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Reading Notes: The Monkey King Part A

The Monkey King: The Waterfall: Source
       For this Tuesday's reading, I chose "The Monkey King". I chose this story because back in 2017, a friend who is a Chinese major wanted to introduce me to his favorite Chinese movies, and this was one of them. The movie was interesting, to say the least. The story was entirely different from the movie rendition, which is to be expected, of course. Because of that, I am really glad that I chose to read the original story of the Monkey King, even though I did enjoy the movie. Like with last week's story of Aladdin, the two sources are entirely different but valuable for their own reasons. The same remains true for this week's reading, after going through all of Part A's stories for this reading I realized just how different the source material is from the goofy film that I saw a few years back. Reading about how the Monkey King was born out of rock and fertilized by the Heavens was so interesting, the story gets even more complex with his training as a warrior, and then takes a turn with his rebellion. I am interested to see the original story. Because this is a translation from Chinese to English, there are bound to be some alterations from the original source material. Because it is a retelling of ancient Chinese, rather than a direct translation, I wonder what is missing from the story? Or maybe what was added? Overall, I really enjoyed this story and the entire adventure. I am excited to read the second half of the readings to see what is in store for the adventure of the Monkey king. I am really glad that I got the chance to read this story, to expand my horizons with my knowledge of worldwide literature, and this is definitely a story that I will try to work into my curriculum as a teacher. 

Bibliography
Source: The Monkey King
Focus Story: Sun Wu Kung: The Master

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