Known in the English-speaking world as the Journey to the West, or Monkey, the novel Xiyouji, written by Wu Cheng'en (1500?-1582), is immensely popular all across East Asia. Over the centuries, it has been adapted into countless dramas, operas, children's picture books, movies, TV series, and cartoons, in China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, and elsewhere. Millions upon millions of people are familiar with its stories. A Japanese-produced TV series made in the late 1970s was dubbed into English and shown in most English-speaking countries, but not in the U.S. (because of copyright issues. But the Japanese-language version was shown on Japanese-language TV in the U.S.)

Professor Chen Hong, the president-designate of Nankai University, will explore the Buddhist themes in Xiyouji.

Chen Hong is a specialist in Chinese culture of the period between the Han dynasty (206 BC - AD 200) and the Ming  dynasty (AD 1368 - 1644). He has published on Buddhism, Daoism, and literary criticism of that period.

RichardGunde
gunde@ucla.edu

Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies