Reading Notes B: The Monkey King

The incident with the monkey king in the peach garden could be transferred into a modern story in which the girl gets cocky when her business becomes successful. Maybe she is in fashion and she starts to become successful and begins to have people wanting to wear her clothes, but she does not want to mentor other girls and give them the opportunities that someone gave her. She does not invest in her brand but just spends the money on material things, and does not respect the people in her field who have been there far longer than she has and try to give her advice. Possibly she is invited to do a small fashion show and she kind of thinks it is beneath her so she does not prepare, and it ends up being so-so and the reviews are not great but she does not care because she is enjoying her material wealth and her house and her business. The peach banquet could be turned into a grand gala, where all the big names in fashion are invited but the girl is not invited because of how she has not cared and the fact that she has not yet earned a reputation in fashion. So she sneaks in and embarrasses herself in front of all these big names by getting too drunk. All in all, the monkey king is careless and arrogant and does not have any regard for the gods, and I want to make the girl not have any regard for anyone else. Except her children of course, who she will always care for. There will of course be redemption at the end but it will be a classic story of getting everything she ever wanted and realizing she is not handling it in the generous and humble way that she thought she would.

Story source: "The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

The Immortal Dongfang Shuo Stealing a Peach

Reading Notes A: The Monkey King

-It is strange to me that the Lord of the Heavens would be frightened by anything
- The ape seems like kind of a bully, but he is going on a quest to fulfill a desire that most people have- to beat death.
-It is interesting that there are so many ways to fulfillment- through the sciences or through magic or repose. I agree with that, that one can be fulfilled and find purpose and their true calling in a variety of ways. It is crazy that the master would know all of them, but maybe that is why he has all of the disciples.
-I would like to make a modern version of the monkey king, maybe a single mom moves to a new city with her children and is attempting to establish herself in a career and finds a mentor who knows everything. She would have to have some huge goal- to start her own business perhaps? And all of the apes that it talks about in this story could be her children. And the weapon that the monkey seeks out could be the perfect piece of real estate for her new business.
-Maybe dragging back to the underworld could be her getting a call that she has to go home, and maybe she cuts ties with someone she knew back then - the children's father who does not contribute anything? There are so many overarching themes in this story that I can play with.
-The monkey king is boastful and impulsive, and my modern mom can be that way as well. Maybe she has a smart mouth that gets her in trouble and causes her mentor to have to fire her from her job, but that is the push she needs to start her own business. Maybe I will set it in tokyo.

Story source: "The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

The Monkey King Songokū, from the Chinese novel Journey to the West