Journey to the West: Cross-media adaptations of a Chinese classic tale

Abstract

Journey to the West as one of the ‘four great Chinese classic novels’ has had an extraordinary influence across history and around the world. Journey to the West depicts how a Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang and his three disciples went through 81 trials to obtain the Buddhist texts (Sutras) from the Western Heaven (ancient India). Despite the novel itself being a product of a long history of adaptation, this article aims to offer an overview of the modern and contemporary cross-media adaptations of both the novel and the tale Journey to the West, with examples of literature (including web fictions), stage performances, films, TV series, manga and animation, video games and music. These adaptations not only happen in the Chinese-speaking world but also on an Asian and global level. Through introducing the extensive and diverse cases that inform an idea of ‘IP (intellectual property)’ as favoured in the Chinese cultural market, this article aims to point out the cultural and capital flow within this one single series of adaptations. In place of a relationship between source and adaptation, the contemporary context supports the idea of a wider context in which a source may be seen to validate a range of new and highly commercialized genres. It is developed from a presentation in the 2019 JAFP symposium Looking Back, Stepping Forward.