不同版本的西游记赏析

Journey to the west in different cultures

张佳佳

201209300526

Journey to the west is one of the quintessences for we Chinese, because it not only presents the broad wisdom of we Chinese but also show our traditional virtues. This book tells about Tang Monk who left for India to get a collection of Buddhist bibles together with his three apprentices--Wu Kong, Pig Monk and Sand Monk. During the journey to the west, they faced almost 81 catastrophes, which were settled with their perseverance and braveness. Finally they reached the India and got the Buddhist bibles. Although it is not a true story, it has become one of the most loved stories in Chinese history. As this is an immortal work, many countries have adapted it the movie or TV series, such as Japan, USA&German, Vietnam, South Korea, UK and USA and their versions have a lot of differences with ours.

Japanese version

It is said the Japan was the first country that adapted this book in 1978 while we made it in 1982. In 2006 Japan released the fifth version, in which the Tang Monk was a beautiful woman who like crying very much, and Pig Monk took up the Sand Monk’s job and began to shoulder the loaded carrying while Sand Monk was transferred into a guy who was aggressive, spiritual indifferent and lecherous. As for Wu Kong, he had strong vanity, little awareness of respecting his master, no knowledge of behaving himself, but all these shortcomings didn’t restrain the director from shaping him as a hero, because he depended his own power to defeat the monsters with his unshakable determination. Even his master was deeply inspired by him and began to rethink about the aim of this journey. Obviously, Wu Kong’s image was shaped more pivotal through this film. At the end of the movie, Wu Kong was honored by the people while in other versions he didn’t have such a high reputation. This version conveyed to us the Bushido spirit as well as the allocation of the comprisal awareness. Full of Japanese spirit, the characters’ subversion arose great discontent among we Chinese. Liu Xiaolintong once made some suggestion to the foreign producers but was responded “ Even you Chinese don’t respect your culture and how can you request us to respect” , which made him speechless.

USA&German’ s version

After receiving the cry for help from Guan Yin, the American business man Nick Orton began to seek the Wu Chenen’s long-lost manuscript--Journey to the west so as to break the evil spell which may destroy world. Entering into the ancient Chinese world, he began his journey to save the world. At the beginning, he released Wu Kong who was trapped under the Wu Xing mountain and then he took Wu Kong to learn Kongfu. After descending the mountain, they met Pig Monk and Sand Monk during their journey. Having experienced numerous difficulties, they finally found the manuscript but unfortunately, Wu Chenen was controlled by the evils. Then, the Heaven began a trail, surprisingly, it was Nick rather than Wu Kong that caused havoc in Heaven and saved Wu Chenen. In the end, Nick sent Wu Chenen back to the modern times with the help of Guan Yin. They finally won the trail by letting Wu

Chenen see the importance as well as the influence of his work. What shocked all the Chinese was that the Nick who was also the Tang Monk fell in love with Guan Yin. But this plot had some certain influence in USA. And this version typically presented us the story of saving the world in an American style. It was no longer the original version in the book.

The version of South Korea

This version told us a person picked a gourd bottle in a construction site. Inside the bottle were the monsters mothballed 2000 years ago, and all these monsters came to the 21 century to destroy the world. In order to yield these monsters, a scientist extract the DNA of the Tang Monk, Wu Kong, Pig Monk and Sand Monk and reproduced them to fight with these monsters. Many Chinese said this movie humiliated the traditional Chinese culture because the Tang Monk was a woman who was capable of magic arts. What’s more, the Korean people even claim that the Journey to the west was a part of their own culture. Besides, the costume of the characters were not loyal to the original type, which was totally a failure.

The version of the UK

The American-Chinese director laid out the stage play-- the Journey to the west in Lincoln Art Center in 2008. In order to suit the audiences’ taste,the director added the Chinese element-- Wu Kong, who wore a suit of tight sportswear with wide stripes,which was the symbol of Xiaolong Lee. Besides, Wu Kong could jump the hip-hop and sing the modern songs. A very beautiful young girl acted the Tang Monk. The themes of the beginning song Monkey's World are fun, freedom,comfortable and happy, which was a great understand of the Journey to the west . But the other song Monkey Bee was a little hard for Chinese audience to accept, because the singing tone of Tie Shan and her zombie-like make up were too strange.

The version of Vietnam

The story-line of this version was the most faithful one. And the main difference was the Wu Kong was a child rather than an adult. As is known to all, Vietnam has adapted a lot of Chinese work such as Huan Zhu Ge Ge and Shen Diao Xia Lv.

Analysis

Japan adapted the first Journey to the west into the TV series, which had a great influence on the western countries. The Japanese do a better job than we Chinese in the movie industry. They have a relatively developed recreational industry such as the animation chain. It maybe more easier for westerners to get to know and believe what the Japanese convey through the movie. There are still a lot of obstacles for Chinese movies to reach the national stage. The first reason is that our culture is a little too obscure for foreigners to understand; the second is that the Chinese filmographies have a common tendency to exaggerate the plots which may make the foreigners feel that the plot Journey to the west ts is not true enough ; the third reason is that our film promotion efforts is not big enough. And from the UK’s version we can see that their understanding about the Tang Monk was influenced by the Japan’s version for both Tang Monk in their versions were women. But why the Japan chose a woman to figure Tang Monk? In my opinion, Japan is a country full of male chauvinism, and women in this country tend to be very temperate. Tang Monk is craven, tolerant and

benevolent, and all these characters are suitable for woman to annotate, so they chose a woman to be Tang Monk. As for UK’s version, apart from the Tang Monk’s change, Wu Kong’s Lee Xiaolong--like’ s costume shows us westerner’s appreciation for our Kungfu. From Tie Shan’s zombie-like make-up, we can find that the director know that Tie Shan is not a genial woman and they want to interpret her in their own way. But this make-up is a typical bad guy’s image in their own culture, when they haven’t seen the original version, they may think this one is actually in accordance with the book, besides, the image described by their own way may help them better understand the main idea of the book. But for we Chinese, it maybe a little hard for us to accept it, one reason is that we have already seen the Chinese version in which the characters’ images are deep-rooted in our heart;the other reason is that the characters’ images in the UK version are different from our aesthetic conceptions. Next we talk about the USA&German’ s version，which was changed a lot compared with the book. In this version, Tang Monk’s becoming the hero, causing havoc in Heaven, falling in love with Guan Yin, all these overturned cores in this book. There is no doubt that this version present us the typical American’s individual heroism together with his world-saving. Many Hollywood blockbusters talks about these two themes and this one was not an exception. I believe, to some extent, the Americans have some kind of ethnocentrism in the their culture. As the superpower in this world , Americans always have a tendency to lead the world in the direction which they believe is right. This version is just like a wolf in sheep's clothing, because the core as well as the the plots are not in accordance with the book. Compared with other countries, the Vietnam version was the most loyal one. But the deficiency was that they just copied our TV series without getting the cores of this book. As the Chinese TV series are always popular in Vietnam, remaking the classical Chinese TV series becomes their TV production source.

Different countries adapted Journey to the west in their own way, and it is a good way for foreign people to learn about our culture. On the other sides, the versions produced by other countries may make the culture dissemination run in opposite directions. Our country should take the responsibility to produce lineal one can be reflected as a sample by other countries. Let them see the original one of the Journey to the west. Besides, it is acceptable for them to adapt this book into the one whose characters’ images are different so as to let their people understand it more easily, but the core of this book should not be changed.