monkey king shadow puppets
June 26, 2010 1:14 AM Subscribe
how can I find scripts or full length videos of traditional live performances of the story of the Monkey King (AKA journey to the west) ?
monkey (or journey to the west) has a been a popular story for hundred of years, and has been remixed and remade in many languages and media, TV, animation, radio, comics, opera, films, in ads, video games, and puppetry.
I want to put on a shadow puppet version of the story and I'm looking for good examples of the story being told in a single episode, either as a movie, or a play - but especially as shadow puppetry.
I'd really love to find videos of traditional shadow puppet performances with English subtitles or scripts translated into English of any style of play.
Any suggestions?
monkey (or journey to the west) has a been a popular story for hundred of years, and has been remixed and remade in many languages and media, TV, animation, radio, comics, opera, films, in ads, video games, and puppetry.
I want to put on a shadow puppet version of the story and I'm looking for good examples of the story being told in a single episode, either as a movie, or a play - but especially as shadow puppetry.
I'd really love to find videos of traditional shadow puppet performances with English subtitles or scripts translated into English of any style of play.
Any suggestions?
Response by poster: thanks wc,
I'm definitely going to watch that.
Not being a chinese speaker i cant get very far searching the chinese internet, i'm sure there must be video of shadow puppets out there some where
posted by compound eye at 6:56 PM on June 26, 2010
I'm definitely going to watch that.
Not being a chinese speaker i cant get very far searching the chinese internet, i'm sure there must be video of shadow puppets out there some where
posted by compound eye at 6:56 PM on June 26, 2010
I don't think the whole story has ever been fully told in a single sitting. Have you ever seen a copy of the book? It's epic. And episodic. The four-volume paperback edition on Amazon runs to almost 2500 pages. Imagine trying to tell the entire story of Don Quixote in one go. Journey to the West would be more difficult. The wiki article you linked to talks about chapters 23-86 containing 24 discrete adventure-episodes, and it's a 100 chapter book.
Shorter form retellings are only telling part of the story. The story is so universally known by Chinese people that audiences are able to drop in to single adventure and not suffer from the lack of context. Western audiences don't have that luxury.
You might look at some of the abridged translations for Western audiences, like this one. Note that I don't have any idea whether that translation is any good, but it is definitely streamlined.
posted by zjacreman at 1:22 AM on June 27, 2010
Shorter form retellings are only telling part of the story. The story is so universally known by Chinese people that audiences are able to drop in to single adventure and not suffer from the lack of context. Western audiences don't have that luxury.
You might look at some of the abridged translations for Western audiences, like this one. Note that I don't have any idea whether that translation is any good, but it is definitely streamlined.
posted by zjacreman at 1:22 AM on June 27, 2010
Response by poster: thanks zjacreman,
the whole thing is massive,
I've read a few versions, but not the 2500 page version, i'll have to look for that - that sounds great.
I'd been wondering if there have ever been performances that abridge the whole arc, from monkey coming out of the stone egg to retrieving the scriptures. However your comment about chinese audiences being able to drop into any episode without suffering from lack of context makes sense, and on that basis I could understand if it is never done that way.
All the same, I think it should be possible to put together a performance for western audiences that has an abridged origins story and successful retrieval of the scriptures, wrapped around a single adventure.
I'll have a look at the book you've linked to and see how it handles telling the 100 chapter epic succinctly
posted by compound eye at 3:10 AM on June 27, 2010
the whole thing is massive,
I've read a few versions, but not the 2500 page version, i'll have to look for that - that sounds great.
I'd been wondering if there have ever been performances that abridge the whole arc, from monkey coming out of the stone egg to retrieving the scriptures. However your comment about chinese audiences being able to drop into any episode without suffering from lack of context makes sense, and on that basis I could understand if it is never done that way.
All the same, I think it should be possible to put together a performance for western audiences that has an abridged origins story and successful retrieval of the scriptures, wrapped around a single adventure.
I'll have a look at the book you've linked to and see how it handles telling the 100 chapter epic succinctly
posted by compound eye at 3:10 AM on June 27, 2010
Best answer: Another thing to do would be to look at short-form retellings of The Odyssey. They are similarly structured in that they are journey stories with an end goal but a lot of adventure episodes that don't really have anything to do with the end goal except getting in the way.
posted by zjacreman at 9:35 AM on June 27, 2010
posted by zjacreman at 9:35 AM on June 27, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
http://www.tudou.com/playlist/playindex.do?lid=634
posted by wongcorgi at 7:43 AM on June 26, 2010