The Monkey King: New Peking Opera Production for a Classic Tale
Chu Luhao leads his two disciples in The Monkey King
Courtesy of Trend Education Foundation
Sun Wukong, a monkey born from heavenly stone, is one of the main characters in Journey to the West, a 16th-century novel that has became one of the Four Classic Novels in Chinese literature.
The story goes that Sun Wukong, after acquiring supernatural powers through Taoist practices, wreaks havoc in the deepest part of the Sea, the Underworld, and the Celestial Realm, which eventually led to his imprisonment under the mountain by the Buddha. Until five hundred years later, Sun is asked to redeem his wrongdoing by accompanying a monk, Tang Sanzang, on a journey to retrieve Buddhist sutras from India.
Sun Wukong is best known for his supernatural power, be it his strength, speed or his superpower of 72 Earthly Transformations, all of which makes him invincible even when in the face of celestial warriors. It’s not surprising that Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King, turns out to be one of the most popular legendary figures among children and adults in Chinese-speaking countries.
A recent peking opera production, The Monkey King, revolves around the story of the mischievous monkey before his westward journey in three acts: Mayhem in the Sea, Havoc in Hell, and Uproar in Heaven. The performance is anchored by Chu Luhao, famous for taking on the lead of Sun Wukong in more than 500 performances that toured around the world.
After having left the stage for nearly two decades, Chu now returns onstage with a mission in mind — to pass on his know-how to a younger generation of opera performers. In The Monkey King, Chu is seem with his two younger disciples, Xu Tingfang and Qin Lang, with each of them taking turn to play the lead role until the three of them are reunited in the final scene.
ACT I . Mayhem in the Sea
As soon as the light goes off in the theatre, mist starts coming out from either side of the stage. Intensified by an ocean blue-coloured light beams directed to the stage, the misty atmosphere magically transports the audience (especially those sitting in the front rows like this writer does) to a liminal space that leads us to the deepest part of the ocean where the Dragon Palace is located.
Sun Wukong arrives at the Dragon Palace of the East Sea
Courtesy of Trend Education Foundation
Together with Sun Wukong, we arrive to meet Dragon King of the East Sea, to whom the monkey demands a weapon that would match up his strength and power. When all the weapons, including swords, spears or halberds weighing thousands of pounds each, fail to meet his expectations, they suggest Sun Wukong to try on the ‘Golden Cudgel’ — a legendary pillar that is said to have stabilised the turbulent sea.
As it turns out, the Golden Cudgel proved to be handy to Sun, as it can stretch as long as he wishes or diminish to the size of a needle to be tucked in his ear. The Monkey King asks to ‘borrow’ this magical cudgel, also known as the ‘ Ruyi Jingu Bang’, that would accompany him throughout the rest of his journey.
ACT II . Havoc in Hell
Act II opens with the Judge of Hell standing atop a table placed on high pedestal, with his back facing towards the audience. He stands on one leg while another one hangs in the air; this bizarre posture heightens the sense of eeriness and, perhaps fear, among the audience who’s now been brought to the Underworld.
In peking opera traditions, when a lead role makes his debut onstage, he or she would often perform in ways that demonstrate his or her competence in singing difficult verses or handling tricky martial arts and acrobatics, all of these movements are to lead up to a held pose ( liangxiang) to receive audience’s applause and praise.
“He stands on one leg while another one hangs in the air; this bizarre posture heightens the sense of eeriness and, perhaps fear, among the audience who’s now been brought to the Underworld.”
In this very act, the debut of the Judge of Hell takes more than 10 minutes — all in absolute silence — where the performer demonstrates his ability in manoeuvring his muscles in ways that challenge the limit of a human body. After a while, we see the Judge of Hell (who still has his back facing towards the audience) starts blowing fire into different directions, breaking the long silence that took over the theatre since his appearance onstage. This marks one of the most stunning and captivating debuts that this writer has ever seen. Undoubtedly, this is followed by several rounds of applause and lots of “ Hao!” — the audience’s way of expressing their appreciation towards the act.
Following this wonderful debut, the audience learns that the Judge of Hell, together with the King of the Underworld, upon hearing the Dragon King’s complaints of the monkey’s mischief in the East Sea, moved forward Sun Wukong’s allotted death date and want him dead right away. As a result, we see Sun Wukong being captured to the Underworld, only to find out himself that he’s been treated unfairly.
Sun Wukong leaves the Underworld on his cloud somersault after his victory
Courtesy of Trend Education Foundation
Showing no fear, Sun Wukong challenges the Underworld officials and fights off everyone that comes in his way. What’s interesting about the ghosts that he runs into is that each of them, be it the Big Head, the Small Head or the Belly, is presented in a rather comical way. This not only makes the encounters between Su Wukong and the ghosts extremely entertaining, but also leave both children and adults in the audience burst out laughing.
ACT III . Uproar in Heaven
After the trouble-making monkey wreaks havoc in both the East Sea and the Underworld, the Dragon King and the King of the Underworld make their plea to the Jade Emperor, the ruler of all Heaven, Earth and the Underworld, to give Sun Wukong a lesson.
In response, the Jade Emperor sends a messenger to Sun Wukong, offering him the opportunity to be appointed as “Keeper of the Heavenly Horses” in the Upper Realm. As a king in his own kingdom, Sun Wukong arrives in heaven and finds out that his position is one of the lowest rank. He decides to leave his post and consumes all the peaches of immorality, as well as the gold elixir, before his return to Earth.
Chu Luhao as Monkey King, stealing divine peaches and wine in celestial realm
Courtesy of Trend Education Foundation
This illicit overdose of the peaches and elixirs has allowed Sun Wukong to obtain immortality and become even more invincible he used to be. His inappropriate conduct eventually led to the final scene where an intense combat between the monkey troupe and the celestial warriors takes place. It is here, towards the end of the performance, where we get to see the three Monkey Kings — Chu Luhao with his two disciples — appear together on stage until they finally gain victory.
Afterthought
Last winter, before the premiere of The Monkey King, this writer had the privilege to see a preview of the performance held at the auditorium of National Central Library in Taipei. Even though the size of their stage is limited, and that the performance was carried out without stage set design and special lighting, I was already impressed by this production.
More importantly, I was touched by the closing speech made by Chu Luhao, sharing his thoughts on this beautiful art form, as well as his concerns and fear over the disappearance of this tradition if he didn’t pass it down. The transmission of this art, of course, wouldn’t have been made possible without Jenny Chen, the Executive Director of Trend Education Foundation, who’s been an avid supporter of Peking opera over the last few years.
After its premiere in Kaohsiung, The Monkey King came to the Taiwan Traditional Theatre Centre in Taipei city in mid-March. If I were to compare the performance with its preview, I would say that this performance is a much more refined rendition of the production (enhanced by the set design, lighting and the privilege of a much bigger stage). Besides Chu’s two disciples, students from the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts (TCPA) were offered the rare opportunity to take on other roles and perform on this big stage.
Through out this nearly three-hour performance, this writer constantly heard the applause and praises from the audience. It’s not too far-fetched to say that most of the audience walked out the theatre with their applause-reddened hands, given the enthusiasm they’ve shown throughout. And this feeling of being present in the theatre, together with the rest of the audience, is perhaps what makes it different from that of watching such production from the comfort of our home.
What this writer also believes is that, as the young performers strive to outperform what they’ve learned and inherited from their old master, they also plant a seed in the heart of youngsters sitting among the audience — most of whom will grow into Peking opera’s most avid advocates one day.
The Monkey King was performed at the Taiwan Traditional Theatre Centre in Taipei on March 12 & 13, 2022.