinese Visions of World Order, ed. Ban Wang (Durham: Duke University Press, 2017) and Suisheng Zhao’s article “Rethinking the Chinese World Order: The Imperial Cycle and the Rise of China,” Journal of Contemporary China 24, no. 96 (2015): 961–982.

22. The Chinese Dream, popularized in 2013, refers to the personal and national ideals for individuals and the government in China, including Chinese prosperity, collective effort, socialism, and national glory.

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